Tending the Garden Episode 6 – “Formation Is Inevitable”

In this episode, the AI hosts begin Part II of J. Daniel Alejos’ Tending the Garden — moving from the question of what morality is to how it actually forms us. Chapter Five, Formation Is Inevitable, reveals one of Alejos’ most urgent insights: formation isn’t something we choose to do; it’s something always happening to us.

The hosts unpack this sobering idea — that every person is constantly being shaped by their environment, habits, and stories, whether or not they’re paying attention. Using Alejos’ analogy of a garden left untended, they explain that the soul, like soil, never stays neutral; if we don’t tend it, it becomes overgrown and malformed. The conversation dismantles the illusion of moral autonomy, replacing it with Alejos’ challenge: if you’re not actively shaping your formation, someone else already is.

The discussion explores the three major tools of moral formation — culture, habit, and story — and how they quietly train our instincts, reflexes, and sense of meaning. Culture teaches what’s celebrated or condemned; habit sets our automatic responses; story tells us what life is for. Together, they explain why good beliefs often crumble under pressure: belief defines your ideals, but formation defines your defaults.

The episode closes with a warning and an invitation: drift isn’t safety, it’s surrender. Formation will happen — the only question is what’s forming you. With that, the hosts prepare to explore the next chapter: the Praxial Modalities, the four primary ways formation takes shape.