Love to the Bitter End

To live in this world

you must be able

to do three things:

To love what is mortal;

to hold it

against your bones knowing

your own life depends on it;

And, when the time comes to let it go,

to let it go.

                   Mary Oliver

Last week’s Biblical Ecology class is still fresh in my mind, and I have to get a few things off my chest. The discussion focused on some biblical quotes suggesting that environmental destruction is caused by sin, and is evidence that we are being punished by G-d.  If the religious insight the author is trying to articulate is that greed, lying, disregard for the welfare of the earth, refusal to love God above all else, refusal to love our neighbor as ourselves, and willingness to kill without just cause—all of which are violations of Torah—are at the root of environmental problems, then I see the point entirely. 

After all, Yhwh (usually translated as “the Lord”) is a form of the verb “to be” and it seems to me that the magnificent religious insight here is that the Source of Being has given us some guidelines about how to be in the flow of life (or the Tao, if you’re ok with mixing religious insights).  It may not be that Yhwh, or the Source of Being, is punishing us.  It may just be that destruction is a natural consequence of greed.  Clearly the author of Isaiah meant punish, but it’s not necessary to share his entire worldview in order to see his point. 

But I digress.  The conversation turned to the arrogance involved in thinking that mere humans are so important as to have such an impact on the natural world, and the irony that we are having that impact even so.  While that majority of people were on board with the idea that humans are the root cause of our current environmental issues, there were a few who dismissed those concerns, saying that global warming will lead to another ice age.  Since there have been ice ages before and our species survived why worry?

The sad thing is that those classmates are not alone in their perspective. It seems major decision-makers in our country are in denial about the magnitude of the environmental problem and willing to put short term monetary gain above long term species survival.  It pisses me off to have to share a planet with people who have that viewpoint.

I mean, if we did a risk-benefit analysis on it, making changes even if another ice age is inevitable wouldn’t cost us much.  However, if global environmental crisis is avoidable, we lose everything by not taking corrective action.  It’s possible we could destroy most living organisms on our planet, and maybe life on earth itself (i.e. if we are not here to tend to our nuclear reactors, they will spill toxic radiation and it’s difficult to judge where that chain reaction will stop).  Can’t the “global warming naysayers” just be sportsmanlike even if they’re not in complete agreement, give the potentially horrible outcome?

I felt like giving up, deciding not to care since “what difference can I make anyway? I’m only one person.”  Why not just go shopping?

But here’s what I’ve decided…

I will view myself as Earth’s hospice attendant.  Maybe the world is dying, and there’s nothing I can do about it. But I will love the world as it dies.  I will be gentle, I will be present, and I will let compassion guide my actions. I will love everything as it perishes, and I will love Life to the bitter end.  After all, isn’t everything I love doomed to end whether or not the whole world does?  We all die eventually, but that doesn’t mean we should stop loving each other and taking care of each other while we’re alive.  Who knows?  Maybe loving the Earth that way will make a difference in the world.