Seek first the Kingdom of God...
About Me
Twenty Five years ago, having just left the military, Unemployed Idealist embarked on an experiment. Instead of trading the hours of his life for money in hopes that at the end of the day (or week, or year, or career) a comfortable surplus would remain, he wanted to see if it was possible to do first what he believed was most important. In addition to a host of unexpected destinations, this experiment led him weekly to the county jail where, as a volunteer, he honed his skills as a storyteller, enlivening lessons of life and faith in the imaginations of his friends behind bars.
He and his sons built a home in the woods of Northern Minnesota up the hill, from his father’s cabin, where he and his wife are ready to welcome home any of their seven children, eight grandchildren, or dozens of auxiliary family members, who could make it in time for dinner.
Points of Interest
- Jeremy and Mary Davies were married in 1989. They have seven children (three who are married) and eight grandchildren.
- Since 2006 they have lived in their home which was designed and situated to make it possible for them to welcome many others to live with them. To call the number of people who have lived with them uncountable is not hyperbole, they honestly cannot recall how many have called their place home for some period of time.
- Jeremy and Mary chose to homeschool each of their children through 8th grade, before sending them to the local High school. They took extra care to make sure they were not keeping their kids home to protect them from the world, but to give them a solid foundation from which to launch into it. By developing the ability to focus attention and coupled with intentionally rewarding their interest in the world around them, they developed kids who could perform in whatever endeavor they chose. For two who chose higher education it revealed itself in acceptance and graduation from the Air Force Academy and Harvard.
- The belief that they were equipped to meet any challenge seems to have developed a sense of adventure in the Davies kids. Some of the more extreme challenges they have met are as follows:
- A son canoed solo from Minnesota to Louisiana on the Mississippi River
- A son hiked 2,100 miles on the Appalachian Trail
- A daughter hiked 2,300 miles on the Pacific Crest Trail
- A daughter lived and served in an orphanage in Honduras
- Three Children have fished commercially for salmon on a remote island in Alaska
- A son at 10 yrs of age began milking his own cow for the family
- A son worked on an organic fruit farm in Hawaii
- One son’s contract work has taken him to almost a dozen different countries
- Jeremy served in the U.S. Army as an Electronic Warfare Signals Intelligence Analyst and Russian, German, Serbian and Croatian linguist. He was stationed in Texas and Alaska and was deployed to Hungary in support of the American peace keeping mission in Bosnia.
- Three of Jeremy’s sons followed his steps into the military and progressed far beyond him. His oldest attended the Air Force academy and served as an officer in the Air Force. His second son served in the Ranger Regiment deploying to Afghanistan twice. His third son is currently serving in the Army Special Forces.
- Jeremy and his sons built their current home, beginning with the harvest of trees from the nearby woods, producing the needed lumber on his father’s saw mill, and continuing through all aspects of building, plumbing and electrical. (Unfortunately for his wife, not all aspects of finish carpentry. She is patiently waiting for the last pieces of trim to be installed.)
- Jeremy has used his carpentry experience to benefit many friends and neighbors including building two homes to benefit families with medical challenges.
- In addition to serving for several years as a traditional pastor for a very small rural congregation, and filling in at several churches in need of a pastor, Jeremy and his Father have met with the inmates of the local jail bi-weekly for twenty-five years. Many members of that flock have learned the lesson that incarceration hopes to teach and have gone on to better things. They occasionally meet them on the street and these former inmates are a huge encouragement, but week in and week out they meet those who can’t break free from their addictions and histories with a smile, a song and an encouraging story. (And on the third Thursday of the month Jeremy brings his clippers and offers them haircuts.)
- When he was discharged from the Army, Jeremy moved his family home in an old school bus. The challenge then was, “what do you do with an old school bus once you finish the move?” Jeremy began a series of incarnations of a children’s club in a village on the nearby reservation. A generation of kids still remember the big white bus coming to pick them up for music, stories, and sandwiches at some church. The involvement with youth continued long after the bus was parked.
- Maybe because he lacks the talent to be a valued performer, Jeremy has a passion for participatory music. He has brought people together to sing in a wide variety of venues, at local fire stations, on his bus, at town halls, in the jail, in hospital rooms, picnic shelters, and psychiatric facilities to name a few. He leads music with his father at his side accompanying on the guitar. When others are there to lead singing, he adds the harmonic, and when there are others to play the guitar, he enjoys accompanying the music on the hammered dulcimer.
- Through the influence of his oldest son, and with constant encouragement of his daughters Jeremy has discovered that dancing is a great tool in building confidence in young people. Each month he and Mary host an event where many young people join him swing dancing interspersed with a variety of called dances.
- When Jeremy began his ministry in the jail he found that stories were an effective way of encouraging the inmates. Giving people points to ponder, rather than packaged answers, seemed to increase the impact of the message he desired to bring. In the process he found a simple joy in telling a story to a live audience.
- The stories from the jail made it to paper one by one as people requested a copy of a particularly meaningful story to share with a friend or family member. Eventually, a set of anthologies, Lakeside Imagination vol. 1 and 2, seemed the best way to offer these stories to a wider audience.
- Maybe because his imagination is so active, Jeremy enjoys vivid dreams in which he is often involved as a participant in an action adventure movie. One morning after dreaming a particularly complex plot, he decided to explore whether writing it into a novel was worthwhile. Burnished Rows of Steel is that novel. Shortly after the book went into publication the publisher ran into legal problems which closed the business. In the short time the book was available Jeremy realized that he is not gifted or interested in marketing. But the trip through the writing and editing still remains a highlight for him.
- Jeremy’s first foray into play writing came through a similar path as his story anthology. He was asked by a friend involved in drama at a local school if any of his stories might be adapted to stage. “Ida’s Bars” is his first drama, which led to the full length play “It could have happened!” which he wrote and assisted with directing.
- It took two of his kids making an epic hike, a son hiking the Appalachian Trail and a daughter hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, before the world of long distance hiking hit the radar for Jeremy. As he began to dabble in longer hikes he discovered that one of his favorite ways to talk with people is while walking. When asked to provide counseling or guidance he makes a point of inviting people to join on a walk.
- The value he discovered in using the walk to help think through and discuss ideas, led Jeremy to create the Unemployedidealist podcast. Each episode takes the listener along on a physical journey while he attempts to mine his though
- As a part time homeschool family there is often a temptation to be overly critical of the school. To combat that temptation, Jeremy ran for local school board (his total campaign consisted of putting his name on the ballot and answering some questions from the newspaper) He won and served on the board of directors for one term.
- Due to an acute shortage of bus drivers, the way Jeremy felt most equipped to make a serious contribution to the district was by becoming a volunteer bus driver. He wanted to be that one extra driver available when the district really truly couldn’t find anyone to pay that day. Not a solution to the problem but one last resort before they had to start canceling routes and activities. He continues to drive occasionally and enjoys this way of meeting students from the school.
- Jeremy and his family live near a newly established Amish community. The Amish neighbors have provided an alternate source for many things as well as a friendship with a group that shares a very different world view. By making himself available as a friend rather than as a driver he has become a friend and a confidant of several Amish men who value his perspective and seek his input on the challenges they face.
- Even though he avoids marketing, Jeremy and Mary love brainstorming with their Amish friends about how to make small businesses and home products more marketable, helping the Amish maintain their way of life. One of the micro-successes involved teaching one Amish businessman how to extract a usable decoction from chaga mushrooms and helping him create a spreading market for it.
- Raising their seven children and welcoming many other young people to live with them forced Jeremy and his wife Mary to hone the parenting concepts they received primarily from Jeremy’s parents into a coherent curriculum which they have taught formally and informally to many families. They focus on helping kids practice good behaviors rather than enforcing a system of rules.
- As they have watched their children grow they have intentionally tried to encourage a form of courtship built on trusting their kids and building relationships with their potential spouses rather than finding fault and second guessing their children’s choices. Because of the desire to help other parents Jeremy has tried to turn this perspective into printable resources which he and Mary enjoy passing on to other young people.
- In addition to countless novel ideas and sequels to Burnished Rows of Steel which inhabit Jeremy’s head, emerging as a scribbled outline or an opening chapter, he has finished another book called Dysorganized Religion which is written as an encouragement for those who want to draw closer to God but find their distaste for organized religion blocking the path.
- In an effort to improve his marriage Jeremy developed a game called Candor which has helped his arguments with Mary to be far more productive. As an accomplished arguer he needed a way to remind himself that winning an argument doesn’t mean you have the best idea.
- Mary has done an excellent job of incorporating a wide spectrum of allopathic and homeopathic strategies to manage the families health. Networking with other families who are open to using alternative methods, they have often uncovered a tendency to approach health somewhat haphazardly. The Heritage Family Health Journal is being designed to help train families to be more intentional and disciplined about their health care regardless of what approach they choose.
- Jeremy loves fishing. A perfect Saturday might be taking a boat full (hopefully including a few grand-kids) to catch fish on a nearby lake. Returning home he would use his special technique to turn the day’s catch into a bowl full of boneless filets, which Mary would prepare while Jeremy visited the neighbors inviting them for a fish fry.
- The family members have a few varieties of mushrooms that they can confidently identify. A family walk searching for morel mushrooms is a favorite way of welcoming spring.
- Rather than describing their life in terms of faith Jeremy and Mary describe it in terms of an experiment. Any truth, biblical or otherwise, must be put to the test, and the value of that testing is not measured in how dogmatically you state it, but in how you can use it to launch into the next experiment.
- The experiment suggested by Matt 6:33 (Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.) has continued for the last 25 years and doesn’t seem to be drawing to an end.