Weekly Meditation
Its hard for a modern generation to understand Thoreau, who lived beside a pond but didn’t own water skis or a snorkel. (or a jet ski, editor’s add). ----Loudon Wainwright III
As the national conscience has been awakened by $140 per barrel oil, it is appropriate to think about America’s first conservationist. Thoreau wrote, “Simplify, simplify, simplify!” Words easier said than practiced. I certainly entertain those urges to escape to a beach or stream and live, “ Oh so simply.” Then practicality sets in.
Where do we find balance? Wendell Berry, the noted conservationist and author, was recently interviewed about the contradiction of his need to rely on the machinery of the corporate world to get his message out. He said, “ There are contradictions in it, no doubt about that. There’s an absolute lethal contradiction in my driving and flying around to talk about conservation and local economies. But you have to live in the world the way it is. You cannot declare yourself to good for it and move away. You have to take the effort wherever you can take it. You’ve got to have allies.”
Berry could also be talking about our faith and love for another. We feel closer to God through silence, prayer, and meditation. Like Thoreau we yearn to be alone with God at our symbolic ponds — a church, a monastery, a quiet retreat, or just alone in one’s study. This is very important, but again we must find balance. Faith and love have to be practiced. When we are called to love one another it is simply not just sitting at home and having warm feeling for everyone. It is an instruction to actually treat people as you love them, and to take “the effort wherever you can take it.”
“ Love is the catalyst for concrete action, which is taking responsibility for what we do here and now. It seems to me that in some ways this kind of love is the salvation of the world.” -- J. Fearnside
As the national conscience has been awakened by $140 per barrel oil, it is appropriate to think about America’s first conservationist. Thoreau wrote, “Simplify, simplify, simplify!” Words easier said than practiced. I certainly entertain those urges to escape to a beach or stream and live, “ Oh so simply.” Then practicality sets in.
Where do we find balance? Wendell Berry, the noted conservationist and author, was recently interviewed about the contradiction of his need to rely on the machinery of the corporate world to get his message out. He said, “ There are contradictions in it, no doubt about that. There’s an absolute lethal contradiction in my driving and flying around to talk about conservation and local economies. But you have to live in the world the way it is. You cannot declare yourself to good for it and move away. You have to take the effort wherever you can take it. You’ve got to have allies.”
Berry could also be talking about our faith and love for another. We feel closer to God through silence, prayer, and meditation. Like Thoreau we yearn to be alone with God at our symbolic ponds — a church, a monastery, a quiet retreat, or just alone in one’s study. This is very important, but again we must find balance. Faith and love have to be practiced. When we are called to love one another it is simply not just sitting at home and having warm feeling for everyone. It is an instruction to actually treat people as you love them, and to take “the effort wherever you can take it.”
“ Love is the catalyst for concrete action, which is taking responsibility for what we do here and now. It seems to me that in some ways this kind of love is the salvation of the world.” -- J. Fearnside
posted by Webb Hubbell | 8:28 AM
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