A Faith that Lasts: Explore the Edges

There’s an old saying, “Nature abhors a vacuum,” but it could equally be said that “Nature abhors a straight line.” Really, when we see a straight line anywhere, we can be certain that a human hand is responsible. There seems to be something about us that prefers set boundaries, where ‘inside’ and ‘outside,’ ‘mine’ and ‘yours’, and ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ are fixed, easily demarcated, and cut-and-dry. (Terminus, the boundary stone, was even one of the most important gods in Roman household religion.) But this isn’t the way nature works at all. Put into theistic terms, God doesn’t do straight lines. Nature is full of in between spaces, like wetlands or scrublands, and outliers, like mammals that lay eggs or fish the bear live young. In fact, while we show incredible disregard for ‘in between’ spaces, they are generally the most diverse, creative, and important places in the natural world. And, unsurprisingly, this is a reality that permaculture design values and harnesses. So today I’d like to look at how it does this and then what insights it may have for us as we build strong, robust communities and lives of faith.

The principle here is to explore and optimize the edges. As Toby Hemenway puts it, “The edge—the intersection of two environments—is the most diverse place in a system, and is where energy and materials accumulate or are transformed.”* Tim Sonder adds, “The interface between things is where the most interesting events take place. These are often the most valuable, diverse and productive elements in the system.” And again, “The place where two eco-systems or habitats meet is generally more productive and richer in the variety of species present than either habitat on its own.” In the natural world, edges are places like wetlands, inter-tidal zones, estuaries, and the transitional micro-environments in between forests and meadows. In our build environment, they’re ‘tidier’ but no less interesting: think of fences and hedgerows, walls and rooftops. Permaculture design asks, if indeed these margins are the most diverse and creative places, how can we increase them and harness their creativity and fruitfulness? Some examples of increasing margins include:

• using serpentine instead of straight pathways
• planting trees in clumps and leaving space in between
• flexible city zoning that intersperses commercial, business, industrial, and residential areas

Examples of harnessing edges include:

• alley cropping
• planting climbing plants and vines against fences and walls
• rooftop gardening

These principles work on a human and culture level too. As much as human societies like black-and-white boundaries, there have always been and will always be those who don’t fit into them. And these people are often the most creative, interesting, and wise. Every single popular music trend of the past 150 years started among the marginalized (in the West, especially Black communities): from ragtime to blues to jazz to rock n roll, to rap. And there’s a reason we have a classic image of the artist’s garret and not the artist’s mansion, and why so many great writers and artists have been queer. There is something about not fitting in socially-defined categories that is very fruitful in the human spirit.

While maximizing edges and margins has little to do with Christian faith on the surface, on a human level, it’s an idea both Jesus and Paul understood well and implemented in their ministries. Jesus spent much of his time with those on the margins of society, including the sick and disabled, women, and ‘sinners’ like sex-workers and notoriously crooked tax-collectors. He even used a Samaritan — someone looked upon by ‘good’ Jews as a half-breed and heretic — as a hero in one of his most defining parables. In a similar way, Paul spent a lot of his time working at the edges between Judaism and Gentile culture, to great effect. The edge is also literally used in Jewish Law, as farmers were instructed to leave the edges of their lands unharvested so the poor could glean them.

So if we’re thinking about how we might explore the edges in our own faith communities and spirituality, what might this look like?

• Exploring the Edges: What are the edges in my life, in terms of time, aptitudes and interests, and community? Some examples of each of these include:
  • Time: Commutes to and from work, the child ‘drop off’ and ‘pick up’ line at school, and the space in between getting ready to go somewhere and when you have to leave the house.
  • Aptitudes and Interests: Looking at skills or learnings at the edges of and existing knowledge base. e.g., an interest in gardening borders on topics like pollination and pollinators, weather and climate, insects, birds, etc.; or, a skill in cooking a specific cuisine borders on adjacent skillsets such as expanding to other global cuisines, chemistry, and baking.
  • Community: Acquaintances on the edges of friend-groups, community members who differ from the ‘average’ person there, etc., and individuals who are socio-demographically marginalized in terms of class, race, gender, sexuality, or education.
• Expanding the Edges: Once we’re aware of the edges in our life, we can look for ways we can expand them (where appropriate or desired — I don’t think anyone is looking to increase their commuting time!).
• Harnessing the Edges: Finally, we can ask ourselves how we can use these marginal areas in our life or communities to bear more good fruit. Going back to the examples above:
  • Time: Can we use these edge periods for prayer or study? Or, can we use them to take care of practical things and thereby free up other time for matters of faith?
  • Aptitudes and Interests: How can I use adjacent skills or learnings to use existing areas of interest to bear good spiritual fruit? For example, can an interest in gardening connect to practices of sacred gardening found in some traditions? Or, could an aptitude for cooking open volunteer opportunities?
  • Community: What mutually-beneficial and reciprocal relations might be possible between us and those on the outskirts of our lives and communities? For example, I was once involved in a church where one relationship eventually led to a significant ministry to unhoused and insecurely-housed individuals. Or another where the involvement of a small group of recent immigrants led to a fruitful program of cultural exchange and advocacy.

The point here is simply that it’s the edges of our life and community, not the centre, where we have the most to learn and most to grow. The margins are rarely comfortable or easy places for us. But that doesn’t mean we can ignore them; rather, we ignore them at our peril and to our detriment.