Palestinians cling to wall
separating land
Today I went up North to my son’s house again to help him and his family take down hop vines and pick hops from the vine. Taking down a row of the Cascade hops was easy and quick. Picking the hopes off the vine was another story.
Hops are the female flowers of the hop plant. They are used primarily as a flavoring and stability agent in beer, to which they impart a bitter, tangy flavor. Picking hops off the vine is long and tedious work. It took us over 5 hours to pick the hops of only two rows of vines. The work reminded me of the work of migrant workers do, often for low pay, long hours and hot weather. My daughter-in-law had brought a variety of ‘craft beers’ from Wisconsin microbreweries that use hops from a company to whom my son sells his hops. I doubt if any migrant workers can drink ‘craft beers’ while they work. This is my son’s first year with a decent crop for the market and I hope that he and his family can do well with all the time, energy and money they have invested.
Cascade Hops
One of my grandsons, during the picking process, made a comment about Syria. It was a light comment and I tried to respond it a light way to keep the conversion going. But no one else picked up on his comments and so the conversation died. While the grandchildren and friends were making light conversation and taking frequent breaks from picking hops I noticed my son had a serious and determined look on his face and took no breaks all afternoon. I tried to do the same but late in the afternoon, despite the refreshment of the beers, needed a break and went inside to check my email on my cell phone.
My mind also wandered over to the people of Palestine who have a long history of picking olives off of vines. Hop vines take a few years to produce fruitfully. Olive trees take more time but last for thousands of years. When the Israeli Army or settlers uproot trees or burn them down they are trying to destroy the very fabric of Palestine culture. As the documentary film Five Broken Cameras shows, it is only by consistent nonviolent resistance to Israel’s occupation of Palestine that keeps hope alive. Palestinians cling to their land. It is not guns or missiles, which Israeli with US money can match 100 fold that will reserve Palestine homeland but active and creative resistance that offers hope to these repressed peoples.
Be it olives or hops, grapes or grape leaves that are picked from the vine, the work is hard and tedious. But the vine is what holds everything together. Jesus says in John’s Gospel, I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”
So with hops we need to remove them from the vine but with ourselves we need to cling closer to the vine.
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