Conditional Gifts

From the Roots of Asia Tarot, the Seven of Pentacles; from the Mah Jongg Oracle, North:

 Corn is, as farmers say, a greedy plant, requiring more nitrogen fertilizer than any other crop—nitrogen that runs off the fields into the water and has created a “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico that is now the size of New Jersey. It also requires more pesticides, so all that corn we’re growing is polluting the environment. ~Michael Pollan, The Omnivore's Dilemma

           Though the Seven of Pentacles is usually an assessment of how things are developing, it is also a warning about patience and mindfulness. Cutting corners may get you to the goal faster, but the quality of what is being created can be affected. So perhaps it is also an evaluation of the means we are using to get to our end. The North card is associated with cold winds and thus implies a drain on resources. In our effort to get what we want, what will be the ultimate cost?

There are no sacred and unsacred places; there are only sacred and desecrated places. My belief is that the world and our life in it are conditional gifts. ~Wendell Berry