Jesus said, "Why have you come out to the countryside? To see a reed shaken by the wind? And to see a person dressed in soft clothes, [like your] rulers and your powerful ones? They are dressed in soft clothes, and they cannot understand truth."(78 Thomas)

Where and how can we find the truth?

Beginning at about twelve I regularly hiked or biked to the counryside outside my small hometown.

Often I would go with two or three or even nine or ten friends. As often I would go alone.

Our wilderness consisted of the remains of strip-mining from thirty or forty years before.

The flat Illinois prarie had been transformed into hills, forested ridges, outcropings of rock and shale, lakes, ponds, creeks, and waterfalls.

In the marshy bottoms cattails extended for hundreds of yards. In summer the tall green fronds were taller than me. In winter the dried reeds stood tall against wind and snow.

Red wing blackbirds especially favored the cattails, as did turtles and frogs, as did I especially in late winter and early spring.

In that season I would find a clearing in the reeds open to the sun. No wind penetrated. The only sound was the occasional scratching of one reed against another.

Cattails are wonderful at reclaiming wounded land. The marshy places of my youth are now grassy meadows.

Cattails were wonderful for healing my adolescent wounds and the memory is healing still.

Yes, I have gone to the countryside to see a reed shaken by the wind.

The synoptic parallels are Matthew 11:7-15 and Luke 7:24-30.