I have been finishing up the last chapter, Passion, of The Lamb, the Gospel According to Biff Christ's Childhood Friend by Christopher Moore. (Yes, you can pick up a copy at your local library.) For Christians and people living in a predominately Christian culture, this is holy week. In the spirit of holy week, I've been trying to think of a parallel for gardening. Plants are coming back, seedlings bursting through the ground, spring coming back. . .by itself this seems so cliche. I've heard that all before.
Yet during the holy week people do return to the source of their being on earth. Whether you are a practicing Christian, pagan, or religious in some of the many ways a person can be, my bet is that most people will be taking a holiday break this weekend and meet up with their families. I am an odd bird in that I will not be making such a consanguineous pilgrimage. But before you imagine me an orphan during this weekend of family retreat, I submit to you a metaphorical story to connect to family as well as the earth, the larger home.
What if we were to consider how we treat this ground we walk upon? How do we relate to our home?
If you are reading this blog, You have probably thought about how we treat the earth and the multitude of ways that we can live a sustainable life. Perhaps, you only eat meat once a week. Maybe the beef you eat is grass fed. Maybe you have eschewed meat altogether. You make sure to recycle and you are mindful of your transportation habits. Your good news is that the earth will be fine, but we, humans must change our ways if generations of us are to live eternally on this place called earth.
Is this the good news you carry with you when you go home?
Years ago before recycling was as accepted as it is now, I carried this home and the following is representative of what happened:
Me: Hey, where's the recycling?
Family member: What?
Me: This pop bottle can be recycled. Let's put that where we can take it to be recycled?
Family member: Oh I don't have time for that non-sense?
Me: huh?
Family member: It's just more work for me to do, just throw it away.
Me: But then it goes to a dump, it doesn't biodegrade. . .
Family member: What? What are you talking about? Get that bottle out of here!
Me: sigh. . ..
Maybe you had a similar experience with bringing the good news home, especially if you were away at college and returned home during the break. There are a variety of ways that people react to this good news. Family systems being what they are, the good news may fall upon deaf ears, if you are lucky. If family members are very tied to tradition, there may be some struggle with the good news, because it requires that we change our thinking. Could we be responsible for our behavior and how we relate to each other and our home on earth?Family member: What exactly are you learning up there at that college?
Me: sigh, maybe I should've stayed at school. . .
Family member: What! are you getting smart with me?
Another family member: Yeah, where's your common sense. . . got all that book learnin' and coming in here thinking you can tell us what to do
Me: huh?
Family member: This is Easter. We're supposed to be celebrating the resurrection of our Lord.
If you carried the burden of the good news of environmentalism to your family, you may have felt as if you were being targeted or scapegoated for any and every problem that always existed in your family. Or was it just me? So if you got home Friday night, you might be thinking, what's so good about it?Yet with time comes some wisdom, however small it may be. And if you are lucky, when you go home this year, the good news will have been resurrected. Without prompting, family members are putting those pop bottles in the recycling bin for the city curbside recycling program. As for me, I will be reusing the pop bottles as cloches to cover newly sprouted lettuce and the flower seedlings I've started. And in the spirit of remembering and celebrating, I will be bringing flowers and blue potato seeds to dinner this year.
Happy Easter! Happy Earth Day!
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