~ Stephen Jay Gould
The global environmental emergency we face is indeed
a crisis. It also represents an
opportunity for humankind to take the next step in the evolution of our
consciousness, our spirituality, our awareness of and appreciation for our
interconnectedness and interdependence with everything else which exists. One word which can communicate this kind of
awareness and appreciation is “reverence”.
We must learn to revere the
earth on which we live, as well as all the other creatures with which we share
it. We must learn to handle everything
with reverence, because our own
existence and well-being is contingent upon it.
The irony and tragedy of modern life is that the same technological prowess which has enabled what we are used to calling "progress", and which is degrading critical components of the ecosystem upon which we depend for life has also, during the last couple centuries, also steadily distanced us and alienated us from nature.
We can only live in harmony with creation when are enamored with
it, but we have learned to view it not as a "Thou"-- to use Martin Buber's characterization-- with which we are in a relationship of mutuality, but as an "it" to be exploited for our own short-term satisfaction. We have lost sight of the reality that we do not stand apart from are rather a part of nature. As Chief Seattle is reported to have said in his response to the US government's proposal to purchase his tribe's lands, "The Earth does not belong to us-- we belong to the Earth. We did not weave the web of life, we are merely a strand in it; whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves." We must learn to see the entire Earth community as our neighbor, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. As Stephen Jay Gould asserts, that is the only way we can marshall the spiritual resources necessary to confront the emergency with threatens our Earth community and to save it from our own greed and apathy.
No comments:
Post a Comment