Reflection on Thanksgiving Day

My reflections today come from my thoughts after attending the Collins Lecture last week, especially as it collides with the myth we tell about the first Thanksgiving. Americans gather to give thanks on the Fourth Thursday of November but others in our land think about history and our ancestors differently.

"Indigenous Americans tend to see this living world as a fantastic and beautiful creation engendering extremely powerful feelings of thankfulness and indebtedness, obliging us to behave as if we are all related to one another. An overriding characteristic of Native North American religion is that of gratitude, a feeling of overwhelming love and thankfulness for the gifts of the Creator and the earth/universe. Perhaps the most important aspect of indigenous cosmic visions is the conception of creation as a living process, resulting in a living universe in which a kinship exists between all things. Thus the Creators are our family, our Grandparents or Parents, and all of their creations are children who, of necessity, are also our relations.

Above all else, Native American spirituality is a land-based spirituality. The relationship between the natural environment, all the creatures living within it and the people are one of mystical inter-dependence." (Johnny Reb)

Land based spirituality was integral to the land based cultures which were distinctive to the native people. There were about 1000 different tribes when the first contact was made between European explorers and the Americas. Each of these tribes was uniquely adapted to the place where they lived. Such is the way of land based cultures. So while we often refer generally to the American Indian, they were far from a mono-culture or religion.

Now the difference between a land based culture and an indigenous culture has to do with rootedness to the land. A culture without roots in a particular place can up and move at any time and wherever it lands it will adapt the place to its culture. So we can see in the USA. There is really one dominant culture that is seen regardless of the part of the country. It is quite remarkable, though there is wide variation in the landscape, the culture remains essentially the same. Sure there are a few variations, but for the most part it is the same. In hot parts of the landscape there are air conditioners and in cold places central heating – but the temperature does not determine the style of clothing inside the mono culture homes. Think about it! There is a standard home, standard food, standard transportation, standard education and standard leisure time activities.

There was a time when our ancestors in faith were nomads, they took their faith with them but they did not wander far outside the bio-region they were adapted to.

With the spread of Christianity through global conquest, the culture of the conquerors was imposed along with Christianity which had by that time become un-rooted to the land.

In scripture, luscious green land with flowing water is always the image of Paradise for the desert people who first held the writings as sacred. Those of us who live in such an earthly Paradise, have another task, and that is to protect and care for the land that has become our home - without inflicting damage to the land that is home for others.

This makes me think of the story of the Garden of Eden and how Adam and Eve were not content with Paradise. They were tempted to want more and I think that is the same for the dominant consumer culture that is spreading around the world.

In the dominant culture people give thanks for family and friends and for their homes and jobs and health – and all in all they are grateful not to be poor.

Indigenous people thanked God for life; for trees, and plants; for fish, birds and all animals. In their own natural setting, indigenous people were content with what they had and they showed their gratitude by tending the garden of their environment. Stripped from their land they became rootless, despondent and depressed. Many died.

On this Thanksgiving Day Weekend, I would invite all who read this, wherever you may be to begin or continue the task of becoming rooted in the place in which you live. Get to know the native plants and trees. Discover who lived on the land before you or your ancestors and gain from their knowledge of paradise on earth so that together we can preserve the Earth. Let all people from the dominant culture learn to live more simply so that our excess goods can go the people for whom they are necessities.

And let us all learn to live in gratitude. 

Giving thanks each day for life; for the beauty of the earth; for sky and wind and water; for the joy of creatures;  for the love of family and friends, and for all who are now a part of the place where you can now gather to give thanks and praise.

  

Doctrine of discovery

I had the opportunity to attend the Collins Lecture on Thursday. Every year Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon invites speakers who can challenge the participants to grow in their theological/spiritual understanding and practice. In the past they have had speakers like Bishop Desmond Tutu, Richard Rohr and Bill McKibbons. This time the topic was timely yet somber. Participants were asked to listen to the stories of people who inhabited the Pacific Northwest prior to the coming of Europeans.

The beginning included a great deal of ritual and as always the native cultures are far less enamored with clock time than Europeans have been taught to be. The gathering starts when the people have assembled and are ready. The gathering, as well as individual talks, ends when the speakers are finished. If a person has not participated with the native population before they are often very stressed by the fluid time frame. There is something very northern European about timeliness that has been ingrained into the psyches of most European Americans as well as those who have been enculturated to believe that time is fixed and therefore all things must fit with the workings of a machine - the clock.

In the case of the event on Thursday, the room was ready and the attendees had gathered but some of the most important guest speakers and presenters were not ready. The invited dignitaries included the last traditionally trained tribal leader of a tribe that comes from the northern coast of British Columbia. It would have been a grave insult to begin without this elderly man whose spirituality not only glowed outward from his eyes, but has been infused into the many people he has taught over the years. He was whisked away by the elders of his tribe as a small child so that the officials from the Canadian government would not take this descendant of chiefs from time's beginning to a residential school to be indoctrinated with western ways that would prevent his learning what he needed to guide his people as an adult. Under the guidance of elders he learned their traditional way of life, a life in harmony with creatures and all of creation, a life of gratitude and joy. And so we waited until this 87 year old spiritual leader was present and ready to pray over us in his native tongue as he came in down the aisle with other leaders from his tribe. He brought grace to the gathering and added to the sense of the sacred.

Speakers focused on the 'legal and religious justifications' for the conquest of the Americas by European Christians. I heard enough about the Doctrine of Discovery and Manifest Destiny to make me feel very sad -- but not enough to feel fully enlightened so I ordered several books including one by Robert Miller who was the first speaker: Native America, Discovered and Conquered: Thomas Jefferson, Lewis and Clark, and Manifest Destiny. (Winnipeg, Canada: Bison Books, Jul 1, 2008)

It was hard to hear stories of people ripped away from their land, forced to sign treaties that were never honored, denied the ability to teach their own children, and oppressed by the very nation that proclaims to be the land of the free. After a while I began to feel so down that I wanted the presentation to stop or else for the speakers to give me something to do to bring about healing or change. I found myself expressing this at lunch time and breaks. "Why won't the speakers give us something to hang onto? A door to go through to being fixing things or to make things better?" It has taken me some time to really process what I heard, and to know they did it just right.

Several times speakers said that it was not their desire to cause guilt, and that individual apologies were not wanted. After all, they were perfectly aware that the people gathered to hear them were not individually responsible for the past. What they did ask from us was to recognize that regardless of the "no fault" reality for present day people, present day European Americans and all who have been assimilated into the American way of life, really do benefit from the tragedy that befell the native people of this land - that is their reality.

As beneficiaries there are somethings that we must do. First of all we must learn a new language; the language of the place where we now live. This does not mean learning to speak fluently in a native tongue, rather it means to learn the names of the people who lived in this place before us and acknowledge the place names, rivers, mountains etc. that come from the native languages. For me that means recognizing and learning about the Clackamas Chinook people as well as the Calapooia tribe. I am grateful that I have already begun to do this in a small way, but recognizing how important it is I have ordered some books that will help me to grow in knowledge. I also am making some efforts to participate in other events and efforts that include the wisdom of the native populations.

I have several grandchildren who are registered tribal members. Through their parents, my daughters and sons in law, I am learning. Sometimes, I am learning as they learn since their heritage was not passed down. Together we are trying to put our roots down more deeply into the land, learning from the wisdom that is here, healing ourselves as we heal the land.

I know now that it is not the job of the native people to make me feel better about the past. It is my job to support the native people as they work to renegotiate treaties, reclaim their heritage and protect the land and the creatures that they so ardently desire to protect. In this way, working, together all the people currently in this land can make the future a kinder more loving place for everyone. At least that is my hope and prayer.       

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from the inside out

I feel hollow tonight. Empty. Drained.
I read the news from Paris and feel sick.
I think of the young people at the concert and I think of my children and grandchildren.
This intraspecies war has been raging far too long.
I do not want to be afraid. I do not want my children to be afraid.
I don't want anyone to live in fear.
But when I hear world leaders saying that they will not give in to fear, I do not understand.
At a very deep level something is wrong and we can't pretend that just doing more of the same without being afraid can possibly work. Fear arises naturally. It is the warning our bodies give us when we need to be careful, to change our direction, take evasive action or rethink what we are doing.
However can people, mothers, fathers, lovers and others not be afraid when they see such carnage? such meaningless loss of life?

It sickens me that anyone or any group should kill innocent people.
But I wonder, what does it mean to be innocent? Not as an individual, I know what that means.
But as a species; are we innocent?
Can we be innocent if at the same time we remain unaware of how our actions affect others?
I believe in the goodness of people, my family, friends and neighbors, the people across the borders and around the world. People are people.

Mature and healthy people do not choose to intentionally hurt others when they go about their daily lives, going to work or school, shopping and cooking, tending to the sick and watching the little children. To be human is to care about others, to love and be loved, to wonder and learn, to create art and dance, to sing and enjoy the world in communion with others. How is it that so many of us have begun to move through the world distracted, protecting ourselves from others rather that reaching out to share in our humanity?

Something is wrong. It seems that some basic part of our humanity has become infected with something sick or evil, with something that is destroying our species from the inside out.
How can we attend to this threat if we allow innocence to absolve us from discernment? How is it that we can always blame those others - whoever they are - asserting that they never have a reason to rage? As if they have given up their humanity by choice, for no reason except a desire to continue killing.. How can that be?

What has happened to the human family? With some so wealthy that they are oblivious to the destitution of others, and some so poor that they cannot rise up? Yet most are just trying to live their lives, going about their activities sadly unaware that they have become disconnected from the world community; avoiding the reality that something is dreadfully wrong.

Until a moment like this forces us to stop and reflect.
Carnage again. It is not human. Something is wrong.

What should we do?

Every seed-bearing plant

I was surprised but happy to finally see a post on the Catholic Climate Covenant website about the relationship between meat eating and climate change. I am surprised because it is so hard to find anyone in the Catholic context talking about such a connection.  The issue of food/climate/health/compassionate living and my faith are interconnected. I found some important sections of the new encyclical by Pope Francis that point in the direction I feel called... but they are yet to be reflected upon within the wider faith community. For example consider paragraph 92.

"Moreover, when our hearts are authentically open to universal communion, this sense of fraternity excludes nothing and no one. It follows that our indifference or cruelty towards fellow creatures of this world sooner or later affects the treatment we mete out to other human beings. We have only one heart, and the same wretchedness which leads us to mistreat an animal will not be long in showing itself in our relationships with other people. Every act of cruelty towards any creature is “contrary to human dignity”. We can hardly consider ourselves to be fully loving if we disregard any aspect of reality: “Peace, justice and the preservation of creation are three absolutely interconnected themes, which cannot be separated and treated individually without once again falling into reductionism.
 Everything is related, and we human beings are united as brothers and sisters on a wonderful pilgrimage, woven together by the love God has for each of his creatures and which also unites us in fond affection with brother sun, sister moon, brother river and mother earth."

I am particularly interested in the implications for acting on this paragraph in light of what is known about the animal agriculture industry. 

In the current edition of the local Catholic Sentinel there is a letter to the editor from a writer who makes the claim that "animals were created for us to eat." This sentiment is simply astounding to me. In Genesis God creates all of the animals and God says they are good... not good to eat. God also says humans are good... and not as a food supplement either. The writer of the letter seemed to think that increased meat production would help to solve world hunger.

Scripture does tell us that God gave all the creatures food to eat. To humans God said: “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food." (Genesis 1:19) God also planned for the animals saying. "And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.”

So in the beginning no living creatures were eaten. Then fast forward to the great flood, (Noah's Ark) and we discover that after this major calamity God gave some new instructions. (Genesis 9: 2-4)
"The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands. 3Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.4“But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it."

Unfortunately for the animal world, humans have been living as if they are just coming off the ark for thousands of years now. And clearly, animals live in dread of us. The vast majority of creatures that live today are under the direct control of humans. Billions of animals are raised under horrible circumstances with short miserable lives so that the wealthy of the world can eat them. Even with all the artificial growth hormones and nutrients animals still need to eat in their short lives and the food that they eat is grown on land that could be growing food directly for human consumption. It takes enormous amounts of water and land to feed the billions of animals incarcerated on the animal death row of the food world.

If someone were to argue that some meat eating is ok... I would challenge them regarding how much and what kind. In scripture there are stories of killing a fattened calf for celebratory events, but these events did not take place three times a day. The shear quantity of animals killed to be eaten and the enormous amount of waste left along with water and land for feed, render meat eating a taste only for those who desire conspicuous consumption.

No, brother. Animals were not created just to be eaten. They are a marvelous part of our amazing Earth... and they are our brothers and sisters in creation. They have lives, enjoy eating and drinking fresh water, playing in the water and laying in the sun. They raise families, seek to protect their young and learn new things as they continue to evolve.
    

water... what are we doing with it?

During the height of the Ethiopian famine, when there were pictures of small children with hunger bloated stomachs, there were thousands of acres of land being used to grow feed for cattle in Asia.
Children starved while land that could have grown food was growing feed for cattle that were eaten by wealthy people half a world away.
I have never gotten over the horrifying pictures and the nonsensical values that were being used to determine the right use of the land.

Now I am horrified again. The pictures of the massive fires and extensive destruction in the American Southwest were heart wrenching this past summer and now I have learned that in the midst of the deserts, in Arizona and California as well, foreign companies have huge acreages of land where they are raising alfalfa to feed dairy cows half a world away. These foreign companies like growing alfalfa in the desert because the growing season is long and there is little chance of rain spoiling the crops. Yet in order to do this, grow alfalfa in the desert, millions of gallons of water must be pumped out of aquifers deep in the earth.

Apparently some of these companies have expertise in sucking deserts dry as they have already done that in their homelands which is why they need to come to the US. The underground aquifers provide water for all vegetation, humans and animals that already live in the region -- but they are not an infinite source. Certainly there is already enough misuse of water by people who decide to live in the desert for the sun but want access to water as if they live in a rain forest - but this is over the top! And where are the laws? They have yet to be drafted to protect water for the eco-sytem, for human and animal life.

Sucking the water out of aquifers under these southwestern deserts will destroy the areas for years to come- maybe forever as far as humans are concerned. Drawing down the water level means that people who currently live there will soon have to re-dig their wells, extending them downward at tremendous cost in order to reach water that is necessary for life. I think it was in the sci-fi movie Oblivion that the aliens were sucking water out of the earth. I wonder if the writers were aware of what is happening?

Just in case it hasn't occurred to you, using extraordinary amounts of water in order to grow and export alfalfa for dairy cows increases the already phenomenal amount of water needed to produce a gallon of milk from 1000 to 2500 gallons for the people who are the consumers of the milk that comes from the cows who will eat this alfalfa. Did you get that? 2500 gallons of water to produce a single gallon of milk. Whatever are these people thinking and who is it that has the kind of money needed along with the desire to do such a thing?

Recently I purchased 'The Sustainability Secret: Rethinking Our Diet to Transform the World." It is written by Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn who produced "Cowspiracy" a movie that changed my diet forever. (Published by Earth Aware Editions, San Rafael CA, 12015)  The book expands on the movie and offers updated details. There is a pivotal chapter on water that everyone who needs water to live should read! If I  remember correctly one story in the book tells of a person who didn't think there were large cattle feeding operations in their part of California. They were stunned to learn that
such operations do exist but are deliberately hidden away to avoid interference by humans who might not like what goes on. I wonder how such a person might act knowing about these alfalfa growing operations in the desert... ?

I have heard many times that the next series of wars will no longer be about oil -- they will be about water. If we let corporations, local or international, suck our common aquifers dry we are only bringing on the water wars even sooner. We don't have to drink milk... We Do have to drink water.

All Hallows

It is at this time of year, when the harvest is done and the earth is ready to rest, that we ponder the death of those we have loved. On November 1st many Christians celebrated All Saints Day. It is a day to reflect on those who have gone before us, especially those people who have had a positive impact on our lives. 
Remembering and honoring the dead is an ancient human tradition.

Halloween is now considered a children’s holiday but it had its origin among the pre- Christian Celtic peoples who celebrated the festival of Samhain on this date. It was for them both the beginning of the year and the beginning of winter. The harvest was finished and foods were preserved and stored away to be used during the cold time of year. It was also the time to bring domestic animals back from the summer pastures and make ready for the winter months. Samhain marked the end of one cycle of seasons and the beginning of a new cycle in the never ending cycles of birth and death.

People believed that during Samhain the ghosts of the dead were able to mingle with the living because it was the time when the souls of those who had died during the year traveled into the next world. On the evening before, people lit bonfires to assist the dead on their journey and they also offered gifts of food, fruits, and vegetables.

The early Christian missionaries in their zeal tried to eliminate the holiday but they only drove it underground. Much later All Souls day was instituted on the day after All  Saints in order to acknowledge what the people already celebrated and to honor the dead including those not known to be saints. It was at this time that the ghosts wandering on the evening before All Saints were declared to be evil and stories of ghosts and fear were spread.

Honoring the dead is part of many other cultures as well. After the conquest of Mexico the traditional month long Aztec festival that honored the dead was moved to coincide with All Saints and All Souls days. On All Souls, (Dia de los Muertos) family members and friends travel to cemeteries to be with the souls of the deceased and to honor them with remembrance and the use of decorated altars, food, and beverages. Pictures of the dead and other belongings or items from the past are part of the display. Family and friends tell stories of the deceased to encourage them to visit.

Although most Christians profess belief in the communion of Saints, in resurrection and life beyond, they often react to death as if it is the end. With  scientific minds the idea of such visits from the dead are dismissed even though there are many people who do have such encounters. Most people are reluctant to talk about their experiences because they are afraid that they or their stories will be discounted.

I feel blessed that my mother came to me in a dream last week. It was an extraordinary occurrence for me and it generated a great sigh of relief deep in my heart. As her guardian I had to make the call about going back to the hospital or another round of antibiotics and though I acted with confidence (and consultation with siblings and doctors) … I had some lingering doubts about making the right choices. When I saw her healthy appearance in the dream, a normal weight, ability to walk and to be herself as I knew her, those doubts faded away. 
You can say it was only a brief moment in a dream – but for me it was reassuring and will have lasting significance. Experiences of a divine nature can always be dismissed, but those who have the experience are changed.

On All Saints Day we bring out pictures of deceased loved ones. We tell their stories. Some of us even call upon them for prayers on our behalf. We do this so that we can make manifest the connections that remain between those who have died and those still living.   
Death is a powerful mystery. 

May you too be comforted and reassured, by the after death experience of those you love.