Transcript for April 26, 2009 by Ian Lawton

“The ecological crisis is doing what no other crisis in history has ever done — challenging us to a realization of a new humanity.” Jean Houston

I have been thinking a lot about the balance between change and acceptance. Whether it’s within your own life, in a relationship or in your engagement with the world around you, you hold some sort of balance between acceptance of who and where you are, and striving to become more. This balance relates also to the ecological crisis. On the one hand, you have passion and urgency about making changes. On the other hand, you know that the planet has a life of its own that is unfolding with or without you.

This is a profound spiritual tension. It’s part of the realization of a new humanity. Making green mainstream is the easy part. Creating a green consciousness in a community is a much deeper challenge. But it is worth the effort, or should I say it’s worth the effortless effort. Once you tap into this new consciousness, a perspective that includes all living things, as part of an evolutionary context, there is enormous care, but little struggle. That’s a phrase I will return to- enormous care, little struggle.

Over the last twenty years, the response to the ecological crisis has gone through many different stages, each of them has involved a balance of struggle and acceptance. My earliest memory of the ecological crisis was around the hole in the ozone and dreaded aerosols. It was all fear and doom. Aerosols were used to scareosol to death. Then the focus shifted to recycling. Suddenly, the relatively easy process of dumping our trash in a bag and taking it out back, became a science of its own. It felt like you had to be a chemist to know what plastic to put in which bin. Then the focus shifted to green consumerism, sustainable development, renewable energy, and hybrid cars. At each step along the way, there has been a sense of crisis and struggle that has eventually given way to mainstream acceptance. Where are we now? Eco-sensitivity has entered the mainstream.

Earth Day this year was a hundred times more prominent than in past years. Ryan Seacrest began American Idol last Tuesday with a cheery “Happy Earth Day”. I don’t think that would have happened even a year ago. During a commercial break, the new eco-friendly Chip Wrapper from SunShips was premiered. The commercial had the image of an empty chip wrapper sitting on top of a land fill. The image fast forwarded through ten weeks, during which time the wrapper gradually decomposed and merged with the landfill. The world’s first 100% compostable chip bag. Its due out by Earth Day in 2010.

The words to the song played in the commercial include these, “Who ever said that’s so impossible, doesn’t know me well.”

The ecological crisis has become an opportunity for humans to marvel at our ingenuity and resourcefulness. That’s great. But if that’s the only lesson we learn, we will have missed half the lesson; the other is the realization of a new humanity.

In England last month, the world’s first biodegradable chewing gum was released. The new gum becomes non-adhesive when dry and decomposes to dust within six weeks. It is expected to save millions of dollars in sidewalk clean up.

That we have the intelligence to biodegrade gum is exciting. However, if we don’t learn the inner lessons of the ecological crisis, we will be scraping sticky mess from under the tables of our consciousness for years to come.

Balancing Urgent Activism with Humility

How might we both make the practical changes necessary, and realize a new humanity? How will we balance the urgency for creative solutions, and the humility of the new consciousness?

George Carlin created a very profound skit on human arrogance in relation to the ecological crisis. I believe he wrote this in the early 1990s.

Here is a section of it, minus the expletives-

“We’re so self-important. So self-important. Everybody’s going to save something now. “Save the trees, save the bees, save the whales, save the snails.” And the greatest arrogance of all: save the planet. What? Are these people kidding me? Save the planet, we don’t even know how to take care of ourselves yet.

Did you ever think about the arithmetic? The planet has been here four and a half billion years. We’ve been here, what, a hundred thousand? Maybe two hundred thousand? And we have the CONCEIT to think that somehow we’re a threat?

The planet has been through a lot worse than us. Been through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drift, solar flares, sun spots, magnetic storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles…hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets and asteroids and meteors, worldwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays, recurring ice ages…And we think some plastic bags, and some aluminum cans are going to make a difference? The planet isn’t going anywhere. WE ARE!

We’re going away. And we won’t leave much of a trace, either. An evolutionary cul-de-sac. The planet’ll shake us off like a bad case of fleas. A surface nuisance.

The planet will be here for a long, long, LONG time after we’re gone, and it will heal itself, it will cleanse itself, ’cause that’s what it does. It’s a self-correcting system. The earth probably sees plastic as just another one of its children. Could be the only reason the earth allowed us to be spawned from it in the first place. It wanted plastic for itself. Didn’t know how to make it. Needed us. Could be the answer to our age-old egocentric philosophical question, “Why are we here?” Plastic…

See I don’t worry about the little things: bees, trees, whales, snails. I think we’re part of a greater wisdom than we will ever understand. A higher order. Call it what you want. Know what I call it? The Big Electron. The Big Electron… It doesn’t punish, it doesn’t reward, it doesn’t judge at all. It just is. And so are we. At least for a little while.”

Considering that Carlin wrote this in 1992, it is quite prophetic. At least he addresses one half of our equation- the humility. But what about the other half? What about the little things? Isn’t it possible that one day we might look back and realize that they were actually big things? Should you give up taking your canvas bags to the store? How do you keep the balance between humility and believing you can make a difference.

Urgency and Humility Are Not Opposites

An 18th centuy Jewish masters offers a clue-

Rabbi Simcha Bunam used to say, “Every person should have two pockets. In one, there should be a note that says bishvili nivra ha’olam, ‘for my sake was the world created.’ In the second, there should be a note that says anokhi afar va’efer, ‘I am dust and ashes.’”

What did he mean? Was he talking about the balance between humility and arrogance? Maybe.

The story is often used as a reminder that when you feel unimportant you should read the note about “for my sake the world was created” and if you are feeling over important, you should read the note that says “ I am dust and ashes.” Take it a little deeper.

What is the significance of ashes and dust? You know what I plan to do after I’m cremated. I want my ashes put in an envelope and mailed to the Internal Revenue Service with these words on the envelope, “Here- now you have everything.”

Traditionally, we have been taught that ashes represent sin, death and the meaninglessness of life. I understand the symbol differently. Rather than being a symbol of meaninglessness, I think of ashes as a symbol for the cycle of life. All things begin as ash, and all things end as bone dust that then sets off the cycle all over again. Ash is the reminder that nothing really ends. It just turns up in some other surprising form. You can cremate a body and still there will be something left; ashes. Rather than being a symbol of death, ashes are a reminder that nothing truly dies, and yet everything changes.

Now come back to the parable of the two pockets.

Those who are overwhelmed with an urgency to save the planet need to remember that we are dust and ashes, that is part of the earth. Not over and above the earth. You might still feel passionate, but keep your urgency in perspective.

Those who undervalue our role in saving the earth, and do little that is practical to make a difference might be reminded that we are co-creators with the earth. You have the ability to shape the future for yourself and future generations.

Rabbi Bunam offers his own explanation of the parable- “One must know how to use them, each one in its proper place and right time. For many make the mistake of using them in their opposite applications.”

Maybe they aren’t opposites at all. Maybe they are two ways of saying the same thing; two ways of saying that your fate and the earth’s fate are entwined. Depending on the perspective you may be stuck in, one or other statement may be more helpful to jolt you out of your narrow consciousness into something broad and inclusive. Either way, it is about humble urgency, or urgent humility depending on the emphasis you need at the time.

Ecology in Community

To be a green community requires both urgency and humility. It requires both changed light bulbs, and it requires an inner light bulb to light up with the reassuring realization that everything is ultimately in perfect order.

In a green community, people will cycle to church and recycle used bulletins. But a green community also wakes up to the wondrous realization that everything is part of a cycle of life and death.

Specifically, the realization of a new humanity might include these truths in community.

This earth, and this time, is all we have and all we need be concerned about. We need to shift our focus from the here after to the here and now.

The earth is itself a living system, of which humans are a part. But the earth’s living process is unfolding with or without human help.

Diversity, including biodiversity, is good for your soul because it prevents you from becoming locked into perspectives and therefore feeling superior.

Change is the nature of life- all things change, but nothing fully dies. It just moves into another cycle of life and rebirth. As Carlin said, “the planet isn’t going anywhere. We are.”

We aren’t as separate as our ego would have us believe. All are related. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the children of the earth.

Conclusion

I heard a relevant story about a community that was trying to go green. It was a Green Bike Scheme. Abandoned bikes were refurbished and painted green. Bike stands were erected at certain points around the town along with a notice explaining that bikes could be used and left at any authorized Green Bike site. 50 Bikes were distributed around the town the first day. Before the end of the day, all 50 bikes had been stolen. A week later, another batch of bikes were placed in the Green Bike sites. These bikes disappeared just as quickly. The town then gave up on the whole scheme.

It’s a nice parable of the need for both urgency and a change of consciousness. Until the people had sustainable consciousness, no green scheme would ever be sustainable.

Let me end with the phrase I began with- enormous care, little struggle. Maybe an appropriate balance to hold in relation to the earth is enormous care, as if it all depended on the small changes you make in your life, and little struggle because you know that the earth is its own living system on its own journey of death and rebirth.

What is your name for enormous care, and little struggle? Maybe equanimity, God, Higher Being, or the Big Electron?

Whatever you call it, you are a part of this wondrous whole, intimately related and significant. How could you not live with enormous care? At the same time, the only response is one of little struggle, for you honor the unfolding process of life. Namaste.