“Have you got any news of the iceberg?” the old polar bear from the Liverpool zoo asked at the time of the loss of the Titanic. “My family were on it, you see! Have you got any news of the iceberg? They mean the whole world to me.”
This tongue-in-cheek song by Les Barker helps us think of life from an alternative perspective.
In these days when I see our society caught somewhere between a petro-high and an awareness of Arctic meltdown, I wonder what could help us turn away from denial and toward important truths.
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We presume that we should be able to go wherever and whenever we want. We think we can’t live without our quick trips to Las Vegas and our ocean cruise.
What was once an occasional opportunity has become a regular necessity. Why should we gear down? How? To what end?
Thinking about greening our way of living is more than a question of economics. Maybe our pocketbook won’t feel the pinch, but what about creation?
A handful of theologians beckon the church to be eco-centred and not just people centred. But it’s hard for denominations to grasp that our relationship with earth has spiritual implications.
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” Could this mean that those who are in right relationship with the earth will receive abundant life?
It’s up to the grassroots people to acknowledge their rootedness in the earth and look to how that relationship extends through the whole of Creation.
“Touch the earth lightly,” we sing. “Use the earth gently. Nourish the life of the world in our care: gift of great wonder, ours to surrender, trust for the children tomorrow will bear.”
