As I hope everyone knows, today, the 22nd of April is Earth Day. Earth Day is observed both nationally and internationally, and deservedly so. While we face many problems within our human communities that desperately need to be addressed, we are also in the midst of an ecological catastrophe, the outer limits of which appear to be the extinction of our species. And one would think that would get our attention a tad more front and center than it does.
Most days I go to the Wikipedia list of events for that day. Which I consider a bit more fruitful than the hobby of so many my age, looking at the obits for the day.
I discover lots of interesting things. For instance that the good old Episcopal church observes today as a feast for John Muir. I’ve noticed in the past they look for saints not only within their sect, nor even limited to the mainstream of Christianity. And here appears to be another example.
According to an article by William Ted Johnson, “The Spiritual Lives of Great Environmentalists” Muir considered himself a Christian, if not particularly orthodox. But admirers have seen him as a type of Zen Buddhist, as a nature mystic, a transcendentalist, and a pantheist. Me, I don’t see the Zen thing, but the pantheism, and the nature mysticism, those do make sense. I suspect in current theological language he would most accurately be called a panentheist.
For me pantheism, the world is holy is reality. But, I’m okay with my friends who agree with that and want a tiny bit extra, the “en” which for them is the god beyond. Both work for those of us who want to see the world and our place within it true. Or, within the limitations of our minds, true enough…
And, returning to Muir himself, I like having a person attached to Earth Day. We humans do tend to see things through a projection of our humanity. Not always a healthy thing. But it has its place. And it is what we do…
And Muir’s unabashed love of nature, and his call to us to care for it as for our very selves carries an essential message we need to hear over and over again. Particularly today, at the eleventh hour, if we’re lucky at the eleventh hour.
The message needs proclamation:
We are a part of nature.
We are one with nature.
What we do counts.
And in celebrating John Muir, perhaps we can recall that message and the earth and the web of life of which we are a part.
Who knows what good can follow such a recognition?
Maybe even the preservation of our species for a while longer.
Which, on balance, I do think is a good thing…
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