It‘s so beautiful—the foliage, I mean. So much of Neponset is temporarily golden, soaked in the sunshine of big, shaggy, old, autumn-colored trees. Once this whole area supported large groves of trees interspersed with rolling hills smothered with head-high grass. What an autumn picture that must have made.
And that’s where Brawby, Illinois was born in 1836, on an edge where Barren Grove meets a stretch of grassland. Only four years before, most Native Americans (who are thought to have done the same thing to much earlier inhabitants) were driven out of Illinois. British settlers came from Brawby, England (in the Dales where “All Creatures Great and Small” takes place) and built a village now reduced to one beautiful old house which served as post office, and a few remnants of a brickyard. A small stone commemorates the spot.
Brawby, England? It now consists of a house, another building, and a stone. In the meantime, Brawby, Illinois moved about two miles south and morphed into Neponset.
Isn’t that kind of the story of the human race? We settle, we develop a society, we move on. (Or get shoved on?) I truly believe that’s what is happening to our world now. The age in which so many of us grew up—the Great Depression, World War II, atom bomb, man on the moon, tremendous advances in medicine and technology—is rapidly dissolving. Anxiety floats, a sly, toxic vapor. The war against Israel stokes this unease. The Book of Revelation haunts us.
So what is the new age that will replace the dying one? Some say welcome to “Technology on Steroids.” Artificial intelligence–machines that “think,” and therefore solve problems in a breath; babies made to order; space travel; pushbutton warfare—who needs humans? Who needs God?
It would appear from some of the thinking coming out of our most prestigious universities lately that this is a good thing. Technology, controlled, of course, by a few very smart humans, ( no doubt from these prestigious universities) will lead to peace and happiness and “equity” (sameness). Really? Human nature will change? We’ll see that “God” is just a crutch weak people use to face the day? All the world needs is a few smart humans to lead us to earthly Utopia?
I don’t think so. Go outside the next clear night. Look up at the stars; let your mind travel to them. What do we know about them considering how much there is to know? How did they come into being? Who, what was the beginning? Try telling yourself that the stars just “happened.” That our earth, weather, oceans, mountains, trees, beautiful autumn leaves—humans–just ”happened.”
Change will come, just as it did to the two Brawbys. The English village died because so many inhabitants decided to better their lives on the American frontier. The Illinois Brawby died because its inhabitants wanted to move close to that new technological wonder, the CB&Q railroad. Were these changes a mistake? They didn’t take away our human nature. But they didn’t make it any worse, either.
We live in a troubling time, dealing with not only our immediate personal world, but the scary outside one that jumps out of headlines, radios, tv’s, phones—technological wonders bringing us news of behavior so vile it can’t be called human.
But we’re also surrounded by a universe that we didn’t make. So enjoy the golden autumn; take shelter from the coming cold; look up at the stars and know: we aren’t in charge of this universe. And for that, thank God!
