Reflections on Holidays

Loving the Earth – and Each Other

Loving the EarthIn the wake of the bombing at the Boston Marathon, I find the column I originally meant to write has changed. Because our next worship service falls on Earth Day this month, I thought I’d write about our need to protect the earth. Now I find myself wondering how we can learn to care for one another. Perhaps these are not exclusive themes: how we care for one another is intimately related to how we care for our earth.

Years ago, I went to church with a man who was passionate about saving the Earth. In fact, he was so passionate about it that he tried to convince me I should join the environmental cause. Not that I don’t. For instance, I buy organic food and give money to causes like the Environmental Defense Fund, and I try to limit the resources I use.

But my primary “cause” is less a strict environmentalism than it is a focus on peace and love. My friend was right: we can’t survive without our beloved planet being healthy. However, we also will not survive if we don’t stop blowing one another up.

That’s why I focus on love. If we love one another, and if we feel loved ourselves, we are far more likely to love and take care of our planet, as well. So let’s just love one another. Stop arguing, stop blowing up bombs, stop shooting one another, and stop blaming and denigrating and fearing differences. Wouldn’t it be nice if it were that simple?

Unfortunately, our brains are, in some ways, against us. Our amygdala, the powerful almond-sized part of our reptilian brain, sets us up to see differences as threatening. Which is good. If we didn’t have a part of our brain that reacted without our conscious volition to keep us safe, many of us would have died in childhood, from car accidents, if nothing else. We need that spurt of fear to get us running or fighting. Sometimes.

But not most of the time. And that’s the problem. The amygdala can’t distinguish between a real and imagined threat. To do that, we need our frontal cortex, and because our brains actually create the reality we take in through our senses, not even our frontal cortex really knows what’s going on. It’s all guesswork. But at least that frontal part of our brains can give us pause, if pause is warranted. And in that moment of pausing, we can remember that there’s more good in the world than evil, that hope is possible, and that love is the greatest gift we can offer.

If we choose to. And that’s the thing. It’s a choice. Some people don’t choose love. Some people prefer hatred and violence. But not most people. Most people respond to disaster by helping. When horrors occur, like the bombing at the Boston Marathon, we we feel compassion. We experience the other person’s pain and suffering because mirror neurons in our brain fire, actually fooling our brain into thinking, on some level, that what is happening to them is happening to us. And if we Unitarian Universalists are right, and this web of existence is interconnected, then what happens to you does, on a spiritual level at least, happen to me.

So when we see people hurting, the first impulse of many of us is to run toward the pain and chaos to help. I invite you to watch a video of the prayer spoken by the Unitarian Universalist minister, Rev. Sue Phillips, at a vigil in Boston the night of the bombing. In that prayer, she calls on God to help us “to remember what is holy and good.” And she points out that so many more rushed to help than rushed to harm.

Yes, destruction is so easy. With a minimum of time and energy, we can cause incredible harm. Yet, as Rev. Phillips says, “We are the helpers and the hope. Inside our breaking hearts is all the evidence we need that an unshakable conspiracy of goodness thrives in rubble and ash.”

We can be part of that “unshakable conspiracy.” Perhaps when we get trapped in our addiction, or we feel overwhelmed with responsibilities, or we don’t know where the money will come to pay the electric bill or our friend is dying or our car has broken down yet again or all those things at once – perhaps then it doesn’t feel as if we can be part of anything loving and compassionate and good. At those times, let us reach out for the goodness of others; let us let the love of our Higher Power and of our blessed community surround us, hold us, and bring us hope. For when we are called to it, we do so often find within us the strength, the resolve, and the love to be the helpers and the kindness. In this way we do survive tragedy.

And we survive tragedy by offering, and accepting, love. Indeed, sometimes tragedy is what encourages us to learn to love. And if we learn to love, we will naturally create peace. Being peaceful, we will learn to take care not only of one another, but also of our planet. A “conspiracy of goodness” really does exist, and the hearts of every single person can be awakened and reminded of what is holy. As we learn to love one another, our love will naturally spill over to a love of nature, of the creatures we share this planet with, and of the Earth herself.

This Earth Day, may we put faith in our incredible capacity to love, and may we reflect that love in everything we do.

With love and faith,
Barbara
April 2013

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