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The Chaplin River. Washington Co., KY.
(*photo credit) September 1, 2010 Sacred
Water: Worthy of Respect
Astoundingly,
virtually every culture regards water with the deepest respect -- whether at
times when scarce or too overly plentiful, whether when standing or flowing,
whether in the form of rain or snow. Respect emerges from our dependence on
water for life, for without it we cannot survive and with too much we can
drown. We realize this connection with water early in life. Thus we are
attracted to water and yet retain a certain fear that we cannot cope with its
uncertain quantity and quality.
For
Catholics, "holy water" is of special importance. We bless ourselves on
entering the church; we sprinkle this special water on virtually all created
things to which we give a blessing. Holy water signifies our respect for God,
the Creator of all living things. Through baptismal water we are washed clean
and thus we are reminded over and over of who we are in the Lord. The blessing
and use of holy water allows us to recall many instances of water within
salvation history: the creator's breath on the waters making them the well
spring of all holiness; the Great Flood as a sign of promise of protection; the
exodus to freedom through the Red Sea; the baptism of Christ at the Jordan
River; and the flow of blood and water from the side of Jesus on the Cross.
Water
enters into the religious action of many cultures. Muslims consider water
purification as needed before entering into the prayer area of the mosque.
Hindus give special attention to the sacred nature of the Ganges River, and many
want to be cremated on that river's banks and the ashes scattered in its moving
waters. Celts have regarded the springs of water as being special sacred
places, and later cathedrals were built on such sites (e.g., Chartres).
Primitive peoples in virtually every part of the world had sacred water places
and events as part of their ceremonial rituals and highpoints.
Respect
for water does not give it divine character but rather shows its transparency
and is a sacramental sign of the God who is near to and has become one with us.
Why not celebrate the life-giving nature of water, of which we are largely
composed? Our planet is covered with water; we recognize its essential need at
all times, for literally we must have a supply of it at hand. Water refreshes
us, washes us, cools us, and soothes us. Sight, sound, taste, smell and feeling
involve water. We may not smell distant water but some animals do.
If
we exist in an arena of water-related life, then we must respect water by
protecting sources of fresh water, purifying contaminated water, providing water
to those most in need, and finding new ways of conserving the precious water at
our disposal.
Prayer:
God, you water our lives and your spirit moved on the first vast water; make us
all the more aware of how precious this gift is for us and that it is part of
our commons.
White-footed mouse, Peromyscus leucopus, on the move.
(*photo credit)
September 2, 2010 Consider
Travel Checklists
Why
the formality of a checklist for any major event or a travel venture? The
reason is simple: the vast majority of us are forgetful when it comes to a host
of details. In fact, we probably shun people who go into too much detail about
little things because we prejudge that they never think deeply on important
issues. We might ask ourselves why we should consider a checklist after much
spring and summer travel? One answer now is that we can easily recall the items
missed and those that went unused when we traveled earlier this year. Did we
recall upon return the items we had lugged along and then never used? Did we
check upon leaving each place so we didn't leave something? Did we appreciate
the lists we did make and how often these came in handy?
A
method for constructing the checklist may help. It may be by alphabetical
order though that is challenging to construct. A more practical approach is
grouping items according to the containers to be used, namely a box for food, an
area for camping gear, a suitcase for clothes, a fanny pack for emergencies, and
a briefcase for valuables.
Services
to be performed need a listing as well: care for pets, mail or garden;
selection of electronic devices to take or turn off; bills to pay while away;
phone and other lists to carry; and people to contact before leaving; and
financial arrangements.
Emergencies
do happen and should be considered. Make a list of things that can be read or
worked on while stalled or stranded on a trip. The first consideration is that
unexpected waits are always good times to pray; they are also periods to think,
reflect, plan and sketch out future routes to travel. Make sure a writing
instrument and paper are handy. Consider all that might be packed into a fanny
pack: underwear, socks, handkerchief, small amounts of soap, shampoo and
toothpaste, toothbrush, comb, pen, notebook and other essentials such as
medicine (and passport if not worn on a chain). One friend whom I told about my
pack was stranded for a week at an airport on 9-11-01; he expressed deep regret
for not having had one with him.
Time
for constructing the list is crucial, but may be shortened by using a former
list from the files. System comes into our lives ever so gradually. A
checklist keeps down overpacking, and ought to reflect past experience of over
or sometimes underpacking. Remember that unnecessary added weight reduces the
comfort of the travel and is an energy and space waste (one pound of additional
items is one ton-mile on a two-thousand- mile trip).
Retain
the checklist for future ventures.
Prayer:
Lord, help us to confront our own forgetfulness and to prepare for it in advance
by constructing checklists, especially when we are traveling to unfamiliar
places.
Butterfly milkweed, Asclepias tuberosa.
(*photo credit)
September 3, 2010
Champion the Intellectual Commons
Here,
as a new academic year sets in, is a good time to consider the intellectual
treasury of this world and how those who advance frontiers are to be protected
and encouraged. Mental achievements are part of our common human heritage and
should be available to all and passed on easily to the next generation.
Research ought to be fostered and intellectual treasures ought to be extended to
others through a free flow of information.
Intellectual
research needs to be honored and respected. The scientific revolution
opened knowledge to critical review and verification. Copyrights and patents
provide compensation to the originators and authors and yet allow materials to
be accessible to some degree. The delicate balance between fair return for
expenses and time and adequate recognition of work on the one hand, and delivery
of the work to the general public beyond the wall of trade secrecy must be
maintained. Restrictions on access to the intellectual commons access include:
lack of access to research records, limited library use, lack of freedom of
information through trade or governmental secrecy, Internet restrictions, and
bans on specific research.
Copyright
extension is an infringement on the common intellectual stock and a
sequestering of created material from the public domain over a longer period of
time. Copyrights have expanded from fourteen years with fourteen-year renewals
in the 1790s to copyrights through the author's life plus fifty years in 1976.
Furthermore the Sonny Bono Act in 1998 extended the life of the copyright
another twenty years -- and in 2003 the Supreme Court ruled that this expanded
duration does not violate our American Constitution. Due to this act, in 2030,
the number of works in the public domain will be reduced from 25 million at the
turn of the century to 10 million.
Intellectual
transmission is another problem area because of inadequate education. Basic
education and especially reading and writing skills are denied large portions of
the general global population through lack of resources, inadequate teachers,
poor facilities or the danger for some, especially of young women attending
school. Accessibility is often the problem. Indebted nations and regions cut
educational funds in an effort to meet ends. High costs of education are
curtailing the ambitions of lower income people even in developed countries. In
developing lands such as sub-Saharan Africa, twelve million young people are
orphans due to parents dying from AIDS.
We know that educational
access to the intellectual "commons" occurs: through public and private
institutions; the transfer of appropriate technology; adequate health care
facilities; and motivation on the part of many to share resources that they
value. However, a gulf exists between the possible and actual.
Prayer: Lord, help us
to expand the intellectual commons.
Pawpaws (Asimina triloba) in Kentucky.
(*photo credit)
September 4, 2010 Halt
Overconsumption by the Affluent
Voluntary reductions in consumption
patterns by the affluent and those aspiring to be (such as the emerging Chinese
and Indian middle and upper classes) cannot be expected. It is wrong to focus
attention on free-market economics AND free choice. Those who refrain from
challenging the current dysfunctional economic system pretend to be
constructively critical by calling for voluntary changes. Hogwash! Rather, are
they not too timid to admit that their silence favors the status quo and allows
it to continue unchallenged.
A
consumer-products-subsidized public media can hardly start the critically-needed
discernment; this media knows the feeding hand and so it seeks a goal of
greater consumption of goods of all sorts. And who is best able to consume but
those wealthy enough to buy? Essential "consumption" (satisfying the hungry and
those lacking adequate housing) is NOT the problem; over-consumption by a
rapidly expanding affluent generation is -- and the world is simply not capable
of satisfying their wants. The problem is exacerbated by an insatiable appetite
for materials by those who are privileged to control resources and are free to
consume them. Unfortunately, there is a void in the political spectrum of
groups calling for MORE consumption for the disadvantaged and LESS consumption,
through regulation and taxes, for the affluent. How would lovers of comfort say
much at all? Earlier this year, a BBC commentator asked why should not BP (when
Louisiana fishers were being economically wiped out by profitable BP oil)) give
its billions of dollars in quarterly dividends to stockholders. Brokenness is
an acceptance of this type of reasoning.
The practice of
overconsumption by affluent consumers spreads globally as an epidemic,
threatening the lives of people, requiring immense amounts of resources, the
processing of which emits more and more carbon dioxide and other air and water
pollutants as well. Amid the hype, the world is expanding climate change
emissions. Despite all the green talk, for the last five years the U.S. is
leading the world in areas that have been deforested. An unchecked license for
affluence will make or break this planet, for unregulated consumer economics is
unsustainable even with the recent recession-based blip in an onward march of
consumption.
The
problem of overconsumption (from forest products to use of grain for fuels) must
be exposed especially through the relatively free portion of the Internet -- the
advertisement-bound media will not do it. We must show that alternatives for a
higher quality of life are more beneficial and that examples of balanced
consumption exist today. Warn others what overconsumption does to people,
communities and the planet herself; try to find ways to frustrate
overconsumption practices through regulation, abolition of tax havens and fair
taxes on the affluent.
Prayer:
Lord, encourage us to take up the unpopular fight of redistributing limited
resources to a world in need.
Sweet joe pye weed, Eupatoriadelphus purpureus.
(*photo credit)
September 5, 2010 Wise Use
of Possessions and Discipleship
And
scarce do we guess the things on earth, and what is within our grasp we find
with difficulty. (Wisdom 9:16)
Discipleship is truly a
calling, which some are unwilling to hear. However, Christians are called
through their baptism/ confirmation; we know that this call to faithful
discipleship can be difficult and challenging at times. Making wise decisions
in answer to the call comes in fits and starts and is seldom achieved perfectly
even at the end of our mortal life. Change is often gradual. We ignore time
required to reflect; we neglect wise advice to avoid excessive possessions; we
fail to discuss such important matters with others. The foolish person, upon
hearing he has one year to live, may if financially able, acquire a plane, a
boat, and a fast car. A wise person places his house in order with a sense of
gratitude to God for each additional day.
The shortest of the
Scriptures is the Letter to Philemon. Paul sends the slave (Onesimus)
back to Philemon as required by Roman property law, while entreating Philemon to
free the slave and return him to Paul. Onesimus had fled his master and turned
to Paul, becoming a follower of Christ and a valuable assistant requesting his
own freedom. Paul faces the slave master directly. Should not all people be
free? How could we Americans have ever considered black slaves as three-fifths
of a person? Why did it take so long to abolish the slave trade? Remember the
underground railroad, the Civil War, and the Emancipation Proclamation.
Jesus tells us that we are
to accept discipleship in a methodical manner as in building an enduring product
such as a house that was expected to last. Likewise, discipleship resembles
directing an army and the experience required to do it well (Luke 14: 25-33).
We must free ourselves from enduring and energy-draining attachments, which
would limit discipleship; we must choose the freedom of true discipleship with
Jesus. Then comes the uncomfortable statement found in Luke's Gospel:
anyone who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.
Total discipleship involves total renunciation.
Material possessions hold us
back from Jesus. We refrain, sequester, grip, protect and covet these things in
our lives. Often we consider what gifts to give, and find that giving away what
is most dear is quite satisfying, both to the one receiving and to the one
parting with it. Our prized keepsakes, our freedom, our time, our favorite
foods, our very lives, all these can become the most worthy gifts to others.
Parting with these and letting go, opens our heart to God. We now can accept a
radical simplicity and poverty which make us able to receive the spiritual gifts
God has in store for us. And we are prepared to carry back to God our love --
the only thing that can accompany our eternal journey.
Prayer:
Lord, teach us to let go of material things and to take on the everlasting
possession of a loving heart.
Three-staff underwing (Catocala amestris). It is endangered in Illinois and Michigan.
(*photo by Sally Ramsdell)
September 6, 2010
Jobs Galore; Workers, Anxious; Funds in Havens
On
this Labor Day we again announce the tragedy facing so many of the
willing but unemployed. In order to save the precious capital of the wealthy, a
system exists where some have a means to a livelihood and others do not. "No
new taxes." That is a major form of insidious propaganda. We need fair taxes
and that means new taxes on the wealthy who pay the least. Let's not forget some
basic facts:
1. We HAVE plenty of job
opportunities though these are not presently funded:
* Bridges and roads need
repair;
* Schools and
playgrounds need expanding;
* Affordable housing is
wanted by the poor;
* Parks need
maintaining;
* Blighted areas of
cities need rebuilding;
* Illiteracy needs to be
erased;
* Elderly and the ill
need better care;
* Arts and crafts need
to be enriched and taught;
and
* Research of every kind
needs promotion.
2.
We HAVE plenty of workers:
* Over one-tenth of our
labor force under- or unemployed;
* Recent highly
qualified and energetic graduates;
* Illegal immigrants and
those good citizens vying for
permits to stay in our country;
* Veterans and those who
have sacrificed for our nation;
* Retirees wanting to
add some benefit in their Indian
summer years;
* Housewives desiring to
give extra service for others;
* Those seeking less
stressful jobs;
* Prisoners engaged in
doing community service;
and
* Youth who could learn
so much by meaningful work.
3.
We HAVE funds but also a contrary economic/political system that will not allow
us to liberate them from tax havens and the accounts of the wealthy. Three
possible scenarios are possible:
* Fair taxes at state
and national levels on excessive wealth. In our Commonwealth of Kentucky the
top one percent pay the least taxes and some defend this because they have been
thoroughly propagandized;
* International
regulations and taxes that would check the current flow of excessive capital
from one country to another
(this is being actively proposed
by a number of European Union nations); and
* Reduction in military
expenditures, and use of funds for a far more secure international program that
supports essential services for all the world's needy people.
Prayer:
Lord, allow us to stretch the limits on what can be done so the sorrowful
specter of under- or unemployment will cease.
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