We are approaching the end of the Advent season, the birth of a child whom many of us see as the “light of the world”. I would like to devote these few words and thoughts to the importance of nurturing the light and health of the world we share, the importance of looking at our world and our responsibility to it with honesty and compassion.
Along the beautiful Monterey coastline----one of the loveliest parts of California---the
beach is gradually eroding---not entirely because of works of nature---and not necessarily just because of sea walls or dams upshore. No, the coast is eroding perhaps primarily because of years of sand-mining that, believe it or not, is apparently perfectly legal. Sand miners have combed through all the regulations—federal, state, the Army Corps of Engineers and even the Coastal Commission---and have figured out how to mine sand consistently and regularly for decades.
Seeing that their beaches are eroding, the people of Monterey are now buying sand to
restore their beaches. They have no alternative.
Unfortunately, this is not the only example of an egregious and unremitting assault upon our resources that is considered to be within legal boundaries. You might see this very assault on our near shores in many states, including of course, the paradise of Hawaii. What is scary about these encroachments upon our earth, upon the very substance of our earthly home, is that we seem not to notice until it is too late.
We spend our time castigating the engineers for building dams and seawalls---and, yes,
some of these projects do undermine soil structures, create hazards for fish and other
wildlife---but we tend to turn a blind eye towards the direct robbery of essential sand and gravel from our coasts through something as simple as sand-mining. The point is, we try so hard to point blame for ecological degradation at large human-made constructions, and fail to see the gradual loss of our resources through simple, thoughtless, and at some point possibly irreparable human activity.
We as a people and as individuals must become more aware of the fragility of our
environment and our profound responsibility to protect and defend it, just as we would
protect our home against robbers or our children from assault. That is what I want to talk about today----how we can and must carry the spiritual flame of justice for the earth, our first home.
Do you remember as a child playing with the sand at the seashore? Or feeling the soft moss on the rocks of a riverbed? Or even slipping on those rocks while you tried to cross over the stream? Gathering leaves or playing hide and seek among the trees in your park or around your neighborhood? Did you ever think about what treasures these were and that we could not take them for granted? We must remember, we are not guests of nature, but part of it. We are its children and its parents. We are part of nature just as we are part of what we may call God. To be whole we need to embrace the spiritual and physical cosmos---nature and the earth---all that we know and beyond, as our family, ourselves.
The folly of robbing the earth of its resources as if they were simply there for the taking---gifts provided to humankind as its due---is that we rob ourselves as well.
And we have been committing this folly since the beginning of civilization.
According to Islam tradition, it was not an apple that was the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, but wheat that was consumed by both Adam and Eve, who shared equally in the temptation and the proverbial “Fall from Grace”, and expulsion from paradise. Wheat! Today for ecologists, wheat might well represent the symbol of humanities Fall from Grace as we evolved from a nomadic, hunter-gatherer species to settlers of the earth.
Many trace the roots of civilization’s destruction of the earth to that moment when we
realized we could control the environment for our own ends. We could plant wheat, and corn, vegetables and fruit, and settle down with our families. The ensuing agricultural revolution and the conquest and control of the environment sustained unrestrained population growth which in turn fueled the need to conquer and control more corners of earth.
Today we may see this revolution as a global version of Manifest Destiny, in which our own nation continues to seek dominion over the earth for our own national interest. Was it perhaps truly “wheat” that was the original symbol of humankind’s downfall? And can we find our way back to Eden?
When former presidential contender Albert Gore came out with the film An Inconvenient Truth, in June, 2006, describing the terrifying aspects of global warming, we were already primed for its validity. We have seen the rise of sea level, the storms and weather changes that accompany the warming of the seas and the melting of icepacks on our polar continents. We have seen polar bears fighting to remain afloat amid the break up of vast tracts of ice. We have seen the impact of Katrina on New Orleans, the tsunamis in Indonesia, and wonder if our own manner of cultivating the earth, our increasing use of fossil fuels---in fact, all the elements which describe and inform our present day civilization and engineer its sustenance----might truly have this far reaching effect on global weather patterns. Did it all begin with Wheat? And where will it end?
There is no question but that our cultivation and milking of the earth requires better
stewardship. Our spewing of fossil fuel and chemical pollutants into the air has
contributed to disease, to cancers, to a diminished quality of life and perhaps the beginning of the end of life as we know it on this planet. It is time we looked again at our patterns of life and review the possibilities for change.
Quinn’s book, Ishamel, tells the story of a wise, philosophical gorilla named Ishmael who communicates telepathically and traces humanity's problems back to the agricultural revolution. Were we forewarned? Was our Old Testament story a warning to us even many thousand years ago that we had engineered our own Fall from Grace? Fire and angels are said to be at the doors, guarding Eden from reentry.
So here we are in the Twenty-first century, facing an ever-increasing population on earth, global warming to which we are at the very least contributing with our excessive use of earth’s resources and our unfortunate inability to curb sufficiently our polluting of our own home. We continue to rob the coastlines of sand, to mine the rivers and streams that empty into the ocean so as to build more concrete structures and roads that further encroach on our earthly home. We continue to purge the rainforests of vegetation that itself is a source of oxygen, medicine and the evolution of species as well as a protection against the erosion of our earth. And of course, we of the Western world continue to fuel our cars, drive our roads, and use an enormously disproportionate amount of the earth’s resources. You know the figures: 80% of the world’s resources are consumed by 2% of its people. That obviously cannot continue without even more severely impacting on the rest of the world.
Sadly, we decimate not only our own resources and pollute our own air to the detriment of the earth, but we continue to exploit what we call under-developed countries, who are really simply over-exploited countries, subject to our own imperialism.
We know all this and we are unhappy about it. I don’t need to lecture us all again on the facts and figures that show the enormous gaps between rich and poor in our country, our frightening infant mortality rate, 37th presently on the international scale, our lack of sufficient health care for the entire populace and our failure to integrate the children of immigrants, who have no home but the US, into our educational and employment systems so they have an equal chance with the rest of us to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
We just elected a US President to lead us through the next four years who is determined to expel immigrants and seems to turn a deaf ear and blind eyes to our global climate crisis. What’s the matter with us? Can we learn to do better?
Yes, I think we can and I think we are. I’m an optimist at heart. You may know the story
of the whale that was totally tied up in fishermen’s nets, another victim of our own failure to be sufficiently considerate of our wildlife. The end of the story is what reminds us of our ability to love and care for each other, and I mean all the animals in our lives. Someone saw the poor whale, caught up in nets and radioed for his friends to come help. They climbed on the whale with knives to cut the nets, until the whale was freed. He then dashed around in circles in the water, finally surfacing to come back to his rescuers. He nudged each one gently, as if to say “thank you”. And his eyes came to rest a long time on the man who had spent the most time cutting away at the ropes on his face so he would be freed. That particular rescuer of the whale said later, he would never forget that moment when his eyes met the whale’s.
Demeter, the mythological goddess of agriculture and the harvest, departs the earth every fall and winter to go into the underworld to seek her daughter who was raped by Hades, god of the underworld. And she brings back her daughter Persephone every spring and summer to regenerate the world. Just as we are capable of destruction and ecological carelessness, we are capable of creativity, of new birth, and of profound care for each other and for our wonderful world. What can we do? We can grow gardens of organic vegetables. We can drive our cars a little less and walk or bicycle a little more. We can take Muni, as I and many of my friends do. We can evaluate our lives and figure out where our carbon footprint might be a bit lighter. We can ask the government through our letters to our representatives and magazines and newspapers to stop predatory policies in Latin America, Africa, India. We can push for better protections for our children, especially in terms of education and health care.
Many of those we know disparage our incoming administration, but I see a new light
coming out of tons of detritus left by mistakes over the decades that have led us to our
current crises in our environment, health care and education, and the record of destruction our imperialism has caused globally. I see a new light, and I feel sometimes like holding my breath so it doesn’t go out. We don’t yet have universal healthcare, but we have taken steps in that direction, and our populace is aware for the first time in decades of how essential it is to all of us for there to be equity and justice for those who are less privileged. We still have industries trying to control what we eat and grow, but more and more communities have farmers markets featuring organic fruits and vegetables, cookbooks on how to cook traditionally and organically and community gardens. Detroit now has over 1,000 community gardens and a six block long market with 250 individual vendors selling organic or sustainably grown produce.
We still have wars, we continue to see people drowned trying to cross the Mediterranean---900 drowned during pandemic times. There is no excuse that this happens on our watch. So much needs to change.
Years ago, my late husband and I were on the Ganges and placed candles on leaves to float as a sign of hope. The light of justice and the light of peace is always there, waiting to be seen. I see a new light, and it is the light of the spirit, the light that we bring with us today to light the world.
We can all be the mother, Demeter, traveling to the underworld, into our own national
conscience to bring renewal and hope. We can all untie the whale and accept its gratitude. We can all become better aware of the limitations of our natural resources and place a lighter footprint on the world. We can all go down to the seashore and walk in the woods and take our children into the natural world of forests and lakes and streams and mountains so that we never forget the smells and sounds and beauty of our original mother earth. We can even stop the excessive sand-mining of our shores and riverbeds and prevent industries from spewing polluting metals and pharmaceuticals into our water systems. We can be better stewards ourselves of our own actions.
We can all do it. We have no choice. This is as much a part of our spiritual journey as anything else in our lives.
This is our journey, to walk lightly, to love the earth as we love each other, and to nurture its health and well-being. This is our journey, to support non-violent expression of people throughout the world asking for justice, to make sure the internet remains an open instrument for democracy and that the media are not silenced. And to allow the earth to regenerate itself in a world free of war. We can all be part of the light of justice and peace.
Grace Noll Crowell wrote:
A child looked up with his earnest eyes
“Where does the light of a candle go
When I blow it out?”
And not being wise
I could only answer, “I do not know”
“It was so little and bright” he said
“And now it’s so little and lost” And I
Turning and tucking him into bed
As puzzled as he, could not reply.
“So little and bright—so little and lost”
Over and over the brief words came
A moment ago a candle tossed
Here in this room its vital flame
Where is it now?
And where are we
When life is blown out by the casement wind?
Nothing is lost—it cannot be—
Our souls will be flames, released and thinned
Passing their swift way through the air
Climbing the chasms, cleaving the night
To be cupped by the hand of god somewhere”
Advent is a time of nurturing the light Our light, cupped by the hand of god so it will remain bright, is our destiny and lights our spiritual journey. If we pay attention to the world around us, our light can dispel ignorance and apathy and bring renewal, regeneration and hope. May we keep our light burning for the sake of peace and justice, for the health of our earth and for the soul of the world, our home.
Blessed be.