The 2006 EFM Man of the Year

This morning whilst eating my breakfast I was reminded of the “EFM Man of the Year.” It seems that his likeness was burned onto the surface of my toast. At first I thought I was delusional, but after splashing some oj made from concentrate onto my face I knew what I had to do. I quickly took a picture of the toast with my digital camera and downloaded it onto my trusty computer. Then, being the savvy businessman that I am, I placed the toast for sale on ebay. It looks like I stand to make a small fortune selling my burned toast (these people don’t even seem to mind the small nibble I took out of one corner), and I anticipate a bidding war at the conclusion of the auction that will allow me to rationalize buying a flat screen HD TV just like all the other crazies out there.

Okay, you and I both know that was a lie. If you know me (and I trust that if you’re actually reading this blog that is the case), you know that:
One: I drink coffee, not orange juice made from concentrate.
Two: My computer is not “trusty.”
Three: Me, a savvy businessman? Yeah, right.
Four: If you see a flat screen HD TV in my home, check the address because I’m afraid you just walked in someone else’s door.

Let’s try that again:
This morning whilst eating my breakfast I was reminded of the “EFM Man of the Year.” My omelette may not have resembled him, but I think he would appreciate its ingredients. The caged-free eggs were laid from the chickens of a local Kentucky farmer. The sausage was ground and harvested by my own hands. The Evangelical Free Market (place of ideas) Man of the Year is none other than Wendell Berry. The decision has both nothing and everything to do with breakfast.

First I must confess that I knew very little about Wendell Berry before reading Rod Dreher’s Crunchy Cons. Second I must also confess that I never saw the man before seeing him at this year’s annual “Festival of Faiths.” The event in Louisville that I lovingly refer to as either the “Heretic Ball” or the “Festival of Fakes.” This is the irony of Wendell Berry. On one hand, you can find his book, Life is a Miracle, being read by first year seminarians in Dr. Russell Moore’s theology class. On the other hand, you find him conversing with a Buddhist monk from Silicon Valley (yes, Virginia there really is such a thing) about strip-mining.

In a world that is continuously reported to be more fractionalized, more sectarian, more partisan, and more divided, Wendell Berry is gaining allies. He needs more (that’s where you, me, and breakfast comes in). He says as much in his essay, “A long job, too late to quit”:

I hope it will be possible for my great-grandchildren to learn the same thing that Virginia [his granddaughter, not the girl losing hope in Saint Nick] learned [“What is good about hard work is that it teaches you about little pleasures.”], by working with their parents in the same homeland. I began my own defense of that possibility more than thirty years ago, when I had far fewer allies than I have now. For me, it is a long time too late to quit.

And just like that Wendell Berry stays on message. He reminds us all, in a day when people are fighting over “next generation” video game consoles and spending money they don’t have on flat screen HD TVs there are things worth fighting for, like the family and the farm. Mr. Berry, though you’ll never read this (for a host of reasons, to include the fact that you don’t own a computer), congratulations on becoming the 2006 EFM Man of the Year. It may not have been much of a contest, or even a title that anyone was looking forward to, but I hope it provides the assurance that your message is being heard and you are still winning allies.