Posts for category ‘World’

…so today, please pay attention to your Mama (Earth). Please treat her the same way you do your own Mama.

Will you send Mama Earth a birthday card today? Make that annual phone call:

You: Hey Mom!

Mama Earth: Hi baby!

You: Sorry I haven’t called-!

Mama Earth: Don’t you think twice about it, dear. Your Mama knows how busy you are!

You: So how’s your “special day”going, Mom? Did you get the card I sent?

Mama Earth: Yes! My wasn’t that lovely. So big! Must have taken a lot to make that thing. But I have it propped up on the mantle with the cards from your brothers and sisters. I’m just doing the same as I’ve ever done. I hate to complain, but it sure get’s harder and harder the older I get and your younger siblings aren’t much better at cleaning up after themselves than you are.. er…were. But you don’t want to talk about me; let’s talk about you!

Hmmm… I was going for silly, but that shit sounded damn serious, didn’t it?

Here’s the deal. I know I’m exaggerating for most of us. We probably show our Mama a little more love than that; maybe a lot more love; hell, I don’t know. And the same goes for Mama Earth. If you’re reading my blog, chances are you care about your Mama Earth, and you at least mean well when you separate your recyclables for curbside pickup and turn off the water while you’re brushing your teeth.

I’m just tickled to death when I see folks like Fake Plastic Fish going over the top and showing us some serious, devoted and large personal scale change!

And I love reading that bloggers like Shelly are turning over a new green leaf.

And frankly, I could give a shit that green is “in”, and that it seems that for every genuine green product there is one that is a lie… that people would rather argue the semantics of your “carbon footprint” versus your “green footprint” than nurture the desire in folks to change… because at least we’re talking about it!

What’s sad is that everywhere I look on the internet people are still and consistently choosing convenience and marketability over “damage control”.

“Damage control”. Say it with me:

“Damage control”

I really like the sound of that, don’t you? There is no way to argue that one, is there?

Do we all agree that me make messes?

That we use shit up?

And that this has an effect on the Earth?

“Damage control”

Oh, people would still have plenty to argue about if we switched from “carbon, water, or ecological footprint” to simply “Damage Control”, (Corporations, I’m sure, will use it the same way governments refer to “acceptable losses” in wars; the same way the “bean counters” always have) but might just thinking in terms of damage control help us?

I am the temporary custodian of 40 acres of scrub in the High Desert. A tiny speck of sand on the Earth. But it’s my speck of sand.

It’s about 3/4 “unimproved”. What I mean by that is that the back 30 acres or so, haven’t been messed with or dumped on by humans too mush in my lifetime, at least. Of course, there is rumored to be a defunct copper mine back there somewhere, and we do take the occasional walk there. Although in the 60′s and 70′s my Grandparents let us ride motorcycles and dune buggies back there once in awhile, whe haven’t allowed that in many years.

The front 10 acres have 2 homes and a trailer on them, and innumerable piles of “junk” that my grandfather collected. Junk cars, (Only 3 left- I’m working on it), piles of decaying plywood, sheets of aluminum and broken appliances. Old screens and rabbit cages and, and, and…

A tenant after my Grandfather passed away once decided that it would be good to burn a bunch of the garbage and junk, so I’m still sifting through and cleaning up piles of broken glass and rusty cans and screws, bolts, nails and unidentifiable hardware.

Although I have thought in terms of “damage control” most of my life (my Mama was a “Hippy”!), moving here to the family ranch has brought it home to me in a way that is probaby much harder for people who live in urbania, where trash is collected and streets are swept, can really wrap their heads around.

There are a lot of folks who like to argue that most people who are avid recyclers and reusers are “poor folk” who do it because they have no choice. There is, I’m sure, some validity to that sort of thinking as well. When you can afford to buy everything you need new; when you can afford to indulge your desire for the newest, the coolest, the latest model- it probably is harder to consider what your consumption means to your Mama Earth.

Out here I have to consider everything I discard. First of all, we have to load it up and take it to the land fill, ourselves. City folk might feel different about their waste if they had to load it on a truck and drive it to the dump and there have their senses assaulted by the stench and sight of consumer waste.

If I paint my living room, I have to consider where the rinsewater is going (no sewer water reclaimation services here: I have to trust Mama Earth to filter what we put in the ground before it reaches the water table. Then I stack the cans and rags to be taken to town on our “haz-mat” monthly disposal weekends.

Well, enough of that; I don’t mean to get preachy on ya’ll, but I tell you this to perhaps open your eyes and heart just a tiny bit to considering “damage control”.

Every action begins with thought. Spend a little time thinking about your choices, your actions, your consumption. Not just today, but every day.

Enough outta me. I need to get outside and run the mower over the weeds and other biodegradables (bird cage newspapers, etc.) too large to compost efficiently.

Happy Earth day to Mama and all her (dumb) kids!

All I can say is A(wo)men to this!!!

A Prayer for the Nation and Our Next President, Barack Obama

By The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire

Opening Inaugural Event
Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC
January 18, 2009

Welcome to Washington! The fun is about to begin, but first, please join me in pausing for a moment, to ask God’s blessing upon our nation and our next president.

O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will…

Bless us with tears – for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women from many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.

Bless us with anger – at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

Bless us with discomfort – at the easy, simplistic “answers” we’ve preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth, about ourselves and the world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.

Bless us with patience – and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be “fixed” anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.

Bless us with humility – open to understanding that our own needs must always be balanced with those of the world.

Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance – replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences, and an understanding that in our diversity, we are stronger.

Bless us with compassion and generosity – remembering that every religion’s God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable in the human community, whether across town or across the world.

And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States.

Give him wisdom beyond his years, and inspire him with Lincoln’s reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy’s ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King’s dream of a nation for ALL the people.

Give him a quiet heart, for our Ship of State needs a steady, calm captain in these times.

Give him stirring words, for we will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.

Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership, there will be neither red nor blue states, but the United States.

Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.

Give him the strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters’ childhoods.

And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we’re asking FAR too much of this one. We know the risk he and his wife are taking for all of us, and we implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand – that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace.

AMEN.

I’m late. Love me anyway.
Peace, out!