Father Frank from Saint John the Baptist on Strawberry hill came in to the warehouse yesterday morning for his weekly visit and to pick up the leftover produce to take to the poor. Father Frank doesn’t speak very much, but sits and listens quite a bit. He comes to the warehouse once a week to pick up leftover produce, and to check on the people that work at the warehouse (I have the feeling that they all go “way back”).
I pulled up the news blurb from Channel 9 news, and showed it to him. His eyes were filled with pride like no one but a father could have. He then decided to tell me about growing up on a farm, completely organic of course because there was no other way to grow food when he was young. Then, with great sadness he told me about post world war 2 farming. He conveyed the very inconvenient truth that commercial fertilizers became a big deal after World War 2 because the government had to keep the people working that had jobs at nitrogen factories formerly used to make explosives. It is hard to convey through one dimensional communication the sadness in his voice. However, I truly got the feeling that he felt oppressed in a free country when he was speaking of how the nitrogen fertilizer was explosive, and people got hurt just by farming. But then again, aren’t we all oppressed in a free country when we choose to follow what is main stream instead of using our minds to make decisions based on what is best in line with our values? After he left I did a bit more research about this topic, and found a very informational article at http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe40s/crops_04.html.
I am intrigued to more of his story now- how did he go from farmer to priest?
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