"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in where nature may heal and cheer and give strength to the body and soul."
My dog and I took a walk on this brisk, windy spring day. I've been thinking about John Muir lately. I'm currently reading a decent biography of the man. What the biography doesn't fully address is just how good his writing was (even though he only had a few years of school). And how revolutionary his ideas were.
If there is one gripe I have with this culture's dominant religion, it would be that it puts humans as the crown of God's creation. This belief has led to turning forests into "board feet" and mountains into commodities. Strip malls, mountain top removal and suburbs are a direct consequence of this religious belief. Capitalism combined with a Humans First! mentality has led to a new human imposed Great Extinction.
It doesn't have to be this way.
If we are ever to reverse such a perverse notion (Humans First!) as that, it will be because thinkers like John Muir led the way. My hope is that there will come a paradigm shift (and soon!) which will help us undo much of the damage that has been caused by our economic and religious systems.
Thoughts on a walk.
Tomorrow I rise early and head back to the Napa Valley for a week of work....
4 comments:
No, it doesn't have to be this way. Even for Christians. If you recall the Creation story (and it is a STORY, a kind of moral fable, not history) Adam (whose name means "of the Earth") was asked to NAME all the other creatures. To call something by name is to change an object from IT to THOU. So, read correctly, this story tells us we are to live in relationship with all creation, to tend it and care for it as careful stewards. The Incarnation story reinforces this idea. God loved the physical world so much that He became one of its creatures. Thus, there is nothing on earth that is not beloved of God. God breathes the ant into being as much as He does the human. Some of us Christians try to live as if we believed this.
Nice response. Hints of Martin Buber's "I and Thou". And oh so true. Thanks for the response!
But remember, Mathew Fox payed a horrible price by the church for his Creation Spirituality. I would say that Woodswalker (as delightful as you are!--you are in the minority. But thank God you are out there walking in the woods...
Alas, Allan, what you say is true: Mystics are always misunderstood and feared, and definitely in the minority. The notion that God is not safely tucked away in some far-off heaven but living and breathing among us - within us! - at every moment, is just too terrifying for most folks to contemplate. I'll bet Martin Buber's rabbi thought he was some kind of weirdo. Even that great mystic Teresa of Avila was hounded by the Inquisition. She eventually was named one of the greatest teachers of the faith. Centuries later. But still, most folks have never heard of her. Nor of Martin Buber. Nor of Matthew Fox. Most Christians sure don't get Jesus, either.
Woodswalker...
Thanks for that. Have you ever noticed that Jesus walked every where he went? The only exception being is his great parody (and political protest against Pilate) entering Jerusalem on a donkey. I'm thinking there is something in walking that leads to such mystical and egalitarian ideas...
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