Art of Stewardship what is good better and what is best.
[Music]
what if i was
to tell you that life wasn’t
always about what’s right
or what’s wrong that life
like trees have layers
rings of growth that can illuminate a
higher truth
found within them that life is meant to
be seen
through the lenses of what’s good
better and best now me
i grew up sheltered in the appalachian
mountains
raised at the foot of cold mountain
and it was a lot like huckleberry finn
my life was a little wild running the
woods with my brother
with my cousin and
i can remember us working in the garden
alongside my grandfather
and my father and we would harvest the
fruits of those vegetables
and the fruits of that labor to pickle
and to can we would forage morels
and wild leeks ramps in
uh early spring we would pick black
raspberry in
summer in high elevation huckleberries
in early autumn
we would slog across hay fields
follow abandoned logging roads to stands
of walnut trees to hunt for gray
squirrel
and rabbits we would float down the
pigeon river on wooden pallets
tied to fallen logs to catch a mess of
bluegill
and rock bass for a midweek supper i can
remember my father he would get off at
the paper mill and there was a little
church right at the bend of the river
and he would pull into that parking lot
and he would honk his horn
and we knew we better come running or
we’d be walking
our way home my childhood was good
it it really was we we experienced
things we were able to
get dirt under our fingernails and it
was
it was a good thing we like to um
forage for rock moss and
bundles of galax and we would sell those
to local florists
we would hunt for ginseng in october
and white-tailed deer in november and
so one of my favorite things to hunt for
was ginseng so what is ginseng well
ginseng
is a plant a native plant that
that its root is highly prized
for its medicinal properties it can be
found
in energy drinks it can be found in
green tea it can be found
in dietary supplements
and i love to try to forage for it and
try to find it
i can remember one story in particular
where my father and my grandfather
we had hiked for miles and we dropped
into this dense shaded holler
we pushed our way through a stand of
chest high jewelry touch me knots to
find this patch of
chartreuse and emerald green ginseng
plants standing there
with hickory nuts sized clusters of red
berries
and i can remember my father he would
always instruct me to leave the juvenile
plants behind
he said that’s for that’s for your
future that’s for the future generations
he would always reach down and he would
grab that cluster red berries and he
would roll those around in his hand and
he would broadcast them around the area
half the time he would carry a pocket
full
of ginseng seeds that he and my
grandfather grew
and he would replant those nearly every
time
he dug what he was trying to tell me
and teach me was to be a good steward
with the resources that was so
abundantly
offered to us and ginseng for my family
was a lot like
the vegetables that we harvested or the
land that we
farmed or the burly tobacco that once
cured
in so many barns another
example is my father
is a beekeeper and bees very much like
ginseng
are meant to be viewed as a resource
because you see it’s good
for me to get out in the woods and find
some ginseng it’s good for me to get out
and experience the hike
get dirt under my fingernails get
sunshine on my
face and achieve the goal
of finding ginseng now what’s
better is actually finding more than one
ginseng plant
what’s better is being able to
go into the woods and find more than one
plant
what’s better is when you’re like my
father you have
recruited your young son to follow you
into the woods
because many hands make work light two
eyes
two heads are better than one that is
better
so what’s best in regards to ginseng
well
best is understanding
and seeing the environment that ginseng
likes to grow in
it’s learning not to just identify the
ginseng plants
but the trees and the plants
that grow around it it’s understanding
what
soil ginseng likes to grow in and what
environment is needed
for that plant to thrive
well what’s best
is to leave the juvenile plants behind
what’s best is to begin to understand
that there’s more to the task
and the achievement of the goal of
finding ginseng
than actually just finding the ginseng
that it’s equally about the hike
and the sun and the ginseng plant and
the dirt under my fingernails
as it is anything else
so back to the bees my father he is a
beekeeper
and establishing a beehive to collect
some honey
is a good thing why is that
well honey’s good am i right
so theoretically if establishing
one beehive is good and we were trying
to collect
more honey the natural thing would be
a second beehive more bee hives is
better because
more bee hives equals more production
which equals more honey which eventually
equals a little more money in my pocket
right well then we’re back to the best
well what is best
well what’s best is understanding why
bees do what they do
why bees forage what they forage
best is establishing a beehive or two
bee
hives not just anywhere not just in a
asphalt parking lot or down the street
but in your own backyard near your own
vegetable garden
where they can pollinate your vegetables
they can pollinate your
apple trees best is
stewarding those honeybees in such a way
that they can thrive and establishing an
environment
cultivating and creating an environment
for them to flourish and grow
so what does this have to do with
anything what a ginseng and honeybees
really have to do with anything well i
believe
it has to do with everything the problem
is in the world that’s so
full of weights and measures that’s so
you know divided and decisive where
everything truly is about what’s right
or wrong we have forgotten that it
doesn’t have to be that way
for me when i was younger i was
headstrong
bullheaded and thrust into
management well i was eager
to prove that i had what it takes eager
to prove eager to accomplish
a goal well management can be
defined as the use of means to
accomplish an
end and management’s a good thing
businesses would fail
businesses would go under if we did not
have management established
to accomplish a goal well it would be
safe to say
that if management is the use of means
to accomplish an end
then the means used for what is better
is people that’s where leadership
comes into play and leadership
is better leadership as
forbes defines it is leadership
is the establishment
using the using people right
leadership is the establishment of worth
creating and encouraging individuals to
accomplish a goal it’s
social influence
for them to accomplish a goal but wait
both management and
leadership are focused on accomplishing
a goal
so if management’s good and leadership
is better
and so many of our organizations so many
of our churches so many of our
relationships
have only focused on what’s
good and what’s better or worse yet
that’s what they’ve settled for well
what is
what is best well
for me and my life story of progressing
from that young guy
focused on management focused on
accomplishing a goal
understanding that i can use people to
accomplish those goals
that is better but what’s best is
stewardship
stewardship is the responsible care
for someone or something
accomplishment of a goal isn’t even
included
in the concept of stewardship
it’s cultivating and creating an
environment for any one
thing to grow
for any one thing to flourish
and thrive no matter the production
value they have or have not
so what if we started looking at our
marriages
that way our friends our co-workers
our organizations in that light
through that lens
what if we stop looking at it as
things to manage or cattle to lead
but it’s unique resources for us to
steward for us to cultivate an
environment for them to grow
no matter the production value they have
because at the end of the day like the
honeybee
we might find out that we have not
received jars full
of wildflower honey but that the bees
have pollinated the purple clover in our
hayfields
and the purple clover has fixed nitrogen
into the soil
which causes the field grass to grow
well that field grass grows and is
harvested for hay
and that equals more hay to cell which
equals more hay
for livestock and then we realize
that our tomatoes are plentiful and our
apple trees
are fully loaded it’s not about what’s
right or wrong
it’s about what’s good better and best