IndigoChild5559
Loving God and my neighbor as myself.
I thought this would be a good topic for a nice, friendly share.
Most of you are aware that I'm Jewish. There is a very well known verse from the Torah: Genesis 1:26 "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.'" For ages, this word "dominion" was interpreted to mean using and abusing nature as we saw fit, aka what is called the exploitative world view.
But something happened during the 20th century. The terrible impact of industrialism was becoming clear. People were dying from toxic waste. Animals were going extinct. Cities were covered by dark haze like Mordor. Books were written that shifted consciousness. Silent Spring by Rachel Carlson comes to mind. Other books slipped new values into minds without us even being aware, such as Tolkien's anti-industrial Lord of the Rings.
I vividly recall the moment someone first mentioned to me that they thought the word "dominion" meant "stewardship." I immediately adopted stewardship into my religious vocabulary. I had come to see the earth as a sort of garden, and we were its gardners. How did that happen?
Never underestimate the influence one can have on a small child. Every summer, my father took us camping up at Yosemite. Some of my fondest memories are being seven years old and trying to box trap steller jays and squirrels. Without fail, each year we would attend campfire talks given by the park rangers, where I learned all about John Muir and his conservation ethics. IOW, I had a steady diet of "The earth is valuable, beautiful, worth preserving in its natural state." To any Park Ranger reading this thread, I give you my eternal thanks.
When I was ten, I found a book someone had stashed in my school desk called "Friday the Arapaho Indian" by James Welch. I was enamored! It began a reading streak on everything Native American that lasted for years and years, and became a permanent affinity. I think I read every storybook about Indians in the entire children's section of my local library. I was exposed to an altogether different world view where humans were part of nature, rather than distinction, and where everything had a spirit, even rocks and trees and rivers. It was at this same age that an iconic commercial dominated TV screens: an American Indian canoeing down a river that has more and more trash in it. In the final scene, we see his agonized face, a single tear falling down his cheek.
In high school, my passion for Native American stories and books gave way to my love for everything JRR Tolkien. An underlying theme of environmentalism permeates the Lord of the Rings. Tolkien was a Catholic's Catholic, and had a sacramental view of the world--that creation is a reflection of Divine goodness and is a means through which God's grace can be experienced. Genesis 1:31 "And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good." This is the idea that the earth is intrinsically good, rather than only good when it serves human purposes.
Perhaps the best illustration of the environmentalism in the LOTR is the industrialization of Isengard by the dark wizard Saruman. Tolkien creates a sense of urgency, alarm, and devastation at the deforestation and building of machinery. What an epic revenge by nature when the Ents cleanse with a giant flood the mines and pits where ungodly things were forged.
And so, love of the natural world, and hatred of the industrialization that poisons it, was etched onto my soul before I had even reached adulthood.
For our children, and our children's children.
Fern Gully
Most of you are aware that I'm Jewish. There is a very well known verse from the Torah: Genesis 1:26 "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.'" For ages, this word "dominion" was interpreted to mean using and abusing nature as we saw fit, aka what is called the exploitative world view.
But something happened during the 20th century. The terrible impact of industrialism was becoming clear. People were dying from toxic waste. Animals were going extinct. Cities were covered by dark haze like Mordor. Books were written that shifted consciousness. Silent Spring by Rachel Carlson comes to mind. Other books slipped new values into minds without us even being aware, such as Tolkien's anti-industrial Lord of the Rings.
I vividly recall the moment someone first mentioned to me that they thought the word "dominion" meant "stewardship." I immediately adopted stewardship into my religious vocabulary. I had come to see the earth as a sort of garden, and we were its gardners. How did that happen?
Never underestimate the influence one can have on a small child. Every summer, my father took us camping up at Yosemite. Some of my fondest memories are being seven years old and trying to box trap steller jays and squirrels. Without fail, each year we would attend campfire talks given by the park rangers, where I learned all about John Muir and his conservation ethics. IOW, I had a steady diet of "The earth is valuable, beautiful, worth preserving in its natural state." To any Park Ranger reading this thread, I give you my eternal thanks.
When I was ten, I found a book someone had stashed in my school desk called "Friday the Arapaho Indian" by James Welch. I was enamored! It began a reading streak on everything Native American that lasted for years and years, and became a permanent affinity. I think I read every storybook about Indians in the entire children's section of my local library. I was exposed to an altogether different world view where humans were part of nature, rather than distinction, and where everything had a spirit, even rocks and trees and rivers. It was at this same age that an iconic commercial dominated TV screens: an American Indian canoeing down a river that has more and more trash in it. In the final scene, we see his agonized face, a single tear falling down his cheek.
In high school, my passion for Native American stories and books gave way to my love for everything JRR Tolkien. An underlying theme of environmentalism permeates the Lord of the Rings. Tolkien was a Catholic's Catholic, and had a sacramental view of the world--that creation is a reflection of Divine goodness and is a means through which God's grace can be experienced. Genesis 1:31 "And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good." This is the idea that the earth is intrinsically good, rather than only good when it serves human purposes.
Perhaps the best illustration of the environmentalism in the LOTR is the industrialization of Isengard by the dark wizard Saruman. Tolkien creates a sense of urgency, alarm, and devastation at the deforestation and building of machinery. What an epic revenge by nature when the Ents cleanse with a giant flood the mines and pits where ungodly things were forged.
And so, love of the natural world, and hatred of the industrialization that poisons it, was etched onto my soul before I had even reached adulthood.
For our children, and our children's children.
Fern Gully
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