Gratitude (and the Alaskan wilderness)

In the U.S. Senate debate on drilling for oil in the Alaskan wilderness, Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California, showed pictures of a caribou and polar bear, saying, "To me this is a God-given environment".  (The New York Times)

Now, I have heard some very interesting arguments from a Republican friend about why it’s better to be drilling in Alaska than somewhere on the other side of the globe.  (At least Alaska is home turf, where Americans might take more care and have to deal with any unpleasant consequences of our consumption.)  But it’s not my intention here to debate the pros and cons of this particular bill.

It’s just nice to see green-minded Democrats talking about the earth as sacred.  To me that’s a more appealing and unifying notion than the rational calculation of impending doom.  I would go one step further than Boxer does, however, and say that every environment is God-given, not just the Alaskan wilderness. Surely there is a strong religious argument for loving the Earth, and it would be great to hear more religious groups talking like that too. 

Considering the Earth to be a gift suggests a novel way to foster conservation:  gratitude.  Instead of focusing on fear of scarcity, fear of climate change, or fear of extinction, let's focus on simple gratitude for what we have. When we feel grateful for having something, we take good care of it, automatically.

But we don't have to start with something as big as the Earth.  Why not just feel gratitude for the ordinary everyday things we have, for the richness and good fortune of our lives?  This can be an extremely difficult thing to do if, like me, you're rather addicted to your sense of dissatisfaction.  But if we each made just a slight shift in this direction, I believe, the global shift would be enormous.  Stop to say grace.  Stop to say thank you.  Stop to be grateful.  And then learn how to live a little more with that in mind.  Just the tiniest bit more time spent cherishing what we already have, rather than searching and hunting for what we don't have, would mean that we would need less, buy less, waste less, slow down, and love more.    

We exist in a fascinating and dramatic reality, a playground in which to grow and explore and find ourselves, with mysteries that we will never fully understand and possibilities that we will never exhaust.  How can we re-orient our lives, so that we stop taking this world for granted, but see it, directly, with a sense of wonder? 

Thank you, God, for what you have given us.  Thank you, Universe, for what we have.  I hope we don't drop the ball. 

Comments

[James Van Daele]

One must be careful to draw a distinction between gratitude for the earth we have been give be God Himself, and Idolatry, The difference is pretty simple

Graditude is shown by giving Glory to God, the creator, for His works and His being, for His majesty and workmanship that is used in His creation. Anything that has it's main result in focus on The Glory and Holiness of God, is gratefulness.

Idolatry focuses on the creation, no matter what it might be, once that becomes the focus, the focus no longer is God's rightful praise and admiration. Idolatry is very very commonplace in todays more liberal and so called "open minded" society, but it is nontheless despised by God himslelf, the creator of all things, to Who all praise is due. An example of idolotry is focusing on the enviornment, not simply to enjoy Him, but to somehow change, or exploit or save it. We must all be careful of not sinning against The God who has the power to wipe us from existance in the blink of an eye.
James Van Daele
His Slave