Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Salutary Neglect

Spring fever hit me hard this year.

That means, I'm a little behind on my reading.

The neglect has been salutary.

Here's the link to what others have to say about Chapter IX of Russell Kirk's The Roots of American Order.




This past Saturday DH and I tromped through some north Georgia woods which look much like they did during the early days of the colonies, at least according to the guidebook.

We covered 9.7 miles in 4 hours 25 minutes in the wilderness of this last of the Thirteen Colonies.

We Georgians love our General Oglethorpe whom Dr. Kirk considered an American gentleman ~
Christian soldier and friend to the unfortunate, admired by Samuel Johnson, conspicuous in London clubs, founder of the fortress-town of Savannah, full of fortitude and ability until he died at the age of ninety.
We Georgians can also claim bragging rights to the New World's Christianity in the Wesley Brothers:  John and Charles - planting seeds that erupted in the Great Awakening.

However, I am more of a Jonathan Edwards/George Whitefield kind of gal, if you know what I mean.

During this era, Americans demonstrated that they knew what to do, when and how.

They acted rightly.... even when no one was looking.

Now that's the root and order of true character.




6 comments:

  1. Do you ever wonder how the beginnings of Georgia as a penal colony have affected the history of the state? I say that only in love as Georgia is one of my favorite states but is something that I wonder. Maybe it made for a state of overcomers or men trying to make good on a second chance.

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    1. Reminds me somewhat of Chuck Colson's prison ministry....

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    2. I didn't realize this about Georgia. How did I miss that? Or maybe I just forgot it. I have often wondered the same thing about Australia.

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  2. I love Kirk's characterization of Brits during this period - absent-minded

    Overlooking the positive traits in these debtor citizens, they sent them away.... to circumstances that optimized their potential.

    I feel fortunate to live in Georgia.

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    1. That is really interesting. So they were debtors rather than murderers or something?

      I am going to have to go back through my copy of This Country of Ours and see how I missed this...

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  3. Interesting point about Georgia's beginnings as a debtor colony, considering the debt/foreclosure level in Georgia right now. Atlanta, though not typical of the South generally, has always seemed to me a Puss in Boots sort of place. Maybe that's because I knew a lot of people in real estate and other types of sales when I lived there.

    But, what I wanted to say mostly was that your woods thought reminds me of one of my all-time favorite childhood activities: Tromping about in the woods pretending to be an American (no matter Native or settler) of long ago, and thinking, "Perhaps no one has ever stepped in this spot before..." That is, until I saw the back of the first house in the next subdivision.

    But I still love hiking. Spring fever is a wonderful malady, isn't it?

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