Excerpts from Common Sense

This weekend I was at a graduation ceremony for a course I've just completed looking at many of these issues. In it a poem was read that has stayed with me since, and that I find quite beautiful. I thought I'd share it here:

Excerpts from Common Sense

We have been born

into a moment

of unprecedented danger and opportunity.

Our failure to act

is itself a choice.

There is nowhere to hide

from this awareness.

It is time.

Our purpose here

is to build a bridge.

The purpose of the bridge

is to span the distance

between our present situation

and our vision of a better world.

The beauty of a bridge is that,

once it is in place,

anyone can walk on it.

A few people can build a bridge

that can be walked on by many.

. . .

On the edge of the dream

we face our deepest doubts.

Now that it all is almost real

a terrible fear of success takes hold

and we grab desperately, incontrollably, for failure.

One last chance to get off easy.

Who among us really wants to save the world,

to be born again into two thousand more years

of struggle?

How much sweeter to be the doomed generation,

floating gently on the errors and villainy of others,

towards some glorious apocalypse now . . .

Hallelujah! It's not my fault--

Bring on the end times!

We hate our enemies

to provide ourselves in advance

with excuses for possible failure.

Only when we give up

the comforts of pessimism

the luxury of enemies

the sweetness of helplessness

can we see beyond our own doubts.

I am speaking today of a great possibility

a chance to return to life

a chance to create a world for our children

not worse than the one we have

How dare I be discouraged in the work

by anything so trivial

as the fear of personal failure?

. . .

There are bridges to build

new maps of consciousness to be delivered

to every planetary address

in every planetary language.

We are ironworkers, skywalkers,

stubborn messengers

of light and life.

O friends

don't forget

why we're here!

The truth is, we have the skills

and we have the courage

if we could only keep our minds

on what we really want.

. . .

How to prevent world catastrophe:

1) Admit that it could happen.

2) Decide that it will not happen.

3) Commit your vision and energy to number two

without ever forgetting number one.

To choose to build a bridge

is the essential act of love.

- Paul Williams

EarthAbbey

Related to the post below. The writer of that article, Chris Sutherland, has a side-project called Earth Abbey. It seems an interesting wee venture, and one I'll explore further...

http://www.earthabbey.com/

Sinning Against the Earth?

http://www.biblesociety.org.uk/exploratory/articles/sunderlandsummer08.pdf

This is quite some article, in such a short space it seems to perfectly critique the need of any spiritual discipline to be rooted in its environment and to be aware of the surrounding geography.

I like the way he starts the piece by bringing past campaigns, or raising of 'human consciousness', that seem 'obviously' in the right or wrong to us now, like slavery. It also reminds us of the past successes these campaigns have achieved and what can be possible. That Christian people played such a big part in anti-slavery is also interesting. Chris Sutherland is right to appeal to Christian folk to get involved in this next great shift in 'human consciousness'. Christianity needs to be more rooted in environmental issues. The environmental movement likewise, I believe, can learn much from spiritual disciplines.

It is interesting that Chris Sutherland here mentions Joanna Macy, whose deeply held Buddhism profoundly influences her work. It is clear when you read her work that her spiritual disciplines come through in her environmental activities, indeed, I would say, they are the reason for her involvement in the environmental movement.

Obviously this article is coming from a Christian viewpoint and speaking to a Christian audience. The environmental movement ought to be all the richer from wherever it draws its spiritual sustenance, but there is hope here for both movements. If Christianity can re-connect with its environment, it can challenge itself to look at what it really stands for.

"The challenge goes right to the root of capitalism and it finds the Church deeply compromised. Authentic Christianity has always been deeply suspicious of material views of prosperity..." Here here! If this message was heard more often I would reckon that the (Christian) churches - in this country at least - wouldn't be dying like they are. This is a much needed voice for Christians to hear.

It's also a much needed voice for environmentalists to hear too I think. Sunderland says the challenge we face "... is ultimately a spiritual one" Again I could agree more. In order to get through the impending ecocide, we need to address both our material greed and spiritual shallowness. At least in the West we do. This is an environmental issue, but it's also a spiritual issue.

"The time is coming when it will be hard to call yourself a Christian and live an earth destructive lifestyle. That is a challenge to us all."

I really hope so. Both for Christians and for any other spiritual tradition. It is in crisis's such as these that we see the inadequacy of either spirituality or geography by themselves.