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The Latch String Is Out
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61 (1993) Championing Resurrection-Centered Spirituality
Send victory like a dew, you heavens, and let the clouds rain it
down.
Let the earth open for salvation to spring up. Let deliverance, too, bud
forth which I, Yahweh, shall create.
(Isaiah 45:8)
When the book Down to Earth Spirituality
(Sheed & Ward) was being
published in 1992 I was able to do a number of related activities to
publicize our insights in and among the poor in Appalachia on the subject
of eco-spirituality. These included: presenting a talk at the World
Congress on Religions in Chicago on the need to discern the spirit in any
discussion of eco-spirituality; developing a dialogue and possible joint
writing venture with my long-time colleague Bob Sears, a Jesuit theologian
who teaches at Loyola University in Chicago; organizing a seminar with Bob
on eco-spirituality sponsored by Xavier University's theology; and
developing a talk/retreat outline to be given on eco-spirituality at
specific occasions.
General Outline of an Eco-Spirituality. I
considered the following
elements as integral components of any eco-spirituality --
God's Creation is Marvelous and Fragile. The
uniqueness of this
planet is often overlooked as well as the marvels of the micro- and the
macrocosm. We need to spend time reintroducing the person to the wonders
of observational science from all aspects of creation and thank God for the
opportunity to participate and be immersed in this community of being.
The Environment of the Earth is in Trouble.
Human citizens of the
planet are failing as protectors and responsible agents in the created
order. Human arrogance, greed and exploitation of creation is now evident
within the environmental crisis. For these moral lapses in caring for and
enhancing creation we need to move from prayers of praise and thanksgiving
to those asking forgiveness for human misdeeds.
Healing Needs to Occur. Thus the moral and
reasonable demand is upon
us to mobilize resources for the task ahead of being healers of the planet.
As Christians we cannot deny the calling, excuse ourselves as not being the
best suited or seek to escape. The problem is more one of will power
rather than lack of knowledge. This deficiency in will power stems from a
gross insensitivity caused by material affluence which has its own causes
in a combination of corporate greed and human weakness.
Mobilizing the Earth Community. We must enter into the
suffering of
others and seek to involve all the people in the grand enterprise of Earth
healing. The poor need to be invited to assist in overcoming this
addiction by accepting a responsibility to take what rightly belongs to all
of us and to do this within the bounds of true eco-justice. We can't heal
an Earth permanently divided between haves and have nots.
An Authentic Eco-Spirituality.
Eco-spirituality must be based on the
God who loves and protects us. The goodness of all creation, the
sensitivity to those who suffer (including plants and animals and the Earth
itself), and the willingness to be open about all new ways of healing are
all part of the authenticity of an eco-spirituality. An authentic eco-
spirituality recognizes the here (situation), the now (current conditions)
and the we (agents of change) and supports us through encouragement and
celebration so we do not burn out. Some basic characteristics of
authenticity include:
* All earthly creatures are interdependent (scientific
observation).
They were all created as good by an all good God (faith within our Judeo-
Christian-Moslem tradition).
* Natural processes obey the Law of Conservation of
Resources
(scientific understanding of thermodynamics). This conservation includes
all suffering; nothing is lost (faith in Jesus as redeemer).
* Variation and richness of diversity add to the health
and harmony
of the total eco-system (ecological understanding). The gifts of the
Spirit are multiple, and we have not come near recognizing all of them; we
must always be open (our faith taking on ever-expanding dimensions).
Resurrection-Centered Thought. Cosmological approaches to
eco-
spirituality focusing on the THEN (distant beginnings), the THERE (out in
space) and the THEY (intellectual elites who speak a cosmological language)
are distracting from the healing role of all the planet's citizens. I
prefer to emphasize the WE acting HERE at the grassroots with an urgency to
act NOW. The heart of the mystery of the Earth is the re-creation, not the
old order of creation. We who have been immersed in the wonders of
creation had a fall and from this has come redemption and the resurrection.
Thus the Earth's suffering has value when joined to the suffering of Jesus
-- a passiocentric spirituality, that is transformed through the Easter
event into new life which gives us a realistic hope that we can help usher
in the New Heaven and New Earth. This vision includes the interaction of
the poor and affluent -- the poor rising and the elevated coming down.
The Rhythms of the Seasons -- Knowing the NOW.
All must be in tune
with the seasons, for eco-spirituality is not removed from the morning and
the evening, time of the week and month, the summer and the winter. This
awareness of time makes us understand urgency to act at a given time -- the
now of stewardship for opportunities can slip by if not acted upon at the
right moment. By focusing on gardening we are mindful of the growing
season and what each time brings to our own spirit and well-being. The
gardener's eyes are turned downward to the fertile Earth. Knowing the
seasons includes an understanding of local weather patterns, wind
directions and rainfall, temperatures during various parts of the year and
the ability to perform certain outdoor tasks during different times of the
year. Thus this is liturgically-based and honors our desire to pray
differently at different times.
The Sense of Place -- Knowing the HERE.
A sense of home and the
orientation associated with it. Our home gives us a direction and bearing,
and allows us to be confident in knowing our origins. Those who desire an
eco-spirituality must have a composition of place in the words of St.
Ignatius. We become aware of Bethlehem, Nazareth, Cana and the Mount of
Beatitudes. In fact, Jerusalem gives a bearing in the life of Jesus and in
our lives as well with an extra axis going from there to Rome as the Acts
of the Apostles shows the journey of the early Church. We have this
bearing which is biblically-based, just as the understanding of our time is
liturgically-based.
An Awareness of Community -- Knowing the WE.
An eco-spirituality
must be grounded in the community of beings, both those of our human family
and also the community of plants and animals which inhabit the Earth
itself. The days of elitism are over. If the Earth is to be transformed,
it needs the efforts of all including the poor and marginalized in one
grand community where all contribute and have a role to play.
Reflection -- I have detoured potential
eco-spirituality students to
gardening because a more rational and academic approach seems to beg the
question and leads to an elite approach which will omit genuine healing.
Individuals should develop their own eco-spirituality, but to do so
involves a personal awareness and reverence for the past (conservation of
resources), a sensitivity to the current needs of others (willingness to
see and react to the social justice dimension), and hopeful vision about
the future. Spiritualities that discard the past are not truly
conservative; those that escape from the present are not realistic; and
those which find little hope are not courageous enough to be truly
ecological.
A Prayer for New Life. Oh Resurrected One, show us
the journey that
starts with the glories of creation, moves through our misdeeds and the
accompanying suffering of victims, and springs forth anew in the Easter
event in our lives and that of the Earth itself.
62
(1994) Searching for God in Sacred Space
Shout for joy you heavens; exult you earth! You mountains, break
into
happy cries!
(Isaiah 49:13)
One theme that reoccurs in homilies at various times of the year,
especially in seasons and holidays, is the need for silence in our lives.
For two decades, I have preached at least one retreat a year to stay in
practice with presentation of the Spiritual Exercises. In the past decade
the numbers of retreats have increased to a limit of seven or eight
retreats per year. Most of these are weekends retreats, but occasionally
there is a week-long retreat. While others champion the one-on-one
directed retreat, I have limited my work to preached retreats with a
patterned program for the participant to fine tune their own spiritual
progress. Besides the retreat talks there is an opportunity for
participants to spend quiet time in prayer.
Scheduling. Retreats are generally scheduled
during the weekends,
running from Friday (sometimes Thursday) evening to Sunday afternoon. The
weekend retreats consist of six to eight preached conferences and three
homilies during Liturgical services as well as an opportunity for personal
conferences and confessions. After all the discussion of retreats in
natural settings it may be a surprise to know I give retreats at
established retreat houses, even though my preference is the outdoors.
Most participants do not have the health, stamina or inclination to make
wilderness or hiking retreats. They desire a comfortable place with fixed
schedule, established religious exercises and prepared meals at reasonable
prices.
The Power of Stories. Stories can draw and hold
the attention of the
normal audience. As kids on the farm we made up stories (which meant
"stretching the truth") and told these tales to whoever would listen.
Today, I try to interlace my themes with real stories which I regard as
appropriate. Most listen carefully to the stories and generally see
individual connections and applications. For some, stories trigger similar
memories in their own lives and they share that with me. In every case I
remind them that storytelling is praiseworthy but is best done by the
individual. I never tell a story told to me in retreat. The retreat is an
opportunity to be present with others rather than giving a service, for
only God gives the retreat graces.
Demand for Silence. My retreats are silent ones knowing how
much some
people value quiet time, and how in our culture no one demands quiet of
their loquacious neighbor. The quality of preached non-silent retreats are
so different that I do not want to waste time on people who converse. In
the noisy world in which we live this is quite difficult. I made retreats
that were silent and undirected at the Trappist Monastery at Gethsemani,
Kentucky while in college, and at Berryville, Virginia while in Washington,
DC. At these places of tranquility, I found the silent setting very
conducive to reflection and would like to see the condition replicated when
possible. Silence is never perfect and I am no disciplinarian.
Retreats are Life's Fine-tuning. Many who make traditional
preached
retreats come year after year. For these persons this is an annual time to
take stock, go to confession, and review how one's personal life is going.
Fine tuning includes values worth balancing: rest and activity; God's call
as event and as ongoing process; righteous anger and mercy; leniency and
strictness while seeking forgiveness; stoic and over-emotion over
suffering; and being who we are and doing activities in our lives. One
comes before God's presence with immense respect and love seeking to review
the gifts given and fully understood as gifts. The reflection of
vocational call is the heart of the retreat, and this becomes the fine
tuning of our ongoing process of spiritual growth and the event and
occasions in our life that we find punctuate this life's experience.
Examples and events from Jesus' life are used. People, especially retirees
are invited to give further service to the Church and the poor -- and many
express a desire to respond. A retreat high point is seeking forgiveness
for ourselves and for others who we have hurt. We move rapidly from the
miracles of Christ to his suffering and death and then to the dynamics of
his resurrection on the final day. Some additional emphasis is given to
sacramentals in our spiritual life -- the Morning Offering for the day's
sacrifices for certain individuals, home blessings, the need enthroning a
Picture of Jesus (Sacred Heart) in the home, and the willingness to seek
spiritual direction.
Reflection. Annual retreats are needed
by lay folks and religious
alike in our hectic world. Noise deadens our sensitivity to hear those who
are hurting. Blaring horns, loud music, and overhead planes
together with
the intrusions of other people take a toll on us, both in frayed nerves and
how we treat those around us. The levels of noise have risen considerably,
and even in first-class cabins of airplanes exceed the Occupational Safety
and Health Administration (OSHA) limits of workplaces (may reach 90-plus
decibels). People need to escape from excessive noise and intrusions, put
up external and internal noise and privacy barriers, and attempt to get
away for annual retreats. Retreat resolutions should include how we will
cooperate with God's always offered grace, and protect the silent space
where God works in our lives.
Prayer to the Whispering God. Come, Oh
Quiet One, come to each who
wish to be open to You. Accept a listening stance as an opportunity, and
direct each praying person to ever greater service throughout their lives,
whether of long or short duration. Inspire them with the power to do ever
greater good with courage and strength.
63
(1995) Touching the Earth through Gardening
God said, "See, I give you all the seed-bearing plants that are upon
the whole earth, and all the trees with seed-bearing fruit; this will be
your food." (Genesis 1:29)
A basic eco-spiritual insight is that touching the soil is part of
an
Earth consciousness and concern and an expression of faith. This cannot be
mere symbolic gesturing with soil -- though symbolic ceremonies may help.
Reverence for God, other creatures and even the land is part of this
touching process. We touch the land with reverence for it is our origin
and our destiny. Awe involves working in a meaningful manner and thus
touching reverently includes landscape beautification, soil improvement,
wildland enhancement and preservation, sustainable cultivation, proper
gardening and raising houseplants and other meaningful activities.
Starting with the humblest portion of creation -- soil or humus -- is to
reach to a deeper spiritual life. The primary tiller or grower has a
awesome relationship with soil. Our faith life beckons us to look down to
the microcosm below our feet.
Limited Support. Homesteaders, farmers,
miners, gardeners, foresters,
landscape workers, builders, parks and grounds maintenance people, and
utility and road workers all touch the soil in some fashion. They are
often unable to articulate this profound part of their own spirituality in
words, but it is generally devoid of theories from learned authorities.
From those closer to the soil there arises a profound unarticulated
spirituality which grows with years of work experience and observation.
For about twenty years I was removed from the soil though I took
opportunities to hike and return to nature. In 1975, in congested
Washington, DC while living on the Franciscan grounds, several of us dug up
vacant land for gardening and joined the budding community of DC gardeners.
We found that the soil was rich enough and that the growing season lasted
from early spring to the end of the year. We had considerable sunlight
which gave a plentiful harvest of a wide variety of leaf and some room
vegetables.
Barefoot Gardening. In 1972 Darwin Lambert wrote and
published a book
through Exposition Press in Jericho, New York entitled The Earth-Man Story
Starring Shenandoah Skyline: Parks, Man and His Environment which went
beyond this somewhat bewildering title to tell a profound story of the
mountain people displaced by the Shenandoah National Park. Darwin details
the lives of these displaced rural folk and their love of the hills around
them. There are many reasons the mountain people came and stayed so long,
but the main one, I'm convinced, was that they relished the feel of earth
as "primitive" people have relished it in countless other times and
locations. Lambert notes how many of these mountain Virginians enjoyed
going barefoot, an act that allows connectedness to the earth which I
experienced in my youth by going without shoes around the farm until late
November. At times I forget my barefoot days in the straw stubble, the
feel of the clutch and brake on the Ford/Ferguson tractor, the smooth cow
paths amid the ragweeds in summer, and the cool bluegrass under my feet in
springtime.
The Role of Gardening. In the recent work on The
Spirituality of
Gardening (found on our ASPI Web site www.a-spi.org) the many advantages
derived from the art and work of gardening is discussed. These advantages
are spiritual, psychological, physical, economic, environmental,
preservationist, community and pedagogical and have different emphasis at
different times of the year. The domestic garden is one of the best ways
for urban and suburban America to connect with the land, our culture, our
neighborhood and broader world communities, and our own faith yearnings.
Kentucky's Gardening Past. At the turn of the 19th
and 20th centuries
most of the rural people of Kentucky (well over half the population) lived
off the land with gardens, corn patches and farm animals. Upon returning
to Kentucky in 1977 it became apparent that much had changed since leaving
two decades before. Fewer people made a living off the land and an entire
rural generation were losing their gardening tradition; they neglected
their backyards while buying at fast food restaurants french fries from
potatoes grown elsewhere. The Kentucky urbanized population was starting
to look down upon people who tilled the land. They forgot the community-
forming nature of gardening, the shared neighborhood experiences, the
togetherness of families working together, and the experience of working on
the land.
Outdoor Activities. Our youth who still play
sports on muddy fields
or grassy golf courses or who jog the blacktop roads or who tramp the
wooded paths and trails in search of some wildlife are touching the soil in
some fashion. It is good that these have some part of this primitive
experience, though it does not have the same impact as obtaining one's
basic needs from working the soil. The artificial recreation grounds,
carpeted lawn, and blacktopped roads may separate the sports person from
the soil underneath. It is better if the play remains in sandlot plots,
mud puddles, scaling mountains, camping sites, swimming holes, and sand
boxes. Truly the touching of the earth in play varies with type,
conditions and duration.
Wrong Ways. Not all touching activities are
healthy and constructive.
Within our lifetime we experience harmful touching by being punched,
groped, mishandled, or shoved. True, such physical contact may be forms of
communications -- of hostility, nervousness, lust, inquisitiveness,
discovery, selfishness or greed. To rip up the Earth for profits in
extracting coal or to develop land through urban sprawl are wrongful ways
of touching earth. Unfortunately the grabbing of the resource with
bulldozer, backhoe and draglines has become a modern version of touching
with brute force, not by sensitive and respectful fingertips.
Gentle Touching is Healing. One who touches God's
creation with
reverence is sensitive to the pain that is there, even pain in a wounded
Earth that is suffering as a wounded creature. The art of reverential
touch heals the one who touches and the one touched. Thus touching is a
communication of good intentions from one to another and back to the one
who initiates the touch. A gardener is an initiator, a missionary to the
land that has been wounded by abuse, and now in need of cure and to assist
in healing the one who imperfectly touches.
Gentle Touch is a Learned Experience.
When one turns to gardening
there is no automatic green thumb. Some have the gardening touch better
than others, but that is because there is love, patience, proper weeding,
fertilizing, watering and admiring looks given -- and the plants are
sensate enough to know this. Regarding the garden plants as useful only in
the degree that they are edible is the harsh touch that the garden
community quickly senses. Gardening takes practice, care, time,
experimentation, research, advice, readaptation. The history of each
gardener covers time, from breaking up the soil in early spring to
planting, hoeing, weeding and harvesting. We learn to be gentle of touch
just like we learn to care for animals or children. With frost we grieve
the season's end, and with a pang of regret we pull up a hearty bearing
tomato or pepper vine at the end of the normal growing season.
A Community. Protecting the garden
plant to extend season's life is
the kind act of someone in community who wishes to prolong the life of the
plant. Some people talk to their plants and that is not odd when we
consider that communication improves community. It is like when we sang to
cows during our younger years. The relationship between gardener and
garden involves the feelings of the whole person and the place tended --
and this can be communicated with ease to other people as well. In fact,
advantages of gardening include the potential for community-making at the
family, the immediate neighborhood and the larger regional and global
levels. We all belong to successively larger and more encompassing circles
or communities and the garden is a starting point of ever-extending
actions.
Reflection: The gardening experience is
generally rural but can be
urban if one makes an effort to cultivate small tracts of land within towns
and cities. An effort must be undertaken to distance oneself from
pervasive blacktop and concrete and from ever-burning street lights.
Through the sacred act of touching earth we become more aware of Earth, our
mother, our womb and tomb. Far from crowding out our sense of religious
belief, this sacred touch actually gives us back a sense of awe and
respect, so often lost in the world of busyness, loud sounds and artificial
turf.
Prayer to the God Who Touches our Hearts.
Grand Creator of Earth, let
this patch of earth that is ours for a short while be a place where we find
greater communion with You. You give us transformed bread and wine, but
You also give us transformed Earth, where we as co-workers help sanctify
this place for your glory. Allow us the privilege to cultivate some patch,
plot, backyard or flower pot. Help us improve our touch and make it gentle
and sensitive and to realize that through touch we can become touched and
made whole.
64
(1996) Healing the Earth
Open the gates of virtue to me. I will come in and give thanks to
Yahweh. This is Yahweh's gateway, through which the virtuous enter.
(Psalm 118: 19-20)
By 1996 a sense of powerlessness flooded me. It had been
coming on
for some time and I once confided this to fellow Jesuit and peace activist
and poet, Dan Berrigan, when he taught a semester at Berea. He answered
"Welcome to the Poor." At this period we were somewhat overwhelmed by
numerous local and national crises which taxed our ability to effectively
respond. In part, this feeling of frustration was due to Appalachia --
Science in the Public Interest's cooperative efforts in an Appalachian
Forest Health Project directed by Orie Loucks of Miami University and
Lowell Dodge of the Trees for the Planet group in Washington, DC. This
region-wide research involved a coalition of individuals and groups who
were trying to determine the existing condition of the forest and through
tree mortality data over a span of years to plot ongoing forest
deterioration. The fact was and is that the trees are dying. The "why" is
a more difficult question. Many agree it is due to air pollution which
triggers trees to succumb to diseases which could normally be resisted
under healthy growing conditions. ASPI took an active role under the
direction of Paul Kalisz and several University of Kentucky summer
students. Dozens of tree plots were established throughout Eastern
Kentucky and the present conditions of these sites documented. However,
for public interest people research must not stand alone. It must involve
publicity.
One Approach: The Scientific Media --
Research is considered by the
academic community as the best approach for convincing the world that the
Earth needs healing. However, ASPI has focused more heavily on the
popularizing aspects and less on serious academic research. At times we
undertake research and the Forest Health Project was one such venture.
However, there were limitations: the project had relatively large grant
funding for the first, second and third years, but funders soon tire and
move on to other projects. The work is hard to convince others who are in
a state of denial, saying the forests are still beautiful even though they
are dying. Studying tree mortality data takes far more spiritual energy
than many have at a given time. The funders are not research people and
want results which justify their contributions; the researchers cannot
possibly get these results on proven tree mortality within a short number
of years through careful forest monitoring of selected plots over time.
Another Approach -- Interviews with the Media.
Sometimes the
proponents of saving the forests are able to influence the public through
contacts with the press. The Forest Commons Conference we held in the
spring of 1995 gave us an outlet to tell the basic message that the forests
belong to all of us. We have this common heritage even though forests grow
on private and public lands. Interviews with the press occurred with the
opening of our ASPI Sustainable Forest Center and with the Forest Health
Project. But the forest mortality work is not what most regard as
something press-worthy. Some published works have been entertaining and
still able to relay serious message which could captivate a wide range of
readers. Chris Bolgiano's The Appalachian Forest: A Search for Roots and
Renewal published by Stackpole Books in 1998 gave a lengthy and quite
favorable treatment of ASPI's forest work while covering interviews with
different people and still dealt with the environmental threats and
dangers.
Still Another Approach -- How do we
deliver the environmental crisis
message to a broader audience? During 1996 at the time the forest
mortality data was beginning to surface indicating that severe Appalachian
forest damage could result from air pollution, I considered a book called
"Apocalypse." The book would show the current condition of the Earth
including global warming, destruction of forests, extinction of species,
ozone depletion and other such crisis conditions and that catastrophe could
be averted by changing our ways and addressing the will power to change.
The message is not "gloom and doom" but rather "gloom and hope." How can
we shake up a complacent society bent on fast infusions of knowledge? My
first stab at this book did not produce much enthusiasm from advisors who
already have a rather restricted understanding of what the concept of
Apocalypse is. The title needs to tell the story -- and this title was
confusing. During my time at Marquette University in the spring of 1998 I
held the Wade Chair (named after a former philosophy professor), taught a
course in environmental ethics and performed an assessment for the
university. I attempted to rewrite the original draft and changed the name
to Earth Healers. I continued the general structure of the four weeks of
the Spiritual Exercises: the first week I looked at the social sin of
pollution; the second week I covered the technologies that are benign and
healing; the third week involved the ways in which we are crucified to our
addictions; and then, finally, the promise of our participation in the
building of the New Heaven and New Earth. I sent it to several publishers,
but they were not interested even though Orbis and Franciscan Press had
both published my contributions appearing in John Carroll's trilogy (1996-
98). I am using this unpublished material for current environmental
retreats and hope to do more with it in the future.
A Fourth Approach -- Earth Healing Television Programs.
Ordinary
Americans read little and watch much television. For several years our
Center has sponsored and produced an Earth Healing show on a prime location
on Saturday night television (local station WOBZ-TV near London, Kentucky).
We have been placed immediately before the most popular local musical
called The Highlanders. Our program involves interviews with people and
groups who are trying to heal our wounded Earth. The variety ranges from
activists to writers to appropriate technologists to song writers to
crafters. All are concerned about the environment and all try in their own
way to do something about it. They have a sense of hope and describe to
the audience their way of healing the Earth. The creativity and enthusiasm
does give a sense of spirit to our work that the words of books are not
able to convey. Even within being part of the television culture, I find
interviewing for these shows inspiring.
Expanding the Program. During 1999 the
U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency funded forty of our fifty weekly half hour shows, and we were able
to add two just for good measure in the evident some were late for the
twelve-month funding period. I did the interviewing, Mark Spencer was the
camera person, Casey Sterr coordinated the programming and Joey Kesler,
manager of WOBZ-TV, edited and ran the shows. This required moving from a
monthly to a weekly show which continued after the year of programming
except we used reruns for the normal weeks and one new show per month.
Reflection: We have worked for decades on the
assumption that
awareness of environmental problems facing our Earth are sufficient to
bring about remedial action. But we suffer today from information
overload. If people yell "fire" enough, none are going to take it
seriously. While heroic and knowledgeable people have developed effective
remedies, still these corrective insights are only part of a total program.
Healing the Earth requires a change of heart and strengthening of will
power by a critical mass of people. Addiction to consumer products and
over-consumption of goods is the major problem facing the great masses and
requires a change of attitudes. How can we best help bring this about?
Prayer to Recognize God's Grandeur: Loving
God of the Universe, make
me aware of the time spent and the precious time left so that we may be
Earth healers and be healed in the process. Looking back, we see a long
journey that brings us to where we are filled with many gifts of people,
energy, health, peaceful environment and many material gifts bestowed
during that trip. We are confident that a spark will be ignited in which
we participate in some mysterious way.
God's Grandeur
Gerard Manley Hopkins
The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining
from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of
oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with
toil;
And wears man's smudge and shares man's
smell; the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel,
being shod.
And for all this, nature is never
spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down
things:
And though the last light off the
black west went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink
eastward, springs --
Because the Holy Ghost over the
bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah!
bright wings.
65
(1997) Highlighting Appalachian Natural Treasures
Pride of the heights, shining vault, so, in a glorious spectacle,
the
sky appears.
(Ecclesiasticus 43:1)
In June, 1997 ASPI celebrated its 20th anniversary by dedicating a
new
Nature Center named for my mother, Mary E. Fritsch. The educational center
contains displays and samples of all the natural treasure of Central
Appalachia and is geared for children of grade school age. It includes
numerous exhibits including a cross section of a three hundred year old
hickory tree, a stuffed bird collection from road kills assembled by
Pennsylvania naturalist Gene Wilhelm, native rocks and other collections,
and a listing of the native trees on the grounds including over 100
different types within 500 feet of the Center. The building is immersed in
the cove near the Rockcastle River and contains solar energy features, as
well as a dry composting toilet.
Nature Center Goal. The Nature Center
is a place where Appalachians
can come to know and value the natural treasure of the region through
examples of all the birds, snakes, insects, mammals, flowers, trees and
other plants. It is meant to be informational and inspirational. We want
youth, their teachers and other visitors to appreciate and respect the
immense diversity of the natural treasure we have in this region.
There
is no other place like this in our region, and therefore it is worth
preserving. For too long people have pressed the point that the region was
"poor" and of low value, and it does not matter if its trees, coal and
people exploited. We strive to tell a radically different message.
Trails. In 1997 we also dedicated the Michael
Zalla Trail in honor of
Michael Zalla, a young northern Kentucky college student and nature poet,
who died in a tragic automobile accident. ASPI also has been developing
two other trails, the Irene Dickenson Trail, named after a pioneer anti-
nuclear activist, and the Blue Warbler Trail, after the threatened species
found on the trail's environs amid the old growth forest on the adjacent
Daniel Boone National Forest. The total trail system when completed will
be over four miles. One added feature is that ASPI does not hesitate to
harvest wood off of the trail precincts, because we seek to show that
preservation and furnishing wood for fuel is compatible within our
relatively poor Appalachian Region.
Spending Time in the Woods. Our trails
lead to serene locations,
where one can spend time far removed from the workaday world. We are only
two miles from Exit 49 on Interstate 75, the busiest highway in Appalachia
-- yet it seems a lot farther away. However, when the wind is right
certain locations pick up distant traffic noises, and from other location
one can see a recently erected communications tower. The hillsides contain
picturesque sixty-foot high cliffs and rock ledges. ASPI volunteer Scott
Middlekoff camped out for three months under one of these ledges. An early
plan called for erecting a three-story glass fronted solar building under
this massive cave overhang. However, bringing in building materials would
have been a problem. Nature lovers wanted it left as it is. The existing
Nature Trails have good sites for camping and pass our small dome/compost
toilet and yurt/compost toilet for visitors seeking isolated nature
(hermitage) experiences.
Birds add Color to the Environment.
An expert in birds, Steve Mitten,
identified over two hundred species while doing volunteer work at our
Center in 1980. Many are semi-tropical migratory birds which pass through
from Latin America and go further north in the spring and return to the
south in the autumn. The presence of stop-off points is of utter
importance for bird health, safety and normal life cycle. It is important
as more and more land is being developed to set aside places where birds
can rest on their migratory routes and for their nesting. A mockingbird
perches regularly on the electric wires outside our office building at
Mount Vernon and the bird must have at least twenty calls in its
repertoire. A hoot owl gives flavor to the ASPI Nature Center as did a
host of whippoorwills -- but these are decreasing in number.
Invertebrates The grounds and the river
itself have many different
"creepy/crawlies" and some even fly. Butterflies abound as do moths and so
we have established a butterfly/hummingbird garden. Hornets have some
beautiful nests but we don't allow them near where people walk. The wasps
can be quite problematic, since many are friends but some sting and so we
try to make some distinctions, promoting some and discouraging others. We
destroy yellow jackets nests in our gardens for fear of their multiple
attacks on possible allergic visitors or residents. The river is more
pristine as any in Kentucky, but it like others is threatened by
development and waste emissions in the watershed. We work closely with the
Kentucky Water Watch and monitor river sites to ensure that marine life
thrives.
Mammals. Proximity of wildlife to the Nature
Center has been
threatened by keeping watchdogs at various times. When we first arrived in
the 1970s we saw bobcats near the highway and deer congregated immediately
behind the solar house, but these animals are dog shy. However, a
collection of wildlife -- deer, coons, groundhogs, wild turkeys, and
rabbits -- like to take turns messing up our larger garden plot, which is
outside the watchdog range. We do not raise corn, for the coons love to
tear it down to get to the ears. Likewise beans and some greens are off
limits because the rabbits and groundhog find them tasty. Deer like to
mess with a few pumpkins, but not eat foliage or pulp; one buck would run
at top speed and charge into the pumpkins and break these open for pumpkin
seeds. Many in the brassicas (cabbage, kale, cauliflower, kohlrabi,
collards, broccoli, Brussels Sprouts) nightshades (tomatoes, potatoes,
peppers and eggplant), and onion families, along with some melons and okra
are highly disliked by most wildlife.
Wildlife Foul. In recent years
opportunistic wild geese have remained
over winter in Kentucky lakes, ponds and rivers and find sufficient feed in
the corn fields strewed with unharvested ears left by the sloppy mechanical
corn pickers. The relatively large flocks of wild turkeys are a recent
phenomenon as they gobble, scratch up and threaten the understory orchids
and rare wildflowers. They enter our garden area and like select veggies
and have even starting making nests and raising their young nearby.
Trees. The property has over one hundred varieties
of naturally
growing trees which include the predominant white oak because much of
ASPI's 180 acres is on the drier south facing slope. There's also hickory
and maple; near the river one finds sycamore, both black and white walnut
(butternut), hazelnut, umbrella magnolia and various elms. The scattered
redbud and dogwood herald the spring even though the latter is becoming
less common due to a disease that is decimating forest varieties. Pine and
cedar are interspersed. We have native American fruit -- papaw, persimmon
and wild plum. The wide variety is due to our Center being at the
geological center of the Mixed Mesophytic Forest, the oldest and most
varied hardwood forest in the world in the opinion of Lucy Braun, a noted
naturalist of the early part of the 20th century. The number of species is
astounding outside of the tropics and is always a revelation for visitors
and natives alike. Besides these native trees we have planted various
fruit trees (Manchurian cherry, pear, apple and plum) in the valley or on
the hillsides where open places allow. We also have two healthy American
chestnuts which are growing on Chinese chestnut root stock.
Flowers. In spring there is a blue and white
carpet of flowers on the
countryside. These include violets, wild geranium, blue flags, blue phlox,
as well as several species of various colored orchids in the river bottom
which are regarded as endangered. The colors turn deeper to yellows,
oranges and reds as the black-eyed Susans, wild columbine, and firepink
brighten the forest floor. Late summer finds the wood lily, common
milkweed, butterfly weed, jewelweed, (touch-me-not, Jo-Pye-weed, goldenrod
(the state flower) and a host of yellow and other colored flowers. All in
all, almost a hundred varieties of wild flowers have been observed,
identified and labeled.
Reflection: We are immersed in the Grandeur of
God, and that can be so
easily overlooked. Recognition of this grandeur is refreshing, energizing
and encourages us to profess this glory to the world. We can easily be
tempted by resource exploiters to regard natural surroundings as
insignificant and unworthy of respect. And who would dare to object to
loading their wealth on coal trains and shipping it off? Righteous anger
is not a sin and is needed here.
Prayer to the God of Grandeur. We give glory to
You, Oh God, creator
of the universe. You are the One who gives us variety, and we appreciate
the sequence of the growing things in the hills around us. You delight in
this beauty and in turn, we find it delightful and excite others to delight
in it as well.
66 (1998)
Aging Gracefully
Rest in God alone, my soul! He is the source of my hope
....
(Psalm 62:5)
Personal health is a gift from God. It
allows us the freedom to
engage in other activities, to recognize God's glory in the healthy organs
we possess, and the opportunity to thank God for gifts given when observing
how unhealthy people are restricted in what they can do. Good health is
enjoyable and gives us an ability to make social contacts, improve our
work, and pray with apparently greater ease. Good health must be protected
and nurtured.
Stress in Activity. In January, 1998 I
went for four months to
Marquette University in Milwaukee. I arrived immediately after finishing
the end-of-the-fiscal-year reports and a rather stressful disagreement with
one who had helped our Center very much for about five years in developing
our sustainable forest resources. The dispute actually focused on whether
we should accept a grant in my absence and who would operate it. The
concerns were discussed on only two very brief phone calls the previous
October. I was forced to tell the potential funding agency to forego the
grant which had been approved for all intents and purposes. They allowed
us to resubmit a grant proposal upon my return after the Marquette
experience. The foundation graciously agreed and later approved a
subsequent grant on promoting "virtually wild ginseng."
Health through the Years. As of this writing I
have never spent an
overnight stay in a hospital in my life -- not even at birth. Knock on
wood, they say. It 's God's blessing, not something I did. At age five my
tonsils were removed at an out-patient clinic. Also I once spent two
nights in the Milford Novitiate Infirmary during the great flu epidemic of
1956-7, when it was judged by the Jesuit brother in charge of the Infirmary
that I needed a quieter place other than the dorm bed by the entrance. If
we brag about good health we need remind ourselves we could spend the rest
of our lives in a sick bed. Gratitude consists in cooperating with God's
largess in two ways: taking care of health given and work well during
healthy times. Blessed be the Lord!
A Quest to Stay Healthy. Health
professionals speak of a number of
conditions required to maintain good health which most people could recite
even though they may not follow the advice: eat right, take plenty of
rest, don't smoke, and reduce stress. Each of us can look back and find a
number of exercises that we have not followed.
* Once I ate according to a meat-and-saturated-fat
routine that my
farming forebears were accustomed to. Our early farm family life included
astounding amounts of meat (meal and meat were virtually synonymous), of
fried foods in bacon grease and pastries (peach turnovers and a variety of
cobblers) made using lard, real butter, and Jersey cow cream. This was
perhaps alright for those doing about seventy hours of heavy farm work per
week. However, such diets are unhealthy for those following moderate work
schedules.
* Once I took pride in rising early and getting to bed
late and
sleeping five hours per night. Though I still get up at 3:00 to 4:00 most
mornings, I take afternoon half hour naps (recommended by my cousin Dr. Ed
Perraut) and try to get to bed early. I now realize that the boast that
one needs less sleep in older years is somewhat hollow, for sleep
deprivation is a modern malady and can affect performance and prayer life.
* Early bouts of smoking (cigarettes, cigars and pipe at
periods and
sometimes combinations of these simultaneously) have occurred through 24
years of my life and did not come to a halt until the summer of 1983. That
was long enough to perhaps have some detrimental effect on long-term
health. Now I am an intolerant ex-smoker, and only miss this unhealthy,
untidy, dangerous, and expensive habit when on camping trips, for cigars
can keep gnats away from the eyes.
* Stress reduction is something I strive to achieve, but
have not yet
perfected. It was this lack of mastery that led to some heart pains at the
time I went to Milwaukee in 1998. A battery of tests at the renowned heart
center in Milwaukee did not reveal any major heart ailment, and the
examiners were somewhat baffled as to my heart complaints.
Health and the Sense of Sight. Human
eyesight is one of God's great
blessings. With it one can see Earth's spectacular treasures -- sunrises
and sunsets, the changing beauty of Kentucky's back roads, the views of
North Carolina when traveling east of I-40, the coming upon the mountains
going north from Knoxville on I-75, and the first sight of the distant
hills when traveling across South Dakota. I have been diagnosed with
glaucoma and occasional attacks of optimal migraine which really is a
blurring of vision, not pain; this has been controlled through medicine and
corrective out-patient laser operation on one eye. I have only half the
right eye field vision which causes me to restrict night driving to
unfamiliar areas.
Making the Best. The inconvenience of
this eye trouble is certainly
small compared to others with more impaired vision for eyesight is a true
appreciated blessing. Would I be able to cope with blindness as a result
from untreated glaucoma and from other causes? How many could be like my
longtime friend Bobbie Simpson of Harlan County, Kentucky, who continues to
build and rehab numerous houses and works for various lengths of time
nearly a thousand volunteers each year even though almost totally blind
from a mining accident. His current incredible feat performed as leader of
a team along with his wife Becky and family. They subsist on SSI and
little else but the good will offerings of volunteer crews and those
familiar with their wonderful work for the less fortunate.
Health and the Medical Profession. My
mother always wanted a real
doctor in the family, not just those ole Ph.D.s of which she had three
children. She assists in the training of a grandson who is studying for
that noble profession. No doubt she has placed much trust in medical
doctors and that may be why she is reaching ninety years in excellent
mental health. Not all of us have the same adulation for medical doctors,
especially after studying with pre-meds in college. Some of us never want
to rely on prescription medicines except when necessary and try to avoid
physical examinations -- not a good practice when older. Leon Dickenson,
a dear friend, called a short time before his death from cancer and
sincerely asked me to have frequent prostrate examinations. We need to
heed such advice.
Reflection: Health is a Sacred Trust.
The presence of good health
must be regarded as a sacred trust, something that must be guarded with
care. Thus one strives to avoid excessive use of drugs and alcohol,
smoking except ceremonially, fast driving, irregular schedules which lead
to sleep deprivation, all forms of stress, lower salt intake, saturated
fats, excessive cholesterol, non-organic fresh fruits and vegetables, and
large amounts of refined sugar. In place of these one must use moderate
amounts of alcohol, drive at safe speeds, get seven hours of sleep per day,
eat well balanced and organic foods, have a regulated and regular spiritual
life, and get plenty of physical exercise, fresh air and full-spectrum
sunlight. Improvement in meditation is all the more needed during this
period of life. One older person who continued to smoke said she was
beyond the average age of life and thus should be allowed such luxury in a
guilt-free condition. That is hard to respond to except that all life is
a gift and none of it should ever be carelessly mishandled, whether we are
young or old.
Prayer in Thanksgiving for Good Health.
Oh God, You give us health
as a blessing which assists us in our daily living. Thanks for the moments
of health of mind and body, of freedom from the worries that plague so many
in ill health, of times of lower stress and peaceful surroundings, of the
opportunity to give You service, and for all blessings of body and soul.
Forgive us for the times we have smoked or used other harmful substances,
of allowing stress to dominate our lives, of lack of sleep when it could
have been averted, and of not being watchful of our diets. Help us see
good health as moments to give You glory, as a gift bearing a
responsibility, and as an opportunity to give others special assistance.
Allow us to understand that when health fades to sickness we are able to
give double glory to You through cheerfulness and hope -- and still give
thanks for previous times of good health. Inspire us to return all things
to You in the good deeds performed whether when healthy or ill. And when
the time comes to endure illness, allow us to see this also as a gift from
You according to your Divine Plan.
67
(1999) Respecting the Land
Land must not be sold in perpetuity, for the land belongs
to me, and
to me you are only strangers and guests.
(Leviticus 25:23)
In September, 1998 my home place near Maysville, Kentucky
was sold
when it became too difficult for Mama Fritsch to manage the affairs of
renting out pasture and tobacco land and maintaining the repair of fences
and buildings. She had to move more or less permanently to my brother and
sister-in-law Charlie and Kathy's apple orchard and farm near Newark, Ohio
and later to a nearby nursing facility. Bill Hord, the person who
purchased it was a family friend and a responsible Ford Dealer and
successful businessman. The terms were that the homestead could be
occupied by Mama as long as she chose to live there.
Homeless. Very shortly after that
transaction Hord had serious health
problems and decided at his doctor's suggestion to rid himself of all his
business ventures which included both the dealership and this farm. In
that transaction the land fell to a neighbor who had sought to buy it for
a long time, and regarded it as a block of land for development. Our farm
was only a mile away from the local Walmart and an increasingly busy
Highway passes through it. Over the Memorial Day weekend in 1999 Mama
generously dispersed housewares, furnishing and keepsakes in a genuine
spirit of detachment. We had a happy family reunion, Liturgy, and a good
time playing cards, eating and having great homemade family games. The
next day we went and decorated the graves of four generations of relatives
and then we sadly went our separate ways after saying farewell to Mason
County.
Another Loss. In January, 2000 they
tore down the 1815 historic house
(Plancentia) on the Georgetown Road north of Lexington that was where my
maternal great grandfather, John Fister, had his family place as a seat of
a 500-acre farm which he shared with off-spring. The Lexington Herald-
Leader noted that the Bluegrass Trust for Historic Preservation was
unsuccessful in saving this from developers, and it passed virtually
unnoticed and unprotested.
Land Stewardship: A glorious Gift from God.
Good stewards acknowledge the gift as not of our doings but from God, the
source of all good gifts. God's creation is glorious but it is
fragile. The mandate on each of us
with a sense of awe at God's creation is to communicate with others about
the Earth and its wonders -- our environmental resources must be assessed
periodically and audited by each of us who are entrusted with certain parts
of God's creation. Within this auditing process we see how much we have
achieved and how often we have missed the mark. Ours is the first
generation to understand that we have the power to help save or to utterly
destroy the Earth itself. A new circumstance. We see the glory of God's
created hand through the advances of sciences and technology and the utter
destructive force of the atom and chemical pollution.
Caring and Sharing Land Resources. We are all
God's children; we see
each other as other Christs, all precious through the eyes of God and our
eyes as well. Through rapid communication networks we glory in the marvels
of technology and are aware of instant data and interaction with people on
the other side of the globe. Our neighbors are ever so close and we are
now aware of a world of suffering people -- refugees, the homeless, AIDS
victims, and the hungry. Think of Philip II who ruled what some regard as
the largest empire ever assembled by a single nation. He wrote his own
letters; he sent couriers by the fastest routes and it took weeks and
months. Modern technology allows us to send e-mails everywhere instantly.
Social consciousness grows as we become aware that some people suffer from
destitution and some from over-abundance, we see it first-hand on tv and we
now have the world's hungry (the Lazarus beggars) at our media's door step
-- and we know their names. We must see and listen with compassion.
Proper Land Use Requires Discernment.
Our time is limited and the
gift of land is a tenure for a short period. We are a global village in
which a power game is being played. What affluent people fail to realize
is that the poor have a joker in the card game, namely the ability to
disrupt a fragile and vulnerable system. We are not all powerful; we are
both mortal and vulnerable through ever increasingly complex technologies.
Stewardship includes the transitory nature of the gift in our hands, for
not only is the gift (land) changing, but so are we the holders. The more
complex the system, the more it takes the assent of all the people to keep
it functioning. It appears that young hackers and budding terrorists
understand the vulnerability of the present system more than some of its
inventors and developers. As discerning stewards we must make all
decisions involving modern technologies prudently and with participation of
all parties.
Land is Worth Celebrating -- and Sharing.
Land lies at the heart of
resources worth sharing, for with it one has much power and without it one
is landless and virtually homeless. What is emerging is that we cannot
have a world which is one-tenth wealthy and 90% poor and destitute. A
basic equality is imperative. Lincoln's insight after considerable
struggle that the nation cannot remain half slave and half free has
gradually evolved today into a collective global insight -- the world
cannot remain in a stable condition with immense poverty (and equivalent
enslavement through economic dependency and indebtedness) and super
affluence. The Jubilee Year of Scripture calls us to redistribute the
resources we have and share with others for the stability of the world
order. Land redistribution, whether through land reform in developing
countries or sharing ornamental lawn for community gardens, is worth
considering within a just land
stewardship program.
AMERC Land Development. I serve on the Executive
Board of the
Appalachian Ministries Education Resource Center (AMERC) at Berea,
Kentucky, which has been a successful ecumenical immersion experience for
seminarians. It is in the process of halting in-house services and turning
them over to seminaries to obtain grants to run programs. AMERC owns 40
acres of land, half of a farm of which the other half is owned by the
donor, Steve Rhodes, who resides there. Some board members wanted to sell
the land on the open market and put the money into scholarships for the
program. "Green housing" proponents saw this as ideal land since the farm
is surrounded by residences in the city of Berea. However, the land had
been harmed through an unusual practice by the previous owner of bulldozing
the forest undercover, triggered many of the Virginia pines on the shale
knobby hillside to send up a thicket of sprouts. This malpractice had the
fortuitously effect of becoming an excellent bird sanctuary. A bordering
running stream attracts blue heron and a multitude of other birds on this
chemically absent landscape. AMERC's land is de facto a bird sanctuary.
Our ASPI Earth Healing program videotaped the foremost bird expert in
Kentucky, Professor emeritus Wayne Davis, well known for maintaining at his
own expense about 6,000 bluebird boxes along the state's major highways.
Upon walking through the property Davis was ecstatic about the habitat's
diversity and bird sanctuary potential. Steve Rhodes testifies seeing
ninety species. Another neighboring bird watcher counted 123 species. A
happy ending. This property was successfully saved from development in
2001 through a land conservation purchase.
Religious Communities and Land Stewardship.
Church-related communities do not automatically practice proper land
stewardship. In fact, these communities are immersed in a culture that
throws off land for so-called
"development" purposes and they are not always countercultural. Pressure
mounts on aging religious communities to succumb to developers' pressures
and alienate land for money. In May, 2000 ASPI sponsored a land
stewardship conference for religious communities to investigate the problem
and find ways to come to solutions in a prudent manner. The ideas will be
forthcoming in a printed proceedings.
Reflection: Poor land stewardship practice is a
modern reality; it
results through ignorance, pressure, and lack of planning and recognition
of growing old and coming to terms with one's patrimony. Good land
stewardship, on the other hand, involves planning, weighing options,
preparation for carrying on the charism of the owners, and recognition that
all things are passing. If we have been good stewards, we need to prepare
for the next generation of land stewards by gracefully passing the baton on
to them.
Prayer for Good Stewardship. Oh God,
teach us to love "our land" and
all land as holy land, to keep it sustainably productive, to protect the
creatures upon it, and to see it as a springboard for acquiring a respect
for others land and community. Give us the courage to continue the
struggle even when sustaining losses of land control with dignity and
civility, and never to regard land as a commodity, but only as ground for
good stewardship practices.
68
(2000) Looking into the 21st Century
... the new heavens and new earth, the place where
righteousness will
be at home.
(II Peter 3:13)
YEAR 2000
Time, not ours but God's, passes through our
fingers
As we bragged of deeds not
really so,
Told of phantasms in our aged minds
As though faded memory could
really know.
It's now here -- a new millennium, century,
year --
But for those of us who picked
life's flowers.
Does history's grace belong to us in the
first place?
We humans are mere borrowers of
time; it's not ours.
The West's millennium, was it theirs or
anyone's?
America's century,
was it a surrealistic climb?
The Computer's decade, is it not a dumb
tool-turned-idol?
Or is a year of tall
deeds shrunk in mega time?
Lord teach me to count how few days we have
and so gain wisdom of heart.
(Ps. 90:12)
Help me to see this coming day, not ages
past,
as saved in grace -- a new
start.
In various Kentucky cemeteries some of the more
pessimistic type had
already set monuments for their dead spouses with their own name and the
year 19___ carved on the tombstone. Well it's time for some corrective
chiseling. Other modern pessimists expected to live into this new
millennium, but with a Y2K utility failure. Some decided to hoard
batteries, water, and food supplies which could always be used for major
mishaps. ASPI cautioned against scare tactics. Paul Gallimore and I wrote
an essay in the Lexington Herald Leader and a letter to Utne Reader after
receiving from them a rather costly, but poorly developed, "survivors
manual." We were disturbed that forty anti-nuclear groups who went to the
media with a proposal that nuclear powerplants be shut down over New Years,
2000. The weakness of the Y2K scare was not that the discussion was
unrealistic, only too time specific. We appropriate technologists see the
world as too overly globalized, interconnected and dependent on ATMs,
credit cards, and Internet shopping. Futurists say that over-dependence on
sophisticated technologies could be detrimental to the peace and democratic
practice. From a realistic perspective, Y2K is inevitable, just not at
this moment.
Gifts in Times Past. As we leave the twentieth
century behind we
remember its many negatives: vast suffering in concentration camps,
uncertainty in the eyes of millions of refugees, family and friends deaths,
hot and cold wars beginnings and endings, authoritarian regimes and Third
World poor, and rapid deterioration of the environment and the depletion of
plant and animal species. The century was also a time of grace: the faith
to hold us through, an education in its depth and length, good enduring
family and friend relations, the peace and freedom in America, the health
and energy to endure, and the good times and celebrations. These gifts
continued though unappreciated in youth, were forgotten in busy mature
years, and now into the autumn of our lives stand ready to be acknowledged.
New Millennium is Thanksgiving Time. Who knows?
Maybe the great
American family feast of Thanksgiving has done much to allay God's anger
with our affluent and selfish ways. As a people we do set aside at least
one day to be thankful for gifts given, a date proclaimed formally and
institutionalized into a truly American national holiday with its own menu,
ritual, and entertainment. We can be thankful for trying to be thankful;
it is at the heart of recognizing gifts given and need for acknowledgement
to the Giver of all Bounty. Bless us, Oh Lord, for these thy Gifts. We
are thankful for safe superhighways, and dependable utilities, and
comfortable houses, and vigilant police, and stores stocked with
necessities and luxury items as well. We are thankful that so many can
enjoy their retirement years, that we have had long periods of prosperity,
and that we have had relative peace in much of the world.
New Millennium, a Time of Jubilee.
In this spirit of thanksgiving we
can celebrate -- one aspect of the proclaimed Jubilee year. The hoopla of
the fireworks, party noisemakers and popping corks are taken for granted.
However, an equally important jubilee theme -- liberation -- is harder to
realize. We want to be free of the past so we can make this a new day, a
new beginning. Without that prospect we become chained to our old selves,
burdened by debts obtained through our fault or not, and enslaved to ways
that we seem paralyzed to effect. We blame conditions on others and omit
looking closely at ourselves. Or we blame ourselves and omit the role of
our culture that permeates our lives and paralyzes our social progress.
Accept the Past as Past. Nothing is so
pathetic as trying to hold on
to youth. The photos of older movie stars who are now older people trying
to look like the sex pots of four or five decades before is frightening.
Why not see youth as fleeting and different beauty in older years?
Perhaps, for many this is easier said than done. In our own weak ways we
see something other than glamour as the hallmark of our youth, but ability
to exercise in some fashion, to wear sporty clothes, to drive at high
speeds, or to do work or stay awake longer may be other ways of clinging to
youth. And Seniors see the past as still present and the current rising
generation as not near so good as they. Things change but we are slow to
admit it. The grace of accepting ourselves for who we are at this moment
is often wanting -- in a society that champions gusto, macho, and Viagra.
Faded glory haunts us and forces us to step backward in history, and
overstep the future. If we were only able to be ourselves here and now.
Don't forget the past, but don't strive to relive it either.
Sharing the Present Moment. We have to make
this new millennium work
and are in a transitory time when our century has ended and a new is the
short span to transmit our patrimony. Andy Cuomo, former Secretary of
Housing during the Clinton Administration, says that we must "seize the
moment." The current moment, that dividing point between past history and
future happenings, is what we experience both as individuals and as a
society. As social beings we share the moment and affirm each other in it.
It is a unique time, for others never experienced living in the year 2000
or of being in our shoes. We are graced by being in this time and place
with folks just as puzzled and lethargic.
Thinking Ahead. The solar,
fuel cell and electric car has come of
age and so ASPI has ordered Joshua Bills and Matthew Green to refurbish one
of our cars for us. These vehicles are coming fast to the twenty-first
century. Back in the late 1970s a governor of Mississippi was convinced by
the solar groups that such an alternative car was a gimmick for use in
running for president. He tried to make a trip from his state over to
Atlanta with proper coverage. The vehicle stopped running near the end of
the trip, and I remember him arriving exasperated to a meeting of the
renewable energy people and not wanting publicity. Our future has to be
better than that. Our AT innovations must work, our equity programs
succeed, and our globe's people must have the basics of life.
Reflection: Today, we are mere borrowers of time;
we live as
journeyers and pilgrims in a time and place when and where God is master
builder. We don't know how much is left, but it is undoubtedly less than
what has gone before. Looking ahead involves celebrating anniversaries,
events that seemed so distant only a few years ago. Time passes on as an
arrow from past to future. We are more than passive observers; we are
stewards of the time given, responsible for things past and co-creators of
things to come. Each new day is a new slate beckoning
creativity,
involving gifts given and limited time to use them. We have our uneasiness
over globalization with its hidden power for the economic corporations
which seem beyond the rule of governments. We are confident that people
will rise up and answer the needs of our coming years and do so justly and
forthrightly. As a young child it took a quarter and then a fifth and a
sixth of a lifetime before the next Christmas. Now, as seniors, holidays
come ever so rapidly.
Final Prayer. God, judge of all, help
us appreciate the time given
even when uncertain of its duration. Prepare us for the final winter of
life, whether a long time hence or a very short one -- for we are uncertain
of the coming of this final season. Let us continue our spiritual journey,
learning much from our life's experience and ready for much in the eternal
future before us.
69
(2001) Reflecting on the Attack on America
How should we process the events of 2001, especially after the
September attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon? Many
Americans favor an atmosphere of charged militancy and avowed determination
to get Osama bin Laden dead or alive. These prefer to follow the Bush
Administration and paint good and evil in very graphic terms. Some do not
dare allow opposing views since their cause is clear and righteous. Do not
allow the brave fire fighters in New York or the passengers who resisted
the terrorists over the fields of Pennsylvania to die in vain. So this
sentiment of the patriotic majority is heard throughout the land in lecture
halls, pulpits and over the airwaves. The current President has reached an
astounding approval rating of 92%, which even FDR did not equal.
Certainly, September 11th has become a defining event both for Americans
and others throughout the world. It is the war of the 21st century and
many respond that they are partners in this struggle.
Anglo-American Invincibility. Was September 11th,
as many of these
patriots have suggested, analogous to the attack on Pearl Harbor on
December 7, 1941 when Hawaii was still a distant territory? We can't deny
that the well planned 2001 strike at the heart of our financial and
military capitals (neither precisely in Washington, DC) has had a
devastating effect on our American complacency and concepts of security
just as did Pearl Harbor. We have been going to bed each night with the
assurance that the military might of unconquered America will protect us
and last forever. It is true the British marched on the U.S. capital less
than 200 years ago in the War of 1812. But that was sort of a family
quarrel among English speaking cousins. Significantly, foreign troops have
not marched on our cousins' capital at London for about 950 years. Looked
at this way, Americans and British have been in the ascendancy for almost
a millennium.
Realistic View. Is rather September 11th closer to
the sack of Rome on
August 24, 410 -- the first time a foreign army had marched on the streets
of Rome in 800 years? The crushing of an illusion of Anglo-American and
Roman greatness is comparable. Obviously Osama bin Laden is no Alaric. He
is perhaps equally as opportunistic, but the methods are as different as
the Minutemen versus the marching British units in the spring of 1775. The
present day terrorist are street smart and they seem to know how to make
maximum impact on their enemies.
Watch and Listen. We need to take lessons from
history and open our
eyes and ears to what terrorists are saying and doing. First, they profess
to oppose American policies such as the bombings of Iraq and the death of
many innocent citizens; second, they consider the occupation of Saudi
Arabian air bases by American forces to be a desecration of their sacred
homeland and shrines; and lastly, they have a deep dislike for the American
materialistic patterns of life which they regard as undermining their
Moslem culture. They regard current "American" imperialism as encompassing
global military and economic power and are committed to confronting it by
all the means possible.
Knowing History. A minority of us Americans would
take a far more
critical view of an overemphasis on high or costly technologies than the
majority of people. For us, the highly subsidized non-renewable energy
economy is simply unsustainable and cannot be secured by any amount of
military power. Are we willing as a people to face up to this
unsustainability, to the softness in our way of living, and to the flimsy
state of the global networks we are trying to construct which are so
susceptible to computer viruses? Are we aware that over concentration of
power or wealth in the hands of a few (the haves versus the have-nots) is
simply the ingredient of upcoming disaster? Do we ever care to see the
inherent similarities between our own time and that of Rome in the fifth
century A.D. such as huge military expenditures, large corporate farms,
administrative breakdown? And finally, do we realize that today, well-
placed monkey wrenches can mess up a very fragile communications or
transportation system? The Osama bin Laden gang knows more than many
Americans through practical experience, simple living techniques, and being
willing to die for certain causes.
Grand Delusion. Immediately following the Attack,
one person lamented
on the radio "What will I tell my children?" The answer is simple -- Tell
them the truth; tell it gently; tell it lovingly, but tell them that we are
a vulnerable people, even more so with our over dependence on high
technology. Tell them the well-publicized reasons why others hate the
American culture. Tell them that terrorists do not want to play Western
games any more than our Minutemen played by the British rules of war
etiquette in 1775. Tell them that the consent of the world's people is
needed for a highly complex economic system to work and still preserve
democracy. Tell them how it took more to stop a pony express service than
a modern postal service. Tell them that street smart people with a little
organization can do immense damage to a complex and vulnerable technology -
- and terrorists know this. Tell them the world cannot continue to exist
divided between the haves and the have-nots, especially since the have-nots
are realizing their power. Tell them that these modern barbarians at the
gates are most likely not going away too soon in the 21st century.
The Need for Soul-Searching. We need to do as much
soul searching as
flag waving. This conflict is not pure good versus pure evil, but the
terror attacks are a way otherwise powerless people get their point across.
From their own admission it was unfortunate that their struggle involves
collateral damage in the thousands of lives. A super patriot may argue
"love it or leave it" and provide the firepower to assist the terrorist
departure. The ingredients are right for a new McCarthyism with its
distrust and fear. Maybe our American materialistic ways and our own forms
of terrorism -- to Central American countries, to the environment, to the
poor in this world -- have encouraged other terrorist attacks, and we now
reap the whirlwind. We have placed security in the wrong places and
forgotten that all security is found in the motto "In God We Trust."
Appropriate Technology is a key to protecting our vulnerable
democracy
and nation. We cannot gain this illusive security that we so desire by
clamping down on civil liberties or extending a corporate globalization
scheme to the rest of the world. Certainly we rest far more secure with a
decentralized economy, with solar and wind power installations working in
numerous locations throughout the nation, with solar powered vehicles
instead of those demanding oil from the Middle East, and with a
conservation-conscious public. In fact, if we desire to be true patriots
we ought to endorse appropriate technology in all its forms, while we pray
together "In God we Trust."
Reflection and Memories. On
that bright and glorious September
eleventh morning Syl Yunker (a Kentucky ginseng grower who worked with us
to promote "virtually wild ginseng") and I drove about 350 miles to
Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, Illinois. We were to consult
with Professor Laura Murphy on her cancer research project which was using
Syl's ginseng roots. Also attending was our friend, Professor Frank Shaw,
chair of the Eastern Kentucky University Chemistry Department, who was
passing through after lecturing in Illinois. Frank was
generously
offering the resources of his laboratories for analytical work on ginseng.
We learned of the Attack on America as soon as we arrived, having driven
without the use of the radio after the early morning news. While we had an
intense early afternoon discussion on cancer research using ginseng, the
Attack was really on our minds. The entire seven hour trip back that
afternoon and evening was taken up with NPR news accounts. Like many
Americans this was to be a day I would long remember.
Prayer for Trust. Oh God, teach us to trust in
you.
Postscript
When I went to DC in 19070 I thought environmental
public interest
work would be short-lived. During that time, issues became far
more
complex than originally thought. We solved some difficulties, made people
more aware of problems, and inspired a few citizens to take action. The
latch string needs to be always out; all are invited to enter the movement
and become active citizens to help save our wounded Earth. But the task is
not easy, even though the results may give us immense satisfaction. We
must be willing to continue even though success does not come in our
lifetime. We are called to be faithful, not successful.
Recently, I relinquished the ASPI's director's position
after many
years of public interest administration. Several years ago, I promised
that I would do this on ASPI's 25th anniversary (April 22, 2002). However,
this is not retirement, only a refocusing on other pressing non-
administrative issues. I will continue as long as the Lord allows to
promote a sustainable lifestyle, write about environmental problems and
solutions, narrate weekly television shows, and assist other groups in
developing their own demonstration centers. In fact, no one should ever
retire from public interest work. If we are to succeed, we must be here
for the long-haul. Let our "amen" be an affirmation, not a conclusion.
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The End.... |
The Latch String is Out -- Copyright © 2002 by Al Fritsch
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Copyright © 2006 Earth Healing, Inc. All rights reserved. |
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