Caring for the J Curve

First Piece

Our Relationship with the Earth

Infinite gratitude, infinite service, infinite responsibility4

Intention

This First Piece presents the opinion that we fit so naturally with the creatures and features of the Earth that life is a gift, as if of a higher power. It considers the relationship between Earth and human beings, suggesting that humans have stood in awe of the Earth as a source of life and nourishment, as an ineffable treasure. It suggests how to respond to this generosity, these blessings.

Relationship

Whether you subscribe to evolution or to Creation, it’s possible to agree that we live in intimate relationship with the Earth. All that we have, all that we are starts from the Earth; all that we use, all that we enjoy is harvest of the Earth; and all that we put down, all that we discard returns to the Earth. Indeed, as we venture into space this relationship expands to the stars. Whether you call it evidence of our grandeur or of our hubris, we have established a relationship throughout the universe, putting stuff onto the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, onto a comet, and out of our solar system into the universe at large.

Evolutionists say that we co-evolved with the Earth over hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years. Creationists say God brought us all into being in seven days. Either way, emergent or intricately, lovingly designed, we fit and belong here. We intermingle and interact naturally with all the other creatures and features of the planet. And though as individuals we are small compared to the Earth, the aggregate of what we do—whether through predestination or divine partnership or free will or random chance or unconscious indifference—matters.

The Earth–Human Relationship

Until recently the goodness of the Earth–human fit and the close balance between birth and death rates allowed us to view life in the biosphere as a virtually inexhaustible gift. (See Figure 2.1, “High Stationary”, in the Second Piece). The air, water, soil, plants, and animals, and the Earth’s ability to regenerate what we used and to absorb our wastes had stayed quite balanced. We lived this way for millennia, naming the planet Gaia, Mother Earth. If we thought of this at all, we thought of the Earth as a cornucopia.

Expressions of these blessings have emerged throughout the ages. The Bible, Native Americans, poets, religious leaders, and astronauts have all responded to these gifts, suggesting how we should consider them. Here are some of those expressions:

The Bible

The Green Bible5 has made a detailed study of the verses in the Bible that address the relationship between God and Creation. It begins with essays from respected theologians and conservationists and a collection called “Teachings on Creation through the Ages”, such as:

• Irenaeus (120–202)

  The initial step for a soul to come to knowledge of God is contemplation of nature.

• Basil the Great (329–379), Hexaemeron, Homily V, “The Germination of the Earth”.

  I want creation to penetrate you with so much admiration that wherever you go, the least plant may bring you the clear remembrance of the Creator.... One blade of grass or one speck of dust is enough to occupy your entire mind in beholding the art with which it has been made.

• Midrash Tanchuma, Kodashim 8 (fourth–fifth centuries)

  Even if you are old, you must plant. Just as you found trees planted by others, you must plant them for your children.

• Francis Schaeffer (1912–1984) Pollution and the Death of Man

  If I am going to be in the right relationship with God, I should treat the things he has made in the same way he treats them.

• Rick Warren (1954– ) The Purpose Driven Life

  We cannot be all that God wants us to be without caring about the earth.

The Green Bible identifies over 1000 verses based on:

• how God and Jesus interact with, care for, and are intimately involved with all of creation,
• how all the elements of creation—land, water, air, plants, animals, human beings—are interdependent,
• how nature responds to God,
• how we are called to care for creation.

Besides these verses of environmental and ecological importance, The Green Bible includes a resource guide to ideas and organizations. This list includes:

• 27 denominational environmental programs,
• 3 denominational statements and activities, and
• 39 faith-based environmental organizations.

Native Americans

Native Americans have long been regarded as carrying a deep and abiding spiritual respect for the land and its plants and animals, taking only what is needed, using all that is taken, and expressing gratitude for it all.

• Chief Seattle, in his 1854 reply to President Pierce, said

  How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them? Every part of this earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every clearing and humming insect is holy in the memory experience of my people.6

• Black Elk, an Oglala Sioux holy man, said this to John G. Neihardt in the book Black Elk Speaks:

  You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because The Power of the World always works in circles, and everything tries to be round. In the old days when we were a strong and happy people, all our power came to us from the sacred hoop of the nation, and so long as the hoop was unbroken, the people flourished. The flowering tree was the living center of the hoop, and the circle of the four quarters nourished it. The east gave peace and light, the south gave warmth, the west gave rain, and the north with its cold and mighty wind gave strength and endurance. This knowledge came to us from the outer world with our religion. Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle. The sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours. The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. The moon does the same, and both are round. Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves.7

• From the Iroquois Constitution:

  The Onandaga [Iroquois] lords shall open each council by greeting their cousin lords, and expressing their gratitude to them. And they shall offer thanks to the earth where all people dwell—

  To the streams of water, the pools, the springs, and the lakes; to the maize and the fruits—

  To the medicinal herbs and the trees, to the forest trees for their usefulness, to the animals that serve as food and who offer their pelts as clothing—

  To the great winds and the lesser winds; to the Thunderers; and the Sun, the mighty warrior; to the moon—

  To the messengers of the Great Spirit who dwells in the skies above, who gives all things useful to men, who is the source and ruler of health and life.Then shall the Onandaga lords declare the council open.8

• From Chief Luther Standing Bear, Teton Sioux:

  From Wakan Tanka, the Great Spirit, there came a great unifying life force that flowed in and through all things—the flowers of the plains, blowing winds, rocks, trees, birds, animals—and was the same force that had been breathed into the first man. Thus all things were kindred, and were brought together by the same Great Mystery.

  Kinship with all creatures of the earth, sky, and water was a real and active principle. In the animal and bird world there existed a brotherly feeling that kept the Lakota safe among them. And so close did some of the Lakotas come to their feathered and furred friends that in true brotherhood they spoke a common tongue.

  The animals had rights—the right of man’s protection, the right to live, the right to multiply, the right to freedom, and the right to man’s indebtedness—and in recognition of these rights the Lakota never enslaved an animal, and spared all life that was not needed for food and clothing. ...

  The Lakota could despise no creature, for all were of one blood, made by the same hand, and filled with the essence of...