Jim Taylor's Columns - 'Soft Edges' and 'Sharp Edges'

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Published on Wednesday, February 8, 2017

A Declaration of Interdependence

Daily, the news suggests that human civilization spirals toward chaos. On some parts of the planet, humans wage war with other humans. In other parts, they war with words, firing accusations and denials at each other, engendering hatred and hostility.

            Yet evolution teaches that survival is not to the fittest, or the strongest, but to the most cooperative. Physics, astronomy, sociology, psychology – all reinforce the same message. We do not live in a stand-alone universe. We are not independent, but interdependent.

            I’ll repeat that word, in case you slid over it – INTERdependent.

            Over the years, many organizations (including some religions) have asserted that truth with Declarations of Interdependence. (One of the better ones was written by Will Durant, in 1945, as World War II was ending.)

            A more recent version comes from biologist David Suzuki, written for the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. In today’s context, it is almost a creed. It also lends itself to congregational use, either read in unison or responsively (and responsibly).

 

THIS WE KNOW:

We are the earth, through the plants and animals that nourish us.
We are the rains and the oceans that flow through our veins.
We are the breath of the forests of the land, and the plants of the sea.
We are human animals, related to all other life as descendants of the firstborn cell.
We share with these kin a common history, written in our genes.
We share a common present, filled with uncertainty.
And we share a common future, as yet untold.
We humans are but one of thirty million species weaving the thin layer of life enveloping the world.
The stability of communities of living things depends upon this diversity.
Linked in that web, we are interconnected — using, cleansing, sharing and replenishing the fundamental elements of life.
Our home, planet Earth, is finite; all life shares its resources and the energy from the sun, and therefore has limits to growth.
For the first time, we have touched those limits.
When we compromise the air, the water, the soil and the variety of life, we steal from the endless future to serve the fleeting present.

 

THIS WE BELIEVE:

Humans have become so numerous and our tools so powerful that we have driven fellow creatures to extinction, dammed the great rivers, torn down ancient forests, poisoned the earth, rain and wind, and ripped holes in the sky.
Our science has brought pain as well as joy; our comfort is paid for by the suffering of millions.
We are learning from our mistakes, we are mourning our vanished kin, and we now build a new politics of hope.
We respect and uphold the absolute need for clean air, water and soil.
We see that economic activities that benefit the few while shrinking the inheritance of many are wrong.
And since environmental degradation erodes biological capital forever, full ecological and social cost must enter all equations of development.
We are one brief generation in the long march of time; the future is not ours to erase.
So where knowledge is limited, we will remember all those who will walk after us, and err on the side of caution.

 

THIS WE RESOLVE:

All this that we know and believe must now become the foundation of the way we live.
At this turning point in our relationship with Earth, we work for an evolution: from dominance to partnership; from fragmentation to connection; from insecurity, to interdependence.

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Copyright © 2017 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups, and links from other blogs, welcomed; all other rights reserved.

                  To comment on this column, write jimt@quixotic.ca

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YOUR TURN

 

It seems a number of you grew up with the same ethic of “making do” with what you have, or what you can hoard.

 

Jim Henderschedt said the column, “took me back a couple years when Betty and I tackled the chore of ;down-sizing’ for our move to a retirement community. Early on I stood in my garage, looking at all the wood I had accumulated over 40+ years with the intent of using it someday. In utter frustration, the only solution I saw was to rent a "dumpster" and load it up. Only the wise advice of a young neighbor saved me from a substantial financial out-lay. One Saturday morning, with power saw in hand and the assistance of Betty to help steady the boards, I reduced my stockpile to smaller pieces that would fit into trash bags.”

 

Tom Watson thought his father “was a heck of a lot better at making do than I am.

            “Back in the late 1920s he was studying to be a druggist. He was attending university and also working part-time at a drug store. He said that after paying his tuition and room-and-board he had 25 cents per week left over. One way he ‘made do’ was to dilute a bottle of pop half with water. He continued to do that all the rest of his life.

            “Part-way through Dad's studies, his father became ill so Dad went home to take over the family farm. Never flush with money, he fixed as much as he could around the farm rather than paying to get it fixed. By times the fixing was done with binder twine and baling wire. He used what he had and made do.”

 

Peter Scott suggested, “I fear that the fine art of ‘making do’ is all but lost in North American society today.  My parents both came out of poverty and they taught me that ‘making do’ was the right way to live, so like you I have many boxes and bins of stuff that I ‘might need someday’.  It is one of the great pleasure of my life to be able to repair something with a part from my lifetime's accumulation of stuff.  

            “One would think that with the lip-service we pay to the slogan ‘reduce, re-use, re-cycle’ that ‘making do’ would still be in vogue, but it's not.  The environmental emphasis in our society today is almost entirely on re-cycling, the part of the trilogy from which money can be made.  Credit cards and debit cards and lines of credit and all designed to seduce us into buying more things we don't need and paying for them with money we don't have in the vague hope that we will somehow find the money before payment is due.  I guess that's why when I go to pay for my gas with cash I have to stand behind a line of people buying lottery tickets.”

 

John Shaffer (the one from Auburn, WN) sent two letters Here’s one of them: “I wished we lived closer and didn't have to deal with that pesky border.  I could share lots of things from my garage with you.  Nuts and bolts for starters.  And a whole box of light bulbs.  Where we live now, ‘they’ take care of such things;  I no longer need the odds and ends collected over a lifetime.  It would give you more to ‘make do’ with.”

 

Old friend Sam Strauss wrote, “This sounds very familiar.  Couldn't figure out my behavior.  I have a similar collection and for the life of me, I can't figure out why.  You just gave me a better understanding.”

 

Most of the writers sharing similar experiences were men. Fortunately, a couple of women also wrote.

            This from Barb Taft: “We, too, held on to all those 'little' things -- and then we moved to an apartment ….!”

 

And this from Isabel Gibson: “Making do has value and limits. Your decision/determination to make do with the broader circumstances of your life reminds me of the old saying about blooming where you're planted. As with most old sayings, it has some truth, but can be carried too far.

            “As just one example, I think it's OK to do what comes to hand (rather than eternally chasing the elusive and ever-receding perfect career), but I must also be ready to pull up stakes if I'm in a situation where I can't bloom -- as you did.”

 

The column made Dale Perkins think of toolboxes: “I was reminded of a passage out of Gretta Vosper's book -- "With or Without God" -- she named ‘Creating a Spiritual Toolbox’. She was getting at something you began this column with, i.e., your lived pattern of accumulating tools.  My dad was like that (and I have probably inherited that same tendency -- I still keep tool boxes Dad made for me, probably 50 years ago, crammed full of tools I rarely use. But I’m glad they are there, just in case...”.

            Incidentally, Dale organized a weekend session with Gretta Vosper in Victoria, at the same time as the annual Epiphany Explorations there.

 

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PSALM PARAPHRASES

 

At 176 verses, Psalm 119 is so long that it is never – no, never! – read it in its entirety as part of a regular worship service. Instead, we get disconnected fragments, scattered over a three-year period. The NRSV says the psalm’s running theme is “the Glory of God’s Law.” Here’s a snippet, paraphrased.

 

1          How fortunate are those who have not fouled up their lives!

They can hold their heads high in God's presence.

2          They are single-minded in pursuing God's way;

They are not tempted to turn aside.

3          They try not to harm anyone;

They follow the Lord's footsteps.

4          For God has gone this way before us;

 

5          God, help me to follow you faithfully.

6          As long as I can keep my eyes on your example,

I will not disgrace myself;

7          My feet will not stumble, and my stride will not slacken.

I can come before you with a clean conscience.

8          I want to walk humbly with you, God;

To seek justice and live kindness.

Please walk with me.

 

For paraphrases of most of the psalms used by the Revised Common Lectionary, you can order my book Everyday Psalms from Wood Lake Publishing, info@woodlake.com.

 

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YOU SCRATCH MY BACK…

        Ralph Milton has a new project, called Sing Hallelujah -- the world’s first video hymnal. It consists of 100 popular hymns, both new and old, on five DVDs that can be played using a standard DVD player and TV screen, for use in congregations who lack skilled musicians to play piano or organ. More details at www.singhallelujah.ca

        Isabel Gibson's thoughtful and well-written blog, www.traditionaliconoclast.com

        Wayne Irwin's "Churchweb Canada," an inexpensive service for any congregation wanting to develop a web presence, with free consultation. <http://www.churchwebcanada.ca>

        Alva Wood's satiric stories about incompetent bureaucrats and prejudiced attitudes in a small town are not particularly religious, but they are fun; write alvawood@gmail.com to get onto her mailing list.

        Tom Watson writes a weekly blog called “The View from Grandpa Tom’s Balcony” -- ruminations on various subjects, and feedback from Tom’s readers. Write him at twatson@sentex.net

 

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TECHNICAL STUFF

 

If you want to comment on something, send a message directly to me, jimt@quixotic.ca.

            To subscribe or unsubscribe, send an e-mail message to jimt@quixotic.ca. Or you can subscribe electronically by sending a blank e-mail (no message or subject line) to softedges-subscribe@lists.quixotic.ca. Similarly, you can un-subscribe at softedges-unsubscribe@lists.quixotic.ca.

            My webpage is up and running again -- thanks to Wayne Irwin and ChurchWeb Canada. You can now access current columns and about five years of archives at http://quixotic.ca

            I write a second column each Sunday called Sharp Edges, which tends to be somewhat more cutting about social and justice issues. To sign up for Sharp Edges, write to me directly, jimt@quixotic.ca, or send a note to sharpedges-subscribe@lists.quixotic.ca

 

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