A Plastic Culture
Are you consuming or creating?
The massive oak beams of the dining hall at New College, Oxford, founded in 1379, were rotting, and the fellows were worried about how to replace them. Old-growth oak timbers could not be found. In came the college caretaker, who scratched his beard and humbly offered a suggestion.
“We’ve been waiting for you to ask,” he told the fellows. “Centuries ago, when the last roof was built, our predecessors had the foresight to plant a grove. Through the generations they passed down the message — those oaks are for the college hall and must not be cut.”
“Now that grove is ready to be harvested. I will tell the foresters to cut down the trees and build the college a new roof.” 1
There is some speculation that this story is nearly or entirely fabricated. However, it demonstrates a timeless principle and one that is all but lost in our plastic, consumerist culture: create for posterity. Plant trees that your children and grandchildren will sit underneath. Create homes, communities, churches, and legacies that will endure for generations and bring glory to God through its very existence. Reject the “plastic mentality” of our culture that is so desperate to save time and consume as much as possible that it never stops to think about the consequences of creating worthless plastic items that last 6 months before you need to go to Walmart and buy another.
As homemaker, you need to be thinking long term, like the founders of Oxford College. You need to be creating more than you are consuming. You need to cultivate skills that you can pass along to your children and their children. You need to instill habits so deeply in your children that they will carry on to the generations. You need to curate your home to be a bastion of beauty, functionality, and quality, and not just bedeck it with the latest home decor and appliance trends from Instagram. Be mindful with what you purchase.
Create before you consume.
The irony of plastic is that it is never actually recyclable. Every piece of plastic that has ever been created is still on this planet: it’s just worthless. Every piece has been created for ease, convenience, and time-saving. Every ounce of time saved by plastic has been merely reinvested in more consumption. Both our work and our leisure no longer create art, handmade goods, and a culture that lasts, it consists of mindless waste.
Art, music, books, philosophy, social endeavors, food, etc. are all born out of leisure. Our leisure and hence our “culture”, if you can even call it that, revolves around consumption. Consumption of worthless, Godless music, “art”, which cannot even be called art, movies, whose only goal is to push a Godless agenda, sports, video games, fast food, on and on and on. Gone are the days of nutritious home crafted meals, family discussions around the table, slow evenings around the fire reading hundred-year-old books and wrapped in Grandma’s hand stitched quit, and quiet Sunday mornings in church surrounded by your family, neighbors, and friends.
We are stuck in a never-ending cycle of being “too busy” to create, hence we must seek to “save time”, only to continue to consume with all the time that we just saved.
Imagine if we could go back two hundred and fifty years to the founding of America and talk to the great men who founded this country. Imagine we could hear their stirring tales of courage in the face of death, perseverance against all odds, and determination to plant trees that they would not live to eat the fruit of. Imagine the horror as we told them how for four generations, we have squandered the birthright of our children for an imaginary GDP line to go up. Imagine we told them that we have created enough clothing to clothe the next six generations and we’re still unsatisfied with the amount of stuff we have. Imagine we told them that we recklessly plundered the earth’s resources in pursuit of convenience and “saving time” only to turn around and use that time to immerse ourself in a virtual reality world that not only harms our brain but leaves a legacy of waste for our children.
I used to clean a house for an older lady who showed me quite proudly her “adorable” Temu tablecloths and shower curtains with some of the most hideous AI art, I’ve honestly ever seen. This really drove this point home to me. When tablecloths cost $3.99 and are made of cheap plastic, there’s no point in caring for our stuff; we can just buy another if it rips or gets stained. When things were made at home or locally of quality material, it was important to care for it because it would take time and effort to create another. These things lasted. We passed down beautiful handmade lace tablecloths for generations. Parents and grandparents took pride in handing down beautiful, functional, and well cared for possessions to the next generations instead of selling them off or donating them to museums as worthless relics of the past. An entire generation thinks it’s better to donate their money to a charity or waste it on cruises than to bless their children and help them start families and continue their family legacy. What a shameful waste!
We have lost connection with our past and therefore the inheritance that we have been handed is meaningless. We are comfortable with watching the erosion of what used to be the most beautiful culture in the world, for the sake of convenience. We are content to allow hordes of third world demon worshippers into our country because we do not value the blood-stained land that has been passed down. We do not defend our homeland and build lasting possessions, homes, communities, and churches for our children because we don’t care about future generations. We care about what we can buy at Temu right now to fill the void. We care about what new movie we can stream or new video game we can play ignoring the biological call within us all to build, create, and preserve this beautiful country and our way of life so our children can rest peacefully under the shade of the trees we planted.
1 Samuel 1:18 tells us that “Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.” King David was engaged in warfare for his country and his God, his entire life. Because of that, his son Solomon was given one task from God, build the temple, an arguably far easier and more comfortable project than lifelong warfare. King David is an amazing example of fighting to create a safer better country for his children. There is no denying that America is reaching the tipping point where the Heritage Americans will either have to stand up and fight for their birthright and their children’s inheritance or roll over and squander everything that their ancestors shed blood for to the invading foreign masses.
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; And the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.
Psalm 33:12
Reject the modern plastic idea that the only thing that matters is you and the only God you serve is yourself. However you can make your life easier and more convenient RIGHT NOW is how you should be living your life. Embrace the good work of building something that lasts beyond us.
As homemakers, it can feel like there is not much we can do from home. The home is where this battle begins, however. We are in a unique position to equip all of our people for whatever battles they may face. We can encourage and exhort our husbands in a way that others cannot. We must stand behind them completely, equip them for the battles they are fighting, and let them know that even if the whole world is against them, they will always find a safe refuge and place to lay down their arms at home. We must train up our children in the way they should go because the Bible promises that when they are old, they will not depart from it. We are the first line of defense against the wickedness of the world entering our home. This wickedness includes and often starts with the lazy, consumerist mentality that pervades every aspect of our society.
Go forth, homemaker. Go forth with your whole soul and every fiber of your being. Embrace the challenge. Build something beautiful and lasting. Build a legacy in the hearts of your children and the heart of your home. Plant trees that your great-great-grandchildren will benefit from.
House and riches are the inheritance of fathers: And a prudent wife is from the Lord.
Proverbs 19:14
https://digitaleducation.stanford.edu/news/oxford-oaks-and-stanford-sequoia
Thank you so much for writing this needed article. We are switching over to purchasing quality things that will not need to be thrown away. I'm also tired of our cheapskate culture. Why not use our money for something that we don't plan to donate in 3 months? We have things in our home that were given to us years ago, and we do not plan to throw them away. I shared your article on Substack and will share it on Pinterest too. Thank you again!