Stewardship and Mending Walls

One of my favorite poems of all time is Robert Frost's Mending Wall; the line that always strikes me hardest is the last--"Good fences make good neighbors."

There's something unnatural yet very human about boundaries and line-drawing. Next time you fly from SJC to LAX, peer out the window of the plane. The mountains, the rivers, the plains, the rolling hills, and the oceans of God's creation run together in some sort of fractal beauty. But you always know where the people are, because the roads are straight and the fields square.

I always wonder if it reflects the difference between the way God and us approach questions of ultimate significance; of good and evil; and of right and wrong.

For example, Josiah and I were talking about being good stewards of the environment. Suppose I built a road through a lush forest, committing myself to tending to the plants within two inches of the road. As for the rest of the forest, beyond two inches of the road, we would leave fair game for the rest of human civilization to build, raze, deforest, tend, water, and as they willed. Josiah and I agreed, that would be "bad stewardship."

And then came the question, "At what distance from the road--5 inches, 5 meters, 5 kilometers?--is our stewardship 'good'?" Granted, it's a silly question to ask--and we mostly all agree upon it--but let me rephrase the question in a more classical, moral dilemma.

Suppose you are the captain of a rescue ship. On an island resort, a volcano has just erupted and there are two parties of people trapped--one group on the north end, and one on the south. You can only save one group from the impending lava. At the north, there are 500 people. At the south, there are 499. Which group do you save? Why? Is it more right to save one group over the other? What if there was only one person on the southern end? And what if that one person was Einstein, or the President of the USA? What if the lone person on the south was your brother? Or wife? Or husband? Or mother-in-law?

How do you measure the value of human life to determine which group to save? Is there some number to attach to each individual by which the sum gives us a "better" choice?

To many, the question isn't absurd. But, in reality, I wonder if it is the same as asking, "At which distance of 'environmental protection' around the road 'good'?" That is, we want to know the threshold--the dividing line--that differentiates the "good" from the "bad." We want to know what this boundary is.

For farmers, it is so they can use the most of their land without infringing on someone else's land.

For humans? Why do we want to know where the boundary is between "good" and "bad"? Between "better" and "best"? Is it so we can be "good" or "better" people?

Even so, the more important question is: Is God's view of good and evil as simple as our dividing line? Or as complex as His natural creation? And if it is as complex and beautiful as His divine creation--can we know His standards of good and evil? And how?

For we all know--good fences don't always make good neighbors; and good, ethical boundaries don't always make good people.

Oh--and what is good stewardship of the Earth? :-D