I have not posted in some time. I don't have much to say now, except to explain that I have been taken up with finding work, and had a two week trip to Israel-Palestine a little less than a month ago. Since, I have been very focused on the aftermath and processing of that trip, which has left me little time for this blog.
I will give more thoughts soon, I hope, but my mind is taken up with issues of peace and justice at the moment, and don't want to force some canned integration of ecological and social justice, though they are clearly and inarguably linked as one. More soon. Thanks for hanging in there.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
Book Recommendations and My Week of Veganism
Hola. I grieve my long absence from blogging. I am reading two books right now that I will endorse with whole-heartedness. One I have already referenced, Deep Economy, by Bill McKibben. Number two is The Universe Story, by Briann Swimme and Thomas Berry. A really amazing cosmological narrative that connects humans to the unfolding emergence of the universe, instead of leaving us as disconnected a-historical, anti-ecological, unnatural beings who exist outside of the rest of the universe and it's developments. Really enjoying both, though on a limited basis, because I have been given the opportunity to travel to Jerusalem in a little less than three weeks, and most of my reading has been directed there.
Other news; I felt inspired to venture into Veganism for a week, and see how it felt. I felt great the first three, maybe four days, then I think I started to go downhill. It was harder to sleep (I was becoming what chinese medicine folk call "Yin Deficient"), finally, after a very bad night's sleep followed by a long time of basketball in the heat, my body simply refused to recover. I broke a day early, had some milk and some cow meat. I must say that my body is beginning to restore itself. I enjoyed the venture, and I really did this time with a lot of care and wisdom, and it still did not take. I would have loved for it to, but it is nice to give up meat for a while. This was my first venture into veganism, and I researched to know the supplements I would need and to have proper sources of food nutrients, protein, etc. Alas. I love and admire my friends who are vegans, though some seem less healthy than others. I also have yet to meet a vegan who does not subsist largely on coffee. Something I simply cannot do. I have many reasons that go into this - health (physical and mental/emotional) and finances being primary. Still, with all things, there is not this falsely dualistic choice between carnivorous and vegan. There is a continuum. I seek to ingest animal products that are humanely raised, organically fed, and small farm/locally sourced. These are all very important to me. I also seek to eat mindfully, offering prayers and gratitude for the life that goes into sustaining my own. Perhaps some hardcore vegans/vegetarians don't care a bit if I pray over my dead animal before I eat it, but I do. To me, it means something.
I continue to seek ways that I can live mindfully aware of my interconnections with the world around me. I must not pretend that my actions have no effect. I must also be aware that good intentions are good, but the system we live in necessitates greater depths to our mindfulness practices. I.e. research into the food we eat, the effects of our actions and choices, and response accordingly. Much more to say on this later, as you probably well know by now.
I will encourage my blog followers to look into Thich Nhat Hanh's newest book: The World We Have: Buddhist Approaches to Peace and Ecology. I have not read more than a little bit, but I know his work, and the bit I have read makes me think that this is one of his best books yet, if not his best. Much love and many blessings,
Jonathan.
Other news; I felt inspired to venture into Veganism for a week, and see how it felt. I felt great the first three, maybe four days, then I think I started to go downhill. It was harder to sleep (I was becoming what chinese medicine folk call "Yin Deficient"), finally, after a very bad night's sleep followed by a long time of basketball in the heat, my body simply refused to recover. I broke a day early, had some milk and some cow meat. I must say that my body is beginning to restore itself. I enjoyed the venture, and I really did this time with a lot of care and wisdom, and it still did not take. I would have loved for it to, but it is nice to give up meat for a while. This was my first venture into veganism, and I researched to know the supplements I would need and to have proper sources of food nutrients, protein, etc. Alas. I love and admire my friends who are vegans, though some seem less healthy than others. I also have yet to meet a vegan who does not subsist largely on coffee. Something I simply cannot do. I have many reasons that go into this - health (physical and mental/emotional) and finances being primary. Still, with all things, there is not this falsely dualistic choice between carnivorous and vegan. There is a continuum. I seek to ingest animal products that are humanely raised, organically fed, and small farm/locally sourced. These are all very important to me. I also seek to eat mindfully, offering prayers and gratitude for the life that goes into sustaining my own. Perhaps some hardcore vegans/vegetarians don't care a bit if I pray over my dead animal before I eat it, but I do. To me, it means something.
I continue to seek ways that I can live mindfully aware of my interconnections with the world around me. I must not pretend that my actions have no effect. I must also be aware that good intentions are good, but the system we live in necessitates greater depths to our mindfulness practices. I.e. research into the food we eat, the effects of our actions and choices, and response accordingly. Much more to say on this later, as you probably well know by now.
I will encourage my blog followers to look into Thich Nhat Hanh's newest book: The World We Have: Buddhist Approaches to Peace and Ecology. I have not read more than a little bit, but I know his work, and the bit I have read makes me think that this is one of his best books yet, if not his best. Much love and many blessings,
Jonathan.
Friday, June 12, 2009
PS
More soon that goes a little deeper. The practical stuff is good, really important, but it doesn't really last for most of us. I want to return to where ecology penetrates the heart and transforms who we think we are.
J (see below link if you haven't already)
J (see below link if you haven't already)
Sick of Junk Mail?
So am I!! Check out this website to stop your junk mail, which, by the way, destroys a grotesque amount of trees every year just to be thrown away. Let's do something for the earth and for our sanity.
Here's the site: http://mailstopper.tonic.com/
Peace.
Here's the site: http://mailstopper.tonic.com/
Peace.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Father's Day
With Father's Day upcoming, I thought I would present some ideas from Nature.org that are not traditional, but, after all, this blog brings the awareness that some traditions have harmed us deeply, spiritually and ecologically.
http://support.nature.org/site/PageServer?pagename=holidaygiving_xx_hgg
There are of course other ecologically/spiritually responsible ways of celebrating Father's day. I will say I have done nothing so noble as planting trees in Brazil this year, though I endorse it highly. I simply want to pass on possibilities for choosing differently. If not now, then some day, or for someone (like me) who would appreciate such a gesture in lieu of "normal" gift givings.
For now.
http://support.nature.org/site/PageServer?pagename=holidaygiving_xx_hgg
There are of course other ecologically/spiritually responsible ways of celebrating Father's day. I will say I have done nothing so noble as planting trees in Brazil this year, though I endorse it highly. I simply want to pass on possibilities for choosing differently. If not now, then some day, or for someone (like me) who would appreciate such a gesture in lieu of "normal" gift givings.
For now.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Deep Economy
From Deep Economy, by Bill McKibben:
"When Thomas Newcomen [who invented the steam engine] fired up his pump that day in 1712, the atmosphere was 275 parts per million carbon dioxide. All our burning since has increased that number to 380 parts per million, igher than it's been for many millions of years. And we're starting to see the results - in fact, we're starting to see that the results are much more dire than scientists predicted even a few years ago. The year 2005 was the warmest on record, and nine of the ten hottest years were in the decade that preceded it; as a result of that heat, about an extra degree Fahrenheit globally averaged, all kinds of odd things have begun to happen. For instance, everything frozen on earth is melting, and melting fast. In the fall of 2005, polar researchers reported that Arctice ice had apparently passed a "tipping point": so much sun-reflecting white ice had been turned to heat-absorbing blue water that the process was now irreversible. Meanwhile, other scientists showed that because of longer growing seasons, temperate soils and forests like the ones across America were now seeing more decay, and hence giving off more of their stored carbon, accelerating the warming trend. So far, this young millennium has already seen a killer heat wave that killed fifty-two thousand people across Europe in the course of a couple of weeks, and an Atlantic hurricane season so bizarrely intense that we ran out of letters in the alphabet for naming storms. The point is, climate change is not some future specter; it's already emerging as the biggest problem the world faces.\
And it's only just begun. The median predictions of the world's climatologists - by no means the worst-case scenarios - show that unless we take truly enormous steps to rein in our use of fossil fuels we can expect that the globally averaged temperature will rise another four or five degrees before the century is out. If that happens, the world will be warmer than it's been for millions of years, long before primates appeared on the planet. We don't know exactly what that world would feel like, but almost every guess is hideous. Since warm air holds more water vapor than cold air, for instance, we can expect more drought in the middles of our continents where grain growing is concentrated, and more floods on the coasts where many people live. The World Health Organization expects vast increases in mosquito-borne disease. Researchers warned in 2006 that climate change could kill 184 million people in Africa alone before this century is out [I wonder if Americans will even care that much], destruction on a scale so staggering it has no precedent. We might as well have a contest to pick a new name for Earth, because it will be a differnet planet. Humans have never done anything bigger, not even the invention of nuclear weapons." (pages 20-21, last italics mine).
Here's me, Jonathan, again: This isn't meant as a doomsday scare or a sort of end times prophecy. And it's not meant solely to guilt you (or me). It is meant to illuminate, and to sit with you. I will write more soon on what I think in response to this, and I have many thoughts. But there's a choice we have in light of this as to how we will live. We might not be able to end global warming, or mitigate it's consequences, but we can stop contributing to it. And we can help others learn how to do so as well. This can begin in very very very small ways. Hang dry your clothes. Drive less - significantly less. Switch your light bulbs to energy efficient bulbs, and turn them off whenever you're not using them. Turning everything off when you're not using it. Not fearfully or legalistically, but mindfully. Turn your computers off, not on sleep or standby, wherein they still use small amounts of power. When 200 million computers are left in sleep, small amounts of power turn into huge amounts of power. This is not about whether or not others will join you. It is about making your life into a prayer. A prayer for change, transformation, awareness.
Look into options your city or town might have in terms of alternative sources of energy. In pasadena you can purchase energy from 100% wind powered source for 2.5 cents extra per Kw. For us this amounts to just over 5 dollars extra every two months. It is also a way to make us more aware of unnecessary usage of power. It might, because of this mindfulness raising, end up that we pay less because we are more conscientious.
Know that Global Warming is not the only environmental issue facing us today. It is not even the only critical issue facing us. And, in some communities, it is not even the most critical, on an immediate level. But herein is a problem. Dividing up ecological issues into individual "problems" to be solved one by one in the same technocratic ways that got us into the predicaments to begin with. It is a huge problem, and it is symptomatic that something has gone wrong. Massively, massively wrong!
Begin to be mindful - of the air you breathe, that we breathe together. Be mindful of the way in which our actions affect that air - our leaving lights on, our driving, our flying to see family or friends, our food buying choices... A gallon of gasoline emits about 5 pounds of carbon into the atmosphere. This is part of mindfulness. Knowing the numbers. Knowing the facts. It is part of prayer - real, embodied prayer.
It doesn't have to be all or nothing. "I can't live like that (whatever your idea of what the ideal lifestyle might be) so I will just have to keep on doing what I've been doing." It's not all or nothing. There are small ways in which you can perform life differently now. There are spaces in life where you can shift, ever so slightly, fro one way of being to another. Don't get caught up in what you think you can't do, focus on what you can do - now, in this moment. Don't worry about whether it is "enough." It doesn't have to be "enough," only a beginning. The rest of the path can worry about itself, worry about the step in front of you. Where are you now? Stay with that for a few days. Don't make it about guilt/shame or about whether you can stop global warming. It's not about being depressed, hopeful, discouraged or encouraged. It's simply a fact before us, confronting us with the way we have envisioned ourselves as humans and Americans in the world. Mindfulness and prayer mean that change is necessary. One step at a time. Not about preventing it, about living differently, and helping others live differently as well.
Blessings.
"When Thomas Newcomen [who invented the steam engine] fired up his pump that day in 1712, the atmosphere was 275 parts per million carbon dioxide. All our burning since has increased that number to 380 parts per million, igher than it's been for many millions of years. And we're starting to see the results - in fact, we're starting to see that the results are much more dire than scientists predicted even a few years ago. The year 2005 was the warmest on record, and nine of the ten hottest years were in the decade that preceded it; as a result of that heat, about an extra degree Fahrenheit globally averaged, all kinds of odd things have begun to happen. For instance, everything frozen on earth is melting, and melting fast. In the fall of 2005, polar researchers reported that Arctice ice had apparently passed a "tipping point": so much sun-reflecting white ice had been turned to heat-absorbing blue water that the process was now irreversible. Meanwhile, other scientists showed that because of longer growing seasons, temperate soils and forests like the ones across America were now seeing more decay, and hence giving off more of their stored carbon, accelerating the warming trend. So far, this young millennium has already seen a killer heat wave that killed fifty-two thousand people across Europe in the course of a couple of weeks, and an Atlantic hurricane season so bizarrely intense that we ran out of letters in the alphabet for naming storms. The point is, climate change is not some future specter; it's already emerging as the biggest problem the world faces.\
And it's only just begun. The median predictions of the world's climatologists - by no means the worst-case scenarios - show that unless we take truly enormous steps to rein in our use of fossil fuels we can expect that the globally averaged temperature will rise another four or five degrees before the century is out. If that happens, the world will be warmer than it's been for millions of years, long before primates appeared on the planet. We don't know exactly what that world would feel like, but almost every guess is hideous. Since warm air holds more water vapor than cold air, for instance, we can expect more drought in the middles of our continents where grain growing is concentrated, and more floods on the coasts where many people live. The World Health Organization expects vast increases in mosquito-borne disease. Researchers warned in 2006 that climate change could kill 184 million people in Africa alone before this century is out [I wonder if Americans will even care that much], destruction on a scale so staggering it has no precedent. We might as well have a contest to pick a new name for Earth, because it will be a differnet planet. Humans have never done anything bigger, not even the invention of nuclear weapons." (pages 20-21, last italics mine).
Here's me, Jonathan, again: This isn't meant as a doomsday scare or a sort of end times prophecy. And it's not meant solely to guilt you (or me). It is meant to illuminate, and to sit with you. I will write more soon on what I think in response to this, and I have many thoughts. But there's a choice we have in light of this as to how we will live. We might not be able to end global warming, or mitigate it's consequences, but we can stop contributing to it. And we can help others learn how to do so as well. This can begin in very very very small ways. Hang dry your clothes. Drive less - significantly less. Switch your light bulbs to energy efficient bulbs, and turn them off whenever you're not using them. Turning everything off when you're not using it. Not fearfully or legalistically, but mindfully. Turn your computers off, not on sleep or standby, wherein they still use small amounts of power. When 200 million computers are left in sleep, small amounts of power turn into huge amounts of power. This is not about whether or not others will join you. It is about making your life into a prayer. A prayer for change, transformation, awareness.
Look into options your city or town might have in terms of alternative sources of energy. In pasadena you can purchase energy from 100% wind powered source for 2.5 cents extra per Kw. For us this amounts to just over 5 dollars extra every two months. It is also a way to make us more aware of unnecessary usage of power. It might, because of this mindfulness raising, end up that we pay less because we are more conscientious.
Know that Global Warming is not the only environmental issue facing us today. It is not even the only critical issue facing us. And, in some communities, it is not even the most critical, on an immediate level. But herein is a problem. Dividing up ecological issues into individual "problems" to be solved one by one in the same technocratic ways that got us into the predicaments to begin with. It is a huge problem, and it is symptomatic that something has gone wrong. Massively, massively wrong!
Begin to be mindful - of the air you breathe, that we breathe together. Be mindful of the way in which our actions affect that air - our leaving lights on, our driving, our flying to see family or friends, our food buying choices... A gallon of gasoline emits about 5 pounds of carbon into the atmosphere. This is part of mindfulness. Knowing the numbers. Knowing the facts. It is part of prayer - real, embodied prayer.
It doesn't have to be all or nothing. "I can't live like that (whatever your idea of what the ideal lifestyle might be) so I will just have to keep on doing what I've been doing." It's not all or nothing. There are small ways in which you can perform life differently now. There are spaces in life where you can shift, ever so slightly, fro one way of being to another. Don't get caught up in what you think you can't do, focus on what you can do - now, in this moment. Don't worry about whether it is "enough." It doesn't have to be "enough," only a beginning. The rest of the path can worry about itself, worry about the step in front of you. Where are you now? Stay with that for a few days. Don't make it about guilt/shame or about whether you can stop global warming. It's not about being depressed, hopeful, discouraged or encouraged. It's simply a fact before us, confronting us with the way we have envisioned ourselves as humans and Americans in the world. Mindfulness and prayer mean that change is necessary. One step at a time. Not about preventing it, about living differently, and helping others live differently as well.
Blessings.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Sabbath
Something that has been spinning in my mind lately. If you look to my April 16 blog, there is a lot about rest - about Sabbath. As I looked through the bible a few weeks later, I realized that the biblical injunctions to rest included a relatively expansive list: You are to rest, your family, your animals, your servants, and any stranger and alien within your gate. Since you, your animals, and your servants are resting, therefore so does the land. Everything is given time to rest, sacred rest.
I think that one of the most meaningful and important ways we could apply this scripture today is to think of an energy rest. One day a week (and, if a week is too much, one day a month) set aside to be kept holy, sacred. A day (sundown to sundown) in which we use no energy, whether it is petrol or electric. We rest our cars, our appliances, our clocks, our air conditioners (if there is no danger to one's physical health in so doing), etc. We unplug everything. But we don't just make it a day of abstention. We take the time we would normally be driving, watching tv, listening to music, etc., and we sit with each other. We share meals, with families, with communities, with ourselves. We take time for reflection, for meditation, for going out to visit nature - a lake, a creek, a field. We don't make it an ascetic practice, but a way of honoring the beauty of the world without any electronic distractions. On the pragmatic side - imagine the massive impact upon carbon emissions if even half of the people of this country stopped driving and using electric power for ONE day a month, or moreso, one day a week, sundown to sundown. We sit in candlelight (I would allow for my own sabbath to be blessed with candlelight) and honor time together for sacred communion, reflection, and celebration. I encourage you all to think about it, and make it a day of beauty. Try one. Don't think about one day a week, or even a month. Try one day, Friday night to Saturday night. Make your meals in advance, plan what you will do. Have people over. Stock up on candles - ones that are kind to our world. See what joy you can have, playing games, writing letters, not being constantly obsessed by what time it is, what you have to get done. Etc.
Just try it. Then tell me what you think. Email your experience(s) to me, no matter when you do it. I want to hear what it is like. jonathan@thewayofpeace.net
I want people to pass this on to their faith communities. I want to see this take root. I am with you on this, I still have to try this, to see how it goes for me, for my wife, for our time together. To think about how it will affect things to live in the heat we live in now, and the cold we might live in one day. Even in the latter case, we could be creative. Families could gather and spend time together at a home with a fireplace. It could be a day of hot chocolate (water or milk boiled over the fire), blankets, etc. etc.
Blessings.
I think that one of the most meaningful and important ways we could apply this scripture today is to think of an energy rest. One day a week (and, if a week is too much, one day a month) set aside to be kept holy, sacred. A day (sundown to sundown) in which we use no energy, whether it is petrol or electric. We rest our cars, our appliances, our clocks, our air conditioners (if there is no danger to one's physical health in so doing), etc. We unplug everything. But we don't just make it a day of abstention. We take the time we would normally be driving, watching tv, listening to music, etc., and we sit with each other. We share meals, with families, with communities, with ourselves. We take time for reflection, for meditation, for going out to visit nature - a lake, a creek, a field. We don't make it an ascetic practice, but a way of honoring the beauty of the world without any electronic distractions. On the pragmatic side - imagine the massive impact upon carbon emissions if even half of the people of this country stopped driving and using electric power for ONE day a month, or moreso, one day a week, sundown to sundown. We sit in candlelight (I would allow for my own sabbath to be blessed with candlelight) and honor time together for sacred communion, reflection, and celebration. I encourage you all to think about it, and make it a day of beauty. Try one. Don't think about one day a week, or even a month. Try one day, Friday night to Saturday night. Make your meals in advance, plan what you will do. Have people over. Stock up on candles - ones that are kind to our world. See what joy you can have, playing games, writing letters, not being constantly obsessed by what time it is, what you have to get done. Etc.
Just try it. Then tell me what you think. Email your experience(s) to me, no matter when you do it. I want to hear what it is like. jonathan@thewayofpeace.net
I want people to pass this on to their faith communities. I want to see this take root. I am with you on this, I still have to try this, to see how it goes for me, for my wife, for our time together. To think about how it will affect things to live in the heat we live in now, and the cold we might live in one day. Even in the latter case, we could be creative. Families could gather and spend time together at a home with a fireplace. It could be a day of hot chocolate (water or milk boiled over the fire), blankets, etc. etc.
Blessings.
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