Highlights

a poem written by Lew Welch called "Step out on to the planet" from his 1964 collection "Hermit Poems" (found in his collected poems - Ring of Bone)

The question he asked was: what purpose is served by all the work we do in our lives - in other words what is our work's real harvest? Aristotle does not, of course, challenge the idea that we must work for the obvious fruits of the harvest - namely our food and other basic creature comforts - but for him that is not the end of it and so the obvious fruits of the harvest (the 300 things in Welch's phrase) are only a step on the way to the real harvest. Ultimately, we work in order to 'free [ourselves] for leisure, and in leisure [we] are truly free: free to pursue the contemplative life which, for Aristotle, was the highest good' (Scruton, Roger, Culture Counts, New York, Encounter Books 2007 p. 17).

The important point in all this is that for Aristotle contemplation - true leisure - is its own reward.

because all our plans and projects come to rest in this state of contemplation, this is why we are at rest in leisure

the true harvest is not the 300 things at all, but rather the time to draw draw the circle one hundred feet around and the leisure to look for and contemplate the '300' things.

since contemplation is an active state in which we reconnect with all that makes life meaningful, switching off or being merely distracted is not contemplation and so not true leisure.

distraction is 'more and more the normal position of people when their work is set aside' (ibid. p. 19) and he points, convincingly to much popular culture in particular much of the output from television and the pop music industry.

ask ourselves why are we working - many of us for ludicrously long hours - and for what end? Are we not living in an age that is rapidly loosing its collective sight sight of the real purpose of life, life's true harvest? I think the answer is yes and so that leaves us with the very practical question about how we should respond and we might renew our culture?

we can and must start with ourselves.

go out and draw that circle and contemplate on what one sees and finds and through them understand and experience an active and contemplative reconnection with God or Nature - the goal of life itself.

In this state of contemplation we begin to practice the purposeful purposelessness much spoken of in Asian religions.

Because this goal of life is effectively hidden behind the allure of the 300 things we only begin to learn about the deep purposes of life when we have the means to communicate it to ourselves and to others around us. This is primarily done through what Scruton calls high culture which he describes as: 'the accumulation of art, literature, and humane reflection

It is this culture which enables us to explore and experience in community profound depths of meaning in our lives.

consider teaching our children (and ourselves I should add) to be latter day Socratess, we must encourage them to read and write poetry, to explore Shakespeare, to learn Greek and Latin, to paint a landscape or simply watch the clouds whilst chewing grass, we must teach them to play music for the simple joy of playing music and we might even teach them to fish.

'One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God' (Matthew 4:4). A true and happy life is indeed found in the contemplation of the all words of God or Nature - all our work as human beings is to this end, this moment of leisure, this true harvest of existence.

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References

Brown, Andrew James. “Harvest - Step out onto the Planet.” Caute, 13 Oct. 2007, https://andrewjbrown.blogspot.com/2007/10/harvest-step-out-onto-planet.html.