Journaler #2

[Official] JOURNAL

5/15

Looking for hope on a Tuesday morning

Yesterday’s coffee awaits us. Not sure that’s the best example of making good use of resources.

Be like the baboons. What happens if you cannot depend on the way the elders have done it? We can adapt quickly, if not painlessly. There are lots of ways to be a primate. Don’t get stuck thinking that the way things are is the way they have to be.

Christopher Southgate’s book re predation. Mufasa was right.

Water

Most of the planet’s surface; most of our bodies. Mostly salinated; only 2.5% is fresh, most has been frozen into ice that’s now melting into the sea. Oops. Cleansed via hydrologic cycle and via aquifer system. Over the past century, large dams have been re-allotting water. Most water used inefficiently in agriculture.

We have no designated “map navigator”…

In addition to the massive amounts of energy that none of us felt comfortable asking our guides to quantify, the plant uses gravity and microbes. Wish we could have seen the Luxury Uptake Train—I’m envisioning microbe manicures. Fascinating tour and nobody used the word, “Armageddon.” “Water Wars,” yes. Sunghee diligently photographed sewage. And us.

I hope Bursar tipped well. Driver/Encourager got applause. Postmaster very diligent with those thank-you notes! Theologian  suggested “Grace & Peace” as the sign-off for the note—way to go, Theology & Worship Meister.

No more throwing of keys. And NO darts, y’all.

Dr. Dabney Dixon (she was great)

Noah’s Ark

We Care Because…

Figure out what you believe, figure out how to articulate it, figure out how to stand and say it aloud.

“So, how do we say, ‘No.’?” Politics, economics, getting together at the closest place, Walk with God groups, church can be center for neighborhood activities, live intentionally (interplay with ritual), heartfelt ideas—what would a different way to live be? Reduce plastic and junk mail as a church activity (call the order line), as a way to build community with a different focus, have a garden: it’s engaging. CSAs—it’s a community activity, it’s fellowship

Two important groups to tap: new retirees given something real to do; Gospel Geeks for God

off-the-grid church; solar energy or solar hot water

Biodiversity: The IUCN Red List

Smaller areas have fewer species. Contiguous space more beneficial

40-50% of drugs originate as nature’s design. We don’t have the ideas; we lose the library of species.

Redundancy vs. Rivet Poppers—dueling metaphors for extinction

Hope of the whooping crane

What seems normal to us can be nefarious

N Pacific Gyre (AM and PM mentions)

The church as an ecosystem. Unity in diversity. Paul’s archipelago of island churches. Model sustainable community. Think in neighborhoods as well as congregation.

Listen to people and do what they want to do; capture the energy that’s organically within the culture. There are enough problems to go around—net energy use is a biggie but if folks can get behind sustainable food rather than recycling, or stripmining rather than climate change, so be it.

It’s not the church’s job to fix things; it’s the church’s job to bear witness.

Jesus is a problem (that is not news…)

So, what does the church have to offer that the rest of the world does not have but does need:
Different story: God is present; God is returning; the church can model how to die; practice of self-limitation for the sake of the Other (God in creating; Paul’s value). How does that exist in times of mega-churches sucking resources

Get back into small communities: love, care for each other, fellowship, basic NT stuff

People with the knowledge are trying to help us with this message—easily available online

Support good public servants.

Svante Arrhenius—simply don’t entertain the bullshit

“7^th Generation” concept is more accessible if you place audience as the middle generation.

Remember the ultimate source of our power (well, that would be God, but we’re talking coal)

Addressing emotions, hopes and fears rather than facts, which can be denied. Journaler’s Privilege: surely, this isn’t hard for the church…I mean, we don’t speak of our faith in terms of facts, do we?

visuals work—that I knew; that this portfolio of issues was especially hard for the church is something I didn’t know. Prof wants our 2-minute writing exercise for the day. Remember: no high heels tomorrow!