Jayber Crow: The Value of a Small Life

Intrigued by the words “the value of a small life,” which I heard on a podcast in January, those words refer to this book.

Jayber Crow : The Life Story of Jayber Crow, Barber of Port William Membership, as Written by Himself (published 2000) is actually a novel written by Wendell Berry as if it is a memoir written by the character the author created.

Timely and timeless, Jayber’s story transported me to an unfamiliar setting, a bygone time, and describes people I know. Including myself.

An excerpt:

“If you could do it, I suppose it would be a good idea to live your life in a straight line––starting say, in the Dark Wood of Error, and proceeding by logical steps through Hell and Purgatory and into Heaven. Or you could take the King’s Highway past appropriately named dangers, toils and snares, and finally cross the River of Death and enter the Celestial City. But that is not the way I have done it, so far. I am a pilgrim, but my pilgrimage has been wandering and unmarked. Often what has looked like a straight line to me has been circling or a doubling back. I have been in the Dark Wood of Error any number of times. I have known something of Purgatory, and Heaven, but not always in that order. The names of many snares and dangers have been made known to me, but I have seen them only in looking back. Often I have not known where I was going until I was already there. I have had my share of desires and goals, but my life has come to me or I have gone to it mainly by way of mistakes and surprises. Often I have received better than I have deserved. Often my fairest hopes rested on bad mistakes. I am an ignorant pilgrim, crossing a dark valley. And yet, for a long time, looking back, I have been unable to shake off the feeling that I have been led––make of that what you will.

First paragraph, Chapter 12

Clearly, the author Wendell Berry alludes to John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (published 1678), cited as the first novel published in English (1681), a classic allegory of the journey through life as Pilgrim, burdened and distracted, makes his way to the Celestial City.

Pilgrim represents “Everyman.”

Bunyan’s influence through Pilgrim’s Progress on other writers continues to expand. [1]

Words and ideas that came from Pilgrim’s Progress include “Vanity Fair,” “the Giant Despair,” “Slough of Despond,” and characters “Obstinate,” “Pliable,” “Formalist,” as well as “Help,””Faithful,” and “Hopeful” encounter Pilgrim on his journey.

“Mistakes and Surprises”

Identifying with Jayber’s words, I look back on my life and also feel I have been led.

Led to learn. To learn about myself, about others, and to learn from others in order to see beyond the illusions and deceptions the world manufactures.

“I hardly knew what I knew, let alone what I was going to learn,” Jayber says.

Orphaned at age three, raised by a loving couple until he was ten, Jayber gets sent to an orphanage where in time, he “received the call.” Next, college to train to be a minister.

There, his professors preached certainty with no room for doubts.

Honest questions ended that part of Jayber’s journey.

Only one of his many professors, the one Jayber feared because he was afraid Dr. Ardmire would tell him the truth, that old professor listened and understood Jayber’s doubts.

“I reckon what it all comes down to is, how can I preach if I don’t have any answers? . . . I had this feeling maybe I had been called.”

“And you may have been right. But not to what you thought. Not to what you think. You may have been given questions which you cannot be given answers. You will have to live them out––perhaps a little at a time.”

“And how long is that going to take?”

“I don’t know. As long as you live, perhaps.”

“That could be a long time.”

“I will tell you a further mystery,” he said. “It may take longer.”

Jayber Crow, chapter 6

Educated at Bible college, Jayber had learned to think, to question, to process, and at last, from a truthful and kind professor, given “permission” to leave.

God wastes nothing in our lives. Life is the best teacher.

Jayber ended up living the rest of his life where he had been born. In the orphanage, he had learned to cut hair, which prepared him for the next chapters of his life.

As the barber in a small town, Jayber’s life intersected with friends and enemies alike. From other people’s lives, he gained insight into the value and meaning of life itself. Observations made over years and descriptions of the people who populated Jayber’s ordinary days capture the heart of what it means to be human.

Changes and The Effects of Change

For generations, changes came slowly to the town Port William. With Progress, changes occurred rapidly. Jayber identified War and The Economy as the main forces behind change.

Only the changes that came to his small part of the world gobbled up ground, cost lives, and fundamentally altered lifestyles of the people who lived there.

A book’s review of Jayber Crow pays tribute to “the dignity and grace of ordinary people rising up human in an ever-more impersonal world.”[2]

The Dignity of an Ordinary Life

Yes. You and I live in an ever-more impersonal world.

For you and me, as change accelerates and changes the way you and I live, it gets harder to notice, to take time to consider, to reflect for meaning, and to question the purpose of our lives. For the world continues to move faster and the trajectory at speed affects the future for our children and theirs too.

Reading Jayber Crow awakened in me an awareness of the changes around me––just the changes I have witnessed––the brevity of my own life, and the choices I can make to resist the distractions faced by Everyman.

An unforgettable character, Jayber Crow tells a tender story about an ordinary life in this ever-changing world.

“Make of that what you will.”

[1] including C.S. Lewis, John Steinbeck, Mark Twain, Herman Melville, and too many others to list. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pilgrim’s_Progress

[2] Chicago Tribune