The Myth of Green Grass
This might have been the hardest book yet for me to digest in this program. In his YouTube videos, Jordan Peterson is like the energizer bunny who just keeps going. How is it possible for him to captivate an audience for so long? His book, Maps of Meaning, is so dense that even ChatGPT when asked for a summary, asked which chapter to summarize as it couldn’t summarize the entirety of the book. Using AI and shorter summaries of his work I still feel like his work is so ethereal that I will ask the same question of this book as I asked last week. So what? What does it matter? How might I understand my NPO considering Peterson’s work?
Jordan Peterson, a clinical psychologist, argues that the stories we live by, the myths, cultures and beliefs help shape the world in which we live and the way in which we interact with others. He writes, “We interpret the present in terms of what we desire, expect and fear in the future, and in terms of what we desired, expected and feared in the past.”[1] Here in Minnesota, and my city particularly, Somalis and Christians live side-by-side with limited interaction. Our communities do not integrate nor really interact but rather have found a rhythm of ignoring each other.
Christians in our community, who recall the days when our city was more monocultural, now struggle to understand the new identity of our city. Neighborhoods used to take pride in clean cut green lawns during the summer, but now Somali families neglect to care for their yards, which is seen as a stain on the neighborhood. Meanwhile, Somali families have brought their cultural myths and beliefs from an Islamic, nomadic, clan-based country and find that they have trouble making sense of their world here in America. Why should they care about grass they ask? Peterson highlights how this can be challenging writing, “When systems of belief collide, the result is conflict. The old ‘truth’ is challenged by the new: a consequence of that challenge is the reduction in certainty.”[2]
In one video discussing Jacob and Esau, two brothers who must learn to reconcile, Peterson highlights how people must face the unknown or the ‘chaos’ to grow.[3] As the Somali community continues to grow here in our city, we are beginning to get to a point in which we must enter the chaos, recognize it, and then work through it. This in itself is a wicked problem, as Bentley and Toth remind us in their book on handling difficult issues. There is not an easy way through this challenge, “Down in the swamp there are no experts who can tell others what to do. Everyone is struggling to figure out what is happening and what should be done.”[4] Peterson challenges his audience to enter the swamp and embrace the challenge. He writes, “The individual must voluntarily confront what is frightening, in order to learn to master it.”[5]
Essentially, my NPO project is working to highlight the two cultures and how they are colliding with each other. It is my goal to help us find a way to enter into the chaos, or the swamp, and to wrestle with our own biases and struggles we have. When Jacob was preparing to meet his brother Esau, he encountered God in a sacred space. He wrestled with God. God met Jacob in the struggle.[6] I too, have been wrestling with God in my own way. I have been struggling to see how God is at work in our community. I have been frustrated with the division and biases I find. It is interesting to reflect on the story of Jacob and Esau. Jacob was the only one who wrestled with God in that moment. His family did not. His brother did not. Jacob wrestled with God alone for reconciliation of two-family units.
Jacob came out of the struggle a changed man. He had a limp and was given a new name. How might I come out of this personal struggle? Can I help bridge these two communities? Peterson writes, “The process of change – voluntarily undertaken – is the path of life itself.”[7]
What might new maps look like? How do we develop them? Can we create new maps that help orient us and our two communities into a collective and shared community? Will we have any shared space? How will I be changed through my time in the chaos and in the swamp? Will I have a limp? Can I wrestle with God and not have a limp?
When we try to enter the communal space and engage the Somali community, we help develop new myths. When I shovel the snow for a Somali family, a myth is tweaked. When a Somali man and a Christian man sit together at a coffee shop, a new myth forms. When I mow a Somali family’s lawn for them, myths are created. When I listen to the stories and experiences of Somali men and women, myths are shared.
So, the work in the chaos continues by challenging myths one at a time.
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[1] Jordan B. Peterson, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief (New York: Routledge, 1999), 7.
[2] Peterson, 18.
[3] Lecture: Biblical Series XIV: Jacob: Wrestling with God, 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRJKwDfDbco.
[4] Joseph Bentley and Michael Toth, Exploring Wicked Problems: What They Are and Why They Are Important (Bloomington, IN: Archway Publishing, 2020), 131.
[5] Peterson, Maps of Meaning, 353.
[6] Lecture.
[7] Lecture, 338.
About the Author
Adam Cheney
I grew up in California, spent five years living along the beautiful coast of Kenya and now find myself working with refugees in the snow crusted tundra of Minnesota. My wife and I have seven children, four of whom have been adopted. I spend my time drinking lots of coffee, working in my garden, and baking sourdough bread.12 responses to “The Myth of Green Grass”
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great work Adam. Thank you for contextualizing this into your space and your vocation. I appreciate your faithfulness to the call. How might Peterson’s concept of order, chaos, and wrestling provide maps for those in both communities that are struggling to find common ground?
Ryan,
I think that it would encourage people to enter the chaos and not be afraid of it. There is benefit in the journey and through the chaos. We just have to be willing to enter into it.
Hi Adam, It also sounds like when you enter the communal space and engage your neighbor you are following Jesus’ great command to love God with whole heart, mind, and self and love your neighbor as yourself. How do you think that living out the gospel might cause you to limp?
Diane,
I would say it causes me to limp because I feel beat up at times. As I encourage and call for people to demonstrate biblical hospitality and welcoming to our immigrant neighbors, I enter into a hostile political world of division. Teams are drawn and lines in the sand are made and I find myself often on the opposing team from many who are family and friends.
Hi Adam,
Based on this statement in your post “We interpret the present in terms of what we desire, expect and fear in the future, and in terms of what we desired, expected and feared in the past.”, this is my question: How do our perceptions of the present become shaped by the interplay of past fears and desires with future expectations, and what implications does this have for decision-making and personal growth?
Shela,
If we continue to believe the future will be the same as the past then we will continue to make similar decisions. Yet, we can think about a different future and make plans that might lead us there.
Hi Adam, While reading your blog I am really caught up with the idea of the “eternal knower” who mediates between the domains of the known and the unknown. It seems like Christ-in-you has compelled you into that role on behalf of two communities. As you get to know the Somalis better, what are you discovering about their culture that the community at large may value and thus serve as a relational bridge?
Julie,
They actually value many of the same things as we do. Family values are high for them. Many of them prioritized family values in the last election even when they knew that they were essentially voting against people from their country being allowed to continue to immigrate here. We might have different ideas of how to raise our families but we both want families to be raised in peace and security.
Adam, I appreciate your engaging Peterson’s myth, chaos, and voluntary struggle ideas.
It is interesting to see how they intersect with your NPO and your city’s cultural tensions. Based on your own journey of wrestling with God, community division, and your own role in that space, how do you envision participating in the creation of these new, shared “maps” between Somali and Christian communities? What might it look like for your NPO to help others voluntarily enter this chaos and come out transformed—limp and all?
Hey Adam! I think this was a challenging week for us all. You asked the question “Can we create new maps that help orient us and our two communities into a collective and shared community?” What would you feel is a best approach in accomplishing this?
Hi Adam, I really resonated with what you shared about creating new myths—it’s courageous work, especially when your path starts to look quite different from that of family and friends. I’m curious—has anyone in your life been willing to step into the chaos with you as you’ve reached out to the Somali community? Also, I wonder how the Somali community initially perceived you. Did those perceptions shift as relationships began to form?
Hi, Adam, thank you for sharing your stories and NPO. Your NPO and mine deals with two colliding cultures but looking from two different directions. In short, if a Micronesian asked me, ‘why should I cut my grass?’ I would say because that’s how they do it here. Thank you for sharing those concepts of writing our stories or getting in the trenches to ease the cultural reconciliation. Do you think talking about assimilation with your neighbor would be ok?