Questions of Equity

“You will never understand violence and nonviolence until you understand the violence to the spirit that happens from watching your children die of malnutrition.” ~ a Salvadoran peasant*

This is a rather sobering way to begin a discussion on equity, but an important reminder about the global nature of this topic. As children we are brought up striving for fairness, for equity. Most children understand this topic quite well, and are often the first to point out how unjust a situation is. In growing up, somewhere along the line, we start tampering with this inner guide. Perhaps it is as Matthew Fox has commented that there is no place for the Child or the Mystic or the Elderly in the machine of the modern industrial complex. Perhaps this is so, perhaps this is so.

Yet the prophets of the Judeo-Christian tradition constantly remind us to care for the poor, the widowed, the orphaned, and the sojourner. Jesus reminds us to seek first the Kingdom of God, where justice and compassion kiss (as the psalmist says). Where we live in right relationship with one another. The Wesleys, and others, remind us that it is not enough to seek out personal salvation, but that our very salvation depends upon the salvation of society. The Kingdom come on Earth as in Heaven. That works and faith go hand in hand. Liberation theologians remind us, God has a preferential treatment for the poor and the oppressed.

But what does equality look like? Cannot we just raise everyone’s standard of living to our own? How much a say do the “voiceless” of nature: the waterways, the sky, the land have a say? And what about those with voice, but not our own: the birds of the air, the fish of the sea, and the creatures of the land? Do we really take seriously that the Earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof?

These next few blogs of the next week or so will be looking at these very questions. At the same time, I want to point out that while my family and I are striving to move into a more sustainable lifestyle, we ourselves are nowhere near where we want to be. I do not submit the following and upcoming blogs from a perspective of expertise, but rather as a starter for conversation around these important issues.

To start, here are some ethical questions Jim Merkel and James Huskins posit, followed by a litany from the United Methodist Hymnal.

Jim Merkel presents some ethical questions for us to ponder:

• Could Earth support all the world’s population at my standard of living?
• Do other species or people suffer because of my lifestyle?
• Do good things come from each dollar I spend?
• Do other species have inherent value?
• Should my race, gender, strength, taxonomy, education, or birthplace allow me to consume more than others?
• Are wars being fought over resources that I use?
• Do I support corporations or industries that damage the environment or exploit workers in sweatshops?
• Is my lifestyle in alignment with my own values?**

James Huskins writes about the questions he ponders when picking out tools, whether they be a hammer or a computer:

For most of that time my guiding principle has been whether these tools are “appropriate.” Appropriateness means more than whether a tool is well made, well suited to the job at hand, not likely to break down in use, and has a long life expectancy, although all these factors are port of the equation.
Also involved are questions such as: Does the manufacture and/or use of this tool seriously degrade the environment? Does owning this tool make me more or less dependent on corporations whose scruples are as readily for sale as their products? Does the use of this tool enhance my ability to think well and my capacity to provide for basic needs? Is the tool obscenely expensive to purchase and/or use? Will the kingdom of God be any closer to existing on earth as it is in heaven if I have this tool?***

And from the United Methodist Hymnal’s collection of Affirmations of Faith (this can be read responsively, one group/person in the lighter text, the other in the italicized/bold faced text):

We believe in God, creator of the world and of all people;
and in Jesus Christ, incarnate among us,
   who died and rose again;
and in the Holy Spirit,
   present with us to guide, strengthen, and comfort.
We believe;
God, help our unbelief.
We rejoice in every sign of God’s kingdom:
   in the upholding of human dignity and community;
   in every expression of love, justice, and reconciliation;
   in each act of self-giving on behalf of others;
   in the abundance of God’s gifts entrusted to us that all may have enough;
   in all responsible use of the earth’s resources.
Glory be to God on high;
and on earth, peace.
We confess our sin, individual and collective,
   by silence or action:
      through the violation of human dignity
         based on race, class, sex, nation, or faith;
      through the exploitation of people
         because of greed and indifference;
      through the misuse of power
         in personal, communal, national and international life;
      through the search for security
         by those military and economic forces that threaten human existence;
      through the abuse of technology
         which endangers the earth and all life upon it.
Lord, have mercy;
Christ, have mercy;
Lord, have mercy.
We commit ourselves individually and as a community
   to the way of Christ:
   to take up the cross;
   to seek abundant life for all humanity;
   to struggle for peace with justice and freedom;
   to risk ourselves in faith, hope, and love,
      praying that God’s kingdom may come.
Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.****

______________

*World Bank. 2000 World Development Indicators CD-ROM. Washington DC: World Bank, 2000.
** Jim Merkel. Radical Simplicity: small footprints on a finite Earth. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers, 2003. 53–4 .
*** James Huskins. “Mix and Match.” The Plain Reader: Essays on Making a Simple Life. Scott Savage, Ed. New York: Ballantine Publishing Group, 1998. 120–123. 120–1.
****The United Methodist Hymnal. Nashville: United Methodist Publishing House, 1989. 886.

Perspective & Prophets

Prophets often give insights on the way things are in “society” due to their position of life, and experiences from a place, or time spent, on the margins. The view from the margins provides a different perspective upon what is going on in “center stage.” Good art does this. But I also suspect that most of us have had experiences of a changed perspective.

I, myself, have experienced this after a long vacation. Upon returning, after truly relaxing, I wondered why I was so anxious about a certain project, or internal politics. In essence, what had seemed of the utmost importance before my leaving, didn’t seem all that important in the grand scheme of things upon returning. Perhaps you have similar experiences.

My question arises, how does society as a whole (not to mention certain sub-groupings) listen to these perspectives and make the changes that are called for?

As I was re-reading Bernard Moitessier’s The Long Way,* I was reminded that prophets come in all shapes and sizes. But before quoting what Moitessier has to say, maybe it is worthwhile for those of you not familiar with him, to give some perspective.

Moitessier left Plymouth, England August 22, 1968 to sail around the world non-stop by the three great capes (Good Hope, Leeuwin and Horn). In his memoirs, Tamata and the Alliance, he writes that his was an attempt to regain the Alliance he felt with the gods, an alliance he had had ever sense growing up in Indochina. Nonetheless, he felt he had lost this alliance by his own actions while living in France. Along the voyage, he is transformed. After rounding Cape Horn he feels he must decide weather to continue on into the Pacific (re-passing the Cape of Good Hope and Leeuwin) or return to England, and finish the Golden Globe race in which he was participating. By the way, unknown to him at the time, the press was predicting that he would win on both the fastest time, and the first to return.

Moitessier writes:

I have set course for the Pacific again…last night was too hard to take, I really felt sick at the thought of getting back to Europe, back to the snakepit. … does it make sense to head for a place knowing you will have to leave your peace behind? …
I am really fed up with false gods, always lying in wait, spider-like, eating our your liver, sucking our marrow. I charge the modern world-that’s the Monster. It is destroying our earth, and trampling the soul of men.
‘Yet it is thanks to the modern world that you have a good boat with winches, Tergal sails, and a solid metal hull that doesn’t give you any worries.’
‘That’s true, but it is because of the modern world, because of its so-called “civilization” and its so-called “progress” that I take off with my beautiful boat.’
‘Well, you’re free to split, no one is stopping you; everyone is free here, so long as it doesn’t interfere with others.’
‘Free for the moment…but before long no one will be free if things go on. They have already become inhuman. So there are those who go to sea or hit the road to seek the lost truth. And those who can’t, or won’t anymore, who have lost even hope. “Western civilization” is almost completely technocratic now, it isn’t a civilization any more.’
‘If we listened to people like you, more or less vagabonds and barefoot tramps, we would not have got beyond the bicycle.’
‘That’s just it; we would ride bikes in the cities, there wouldn’t be those thousands of cars with hard, closed people all alone in them, we would see youngsters arm in arm, hear laughter and singing, see nice things in people’s faces; joy and love would be reborn everywhere, birds would return to the few trees left in our streets and we would replant the trees the Monster killed. Then we would feel real shadows and real colours and real sounds; our cities would get their souls back, and people too.’

And I know all that is no dream, everything beautiful and good that men have done they built with their dreams…but back there, the Monster has taken over for men, it dreams in our place. It would have us believe that man is the centre of the universe, that all rights are his on the pretense that he invented the steam engine and lots of other machines, and that he will someday reach the stars if he just hurries a little before the next bomb.
Nothing to worry about there, our hurrying suits the Monster just fine…he helps us hurry…time is short…hardly any time left…
‘Run! Run!… don’t stop to think, whatever you do; I the Monster am doing the thinking…run toward the destiny I have planned for you…run without stopping to the end of the road where I have put the Bomb or the complete degradation of humanity…we’re almost there, run with your eyes closed, it’s easier, shout all together Justice-Patriotism-Progress-Intelligence-Dignity-Civilization…What, you aren’t running…you’re sailing around on your boat, just to think!…and you dare complain into your tape recorder…saying what you have in your heart…just wait, you poor fool, I’m going to shoot you down in flames…guys who get angry and speak out are very dangerous to me, I have to shut them up…if too many of them started getting angry, I wouldn’t be able to drive the human cattle as I please, their eyes and ears blocked by Pride, Stupidity and Cowardice…and I’m in a hurry to get them, bleating and satisfied, where I want them to go…

The violent things rumbling within me vanished in the night. I look to the sea, and it answers that I escaped a great danger. I do not want to believe in miracles too much…yet there are miracles in life.*

And so Moitessier continues on his way toward the Capes of Good Hope, and Leeuwin before re-entering the Pacific and anchoring off the quay at Tahiti. As he re-rounds Good Hope (for the second time), he shoots a message inside a tin film can with his sling-shot: “I am continuing non-stop towards the Pacific Islands because I am happy at sea, and perhaps also to save my soul.” He later regrets the “perhaps,” for to save his soul is the true reason he continues onward.

And we, our western civilization, continue to run at the command of the Monster.

* Bernard Moitessier. The Long Way. (William Rodarmor, trans. (1971, 1986 Editions Arthaud, translation copyright, 1973) Sheridan House, 1995 edition, 163-165.

Victory Gardens & Knowing How to Grow Your Own Food

The articles in Sunday’s paper (see my comments and links under the title “Sustainability on Lummi Island”) have got me thinking and remembering. Paben quotes University of California, Berkeley professor Michael Pollan: “Dwindling oil means the era of cheap and abundant food is ending, wrote food policy expert and University of California, Berkeley professor Michael Pollan to President-elect Barack Obama in The New York Times Magazine in October. It will no longer make financial sense to catch salmon in Alaska, ship it to China to be filleted and send it back to California to be eaten, he wrote.
“To some degree, what he’s calling for has been done before. Eleanor Roosevelt during World War II launched the Victory Garden movement, wherein residents planted home gardens to help feed the nation. By the end of the war, 20 million home gardens were producing 40 percent of the produce consumed in the country, Pollan wrote” (Paben, Jered. “Country leans toward life off grid.” Bellingham Herald, 4 Jan 2-2009, A1)
In a following article, Paben quotes a Lummi Island resident Laura Plaut, owner of Common Threads Farm, explaining why she became interested in farming with a lower case “F.” By the way, Common Threads Farm is completely off the grid, and relies 100 percent on solar energy – in the gray and wet western Washington. “Years ago, [Plaut] had an awakening, realizing she was highly educated but didn’t know how to feed herself. She wants her son, Riley DeWeese, 5, to grow up with those skills.
“’I like that my food travels about 20 feet from seed to the table,’ she said” (Paben, Jered. “Lummi Islanders grow in self-sustainability.” Bellingham Herald, 4 Jan 2-2009, A3).
Prior to our moving onto our sailboat, we lived in the small town of Garfield, WA. Our older neighbors down the lane from us cooperated in growing a garden. In fact, most people grew gardens. There were always plenty of vegetables to share with neighbors and friends. Enough zucchini, in fact, that it was generally only during zucchini season that people locked their cars, to keep out the zucchini – as they, themselves, had plenty at home. Gardening makes an enormous amount of sense for a land-based sustainable life-style. If memory serves, it was Wendell Berry who figured a 40 foot by 40 foot garden could feed a family of four without any waste, as the left-over gardening, went back into the garden in the form of compost, or what not.
But this also brings to mind another story that I think is worth keeping in the backs of our minds, especially during times of economic hardships. Some friends of mine got into the chicken and egg business back in the 1980s. Some folks at the WSU Extension were aware of this, and asked if they would be willing to work with a University student from Africa who was interested in learning about chickens. They were delighted to do so. The story finally came out, that as a child this African student had watched his fellow citizens leaving a major city in despair. When the colonial power pulled out of the now independent country, there was a period of turmoil, the result being that some of the infrastructure collapsed. Part of the infrastructure that collapsed was the food supply. These people walking down the road past our young friend, did not know how to feed themselves, or even how to get water out of the near by creek. Our friend promised his parents and extended family that as he was getting a college education, he would also become educated in keeping chickens. Knowing how to care for chickens would be the tool to allow himself to care for his family.

With roughly only two weeks of food in the United States food supply lines on any given day, this is really worth thinking through.

Sustainability on Lummi Island

Lummi Island is roughly nine-square miles with 800 homes, one grocery store, no gas station, and an aging county-owned ferry. By nature, the geography forces people to think about sustainability and self-reliance. The past Sunday (January 4, 2009) the Bellingham Herald ran two articles about sustainability (See Jared Paben, “County leans toward life off grid: Residents aim to produce own food, power” and “Lummi Islanders grow in self-sustainability: Geography is big driver of independence” on A1 and A3 respectively – link below). In particular Paben mentions the use of solar electricity and the desire for wind generators. Paben also talks about gardening or small scale farming, in terms of produce. Paben also includes a list of resource links. Check it out.

TheBellinghamHerald.com
Resources:
Sustainable Connections: sustainableconnections.org
Washington State University Extension: Whatcom.wsu.edu
Common Threads Farm: commonthreadsfarm.org
Growing Washington: growingwashington.org
Puget Sound Energy: pse.com/energyenviornment
Whatcom County/Bellingham Energy Task Force: cob.org/government/public/boards-commissions

Sleep Through the Static: Jack Johnson CD

For Christmas this year my brother gave me Jack Johnson’s CD “Sleep Through the Static” which was created 100 percent from solar electricity.
Living on a boat, I am well aware of the energy demands to keep our simple systems operational. In fact, when out cruising, our goal is to remain completely self-sufficient. This past summer, we still depended upon the water system of the Islands to bring water aboard. Our butane stove still uses fuel that we ourselves are not producing. We are eating food someone else has gathered and grown. Yet we strive to live into a more sustainable life-style through leaving the smallest wake possible.
I applaud Jack Johnson not only for the music on his latest CD, but also for using solar power in the production of it. It is all of us taking steps that make a difference in the world around us.
How are you striving to leave a smaller wake?

Epiphany

Happy Epiphany, everyone. Here are some worship resources I have used in the past for you to use, no matter where Epiphany might find you this year.
Blessings.

The visit of the Magi can be found in the Gospel according to Matthew 2:1-12 (finish the chapter if you want to continue to reflect upon Joseph & the family).

The following is adapted from Peter Scaganelli’s Prayers: Year B, The Epiphany of the Lord:

By the light of a star, O God of the universe, you guided the nations to the Light of the world; in a prophet’s words you revealed the mystery of the Messiah’s coming; through the Magi’s gifts you unfolded the richness of the Savior’s mission. Scatter again the darkness that covers the earth and divides the peoples. Make our hearts thrill anew to see the multitudes carried as sons and daughters in your arms. In Christ and through Christ’s gospel draw the ends of the earth into your family, that disparate cultures and warring nations may be gathered together as one. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, God with us. Amen.

Prayers of the People Lord’s Prayer
We interceded for our needs and those of all nations, upon whom the glory of You, O God, has shone through Christ.
As we pray FOR THE CHURCH where ever it is in the world
For Your holy church, that its light may beckon a rich diversity of peoples to come and be heirs with us, members of the one body of Christ.

And we remember THE WORLD
For nations covered by the clouds of ethnic and racial hatred, that in this new year their hearts may rejoice at the dawn of peace and the flourishing of righteousness.

We pray also FOR THOSE OPPRESSED, AFFLICTED OR IN NEED
For children abused or neglected, and parents in difficulty and danger, that the Christian community may offer gifts of care and advocacy, intervention and support.

We hold THE NEEDS OF THE LOCAL COMMUNITY close to our hearts, O God, so we pray:
For all who earnestly seek the face of You, O God, that this community’s faith, hope and love guide them to the revelation of Your grace.

Finally, Lord God, we pray for ourselves, THE CHRISTIAN ASSEMBLY
For this assembly, that we may faithfully offer You, O Christ, the gold of a living faith, the incense of our worship and the myrrh of compassion for others.

INTRODUCTION TO THE LORD’S PRAYER:
Because in Christ we have received the Spirit of adoption, as sons and daughters of God we dare to pray: OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN . . .

INVITATION TO HOLY COMMUNION:
Behold the true Light of the World, the Beloved of God, anointed by the Spirit.
Blessed are those who are called to the banquet of the Lamb.

DISMISSAL
Enlightened by Christ and anointed by the Spirit, go now in peace to love and serve the Lord.

Impressions from the Woodland Park Zoo

These reflections come from this past week's visit to the Seattle area with our kids' grandparents.

Quietness or the lack thereof ...

Two instances involving children occurred while our family has been at the motel and visiting the zoo. The first is a comment our son made last night, “I just can’t get to sleep with all the noise.” I-5 is roughly a block away, and I might add that the entire time we have been here I have not seen a lull in the traffic. The second incident occurred at the zoo while we were looking at the day and night animal exhibit. Both of these exhibits ask for the visitors to please be quiet as the animals are quite sensitive to the noise. The night exhibit includes multiple signs and information about the necessity for silence. Yet, my wife and I found ourselves reminding other groups of children to please be quiet and move slowly if they wished to see the animals. One young man even commented, “I am being quiet.” He then turned and called out to his pals in a boisterous voice to wait for him.
We humans seem to be losing our ability to comprehend the world around us through all the static or human-created “white” noise in the background. We seem to be passing this on to our children. Part of leaving a minimum wake (impact upon our environment) is directly proportional to our ability to observe the world around us. How much is part of our ability to observe the world around us proportional to being quiet enough to observe?

Pacing of Animals & Lack of Habitat for them to return too

Having a Labrador Retriever as a member of the pack (family to us) we have come to recognize certain dog behaviors, and to interpret them. We may not know what is going on in his Labrador Retriever mind, but we can tell if he is anxious, relaxed, playful or trying to hide his pain.

When we were at the zoo, we observed the “Painted Wolf” (or African Wild-dog) exhibit. The information shared that the African Wild-dog is more like a wolf than a feral dog. Their habitat continues to shrink. They are being poisoned to protect livestock, etc. The three male wild-dogs in the exhibit had room, and yet they paced and paced and paced. There is no way a pack used to running on thousands of acres is going to be used to even an acre exhibit, let alone one that needs to fit within a zoo in a major metropolitan area.
In all, I was impressed at what the Woodland Park Zoo is doing and is trying to do. Some of their animals are extinct now in the wild, often due to human environmental change, and/or destruction. Many of the animals have no environment in which to return. Yet I also left feeling sad at other creatures’ captivity.