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Re: Dichotomous Thinking Unread postby amateurparent » 30 Mar 2016, 08:49 Dicots and Monocots started out as agronomy terms. A dicot is any plant that comes from a seed that has two halves .. Like a bean. Monocots are plants that come from a seed that does not split. Wheat is an excellent example. Church culture would like us all to be wheat plants -- they grow from a small wheat seed that never splits in half, they grow straight up, and have lots of side stems. They produce wheat just as expected. Wheat has been bred to have a shorter and thicker stem. Modern wheat varieties don't get knocked down as easily by poor weather, and more plant energy can go onto increasing wheat kernel size. Modern wheat is all about uniformity and easy harvesting. Bean seeds split in half, the plants don't grow straight, some climb and some bush out. There are lots of leaves and the pods are a little harder to find. A field of beans lacks the majestic uniformity of a wheat field. But .. Remember in the midst of your dicotomous thinking, that a single bean plant ends up producing much more than a single wheat plant. A uniform wheat field is majestic to look at from afar, but the beans will produce more more acre and their roots bind nitrogen which improves the soil. Planting beans will enrich the soil so that future wheat grows better. Monoculture planting practices -- when a field is just one type of plant -- makes harvesting really easy and makes it easy to find any plants that do not belong in the crop. Mixing plants within a field is healthier for the land and for the individual plants, it just makes harvesting very time consuming. We have all heard so many church analogies about wheat fields and none about beans. Remember that wheat fields fail after a few generations of monoculture unless heavily fertilized and cared for, or alternated with crops that improve the soil. All plants grew with sunlight, and water. They all grew heavenward, just like people. I always wanted to be a wheat plant out there with my peers, but I am a bean. I have no advance degrees in parenting. No national credentials. I am an amateur parent. I read, study, and learn all I can to be the best parent possible. Every time I think I have reached expert status with one child for one stage in their life, something changes and I am back to amateur status again. Now when I really mess up, I just apologize to my child, and explain that I am indeed an amateur .. I'm still learning how to do this right. amateurparent Posts: 774 Joined: 19 Jan 2014, 19:43