Today is Earth Day. It's kind of like Mother's or Father's Day, the one day when we make a token effort to show appreciation to our literal, human creators for, you know, creating us so we can enjoy food and music and careers and Facebook and sex, and make other little human critters. Only this day is for Big Mama, Gaia, Erce, Hertha, Pachamama, Prithvi Mata: the literal Mother Of Us All, the Earth.
I like the the concept of Earth Mother and She-Who-Creates-Us and She-Who-Sustains-Us. I like the internet memes that go around with pretty pictures exhorting us to take care of Her by doing x or avoiding y. I appreciate the information that goes around about stopping Monsanto and Nestle and the frackers and the rain forest loggers.
But this Earth Day, I have to look at the language we use in reference to "Mother Earth," and I notice that while it does displays reverence and appreciation, it still implies a separation. It's a She-Us relationship that this language implies. Intensely bonded, yes, as close as a mother nursing her baby on her breast; but still separate, different.
And in the wake of Boston, disturbing. And wrong. We are not separate from the Earth. We are the Earth.
As much as pandas and redwood trees and condors and tigers and elephants. Along with mushrooms and wheat, viruses and quartz crystals, worms and howler monkeys. And the tuberculosis bacterium. And cholera. And the HIV virus. And cancer.
Some believe that the Earth, including us, of course, the wholeness of this planet and everything in/on it, comprises a single living Entity. I like that theory. I like it because it mirrors the reality of a single body; as above, so below. We think we're a single entity, but in reality, we're a huge collection not only of cells of a particular DNA line, but also hundreds of millions of bacteria, most of which are either living benignly in or on us, or who are actually benefiting us in some way. Our ability to digest many ordinary foods; to maintain a healthy immune system; to be normal weight; and perhaps even our resistance against mental illness and autism, may ultimately all depend on having good numbers of friendly bacteria in us. Where do "I" begin and the bacteria end? Wouldn't it be accurate to say that we comprise one composite Being?
And when disease strikes a person, it's because something is out of balance in the wholeness of that composite Being, some of its cells gone weak or rogue or rebellious and attacking each other and sickening that whole Being.
How is that not like the Earth? How is that not like us and our relationship with the Earth?
We are the Earth. We are part of the great composite Being that we call Mother Earth. There is no separation.
When I meditate on this, I am forced to conclude that if I am a literal, integral part of Mother Earth, whom I call Hertha, then so is everyone and everything else. And when some of the "everyone else's" go rogue and believe that they have to kill other people in order to incur Divine favor or get their needs met, then that is like cells in my body rebelling against me and causing me illness.
Whether it's Dylan Klebold or Adam Lanza or the Tsarnaeva brothers, they are me and I am them because we are all literally part of the greater Being that is the Earth. The chairmen of Nestle and Monsanto corporations and I are cells of the same Being. I don't have to enjoy the destruction and rogue actions of these my brother- and sister-cells anymore than I would enjoy or approve of a skin cell turned cancerous or H. pylori giving me an ulcer. Because it's healthy and appropriate to stop disease, and sometimes, you have to be tough or perhaps even brutal to stop a serious disease.
But at the same time, to address a disease effectively, you don't have to hate the disease. In fact, the stress hormones that hate causes creates conditions that could very well make the disease worse. You do have to acknowledge some weakness in the whole system, something out of whack that allowed the disease process to occur and spread.
When I see these beautiful young men in the prime of their lives fall victim to some inconceivable anguish or anger or fear or pain such that they believe they must go kill others, that's as horrifying as my own tooth twisting around in my mouth and biting me. But if that were to happen, I wouldn't hate the tooth. I would not say "that tooth is not me!" I'd try to figure out why my tooth was attacking me.
I am not a paragon of forgiving loving-kindness. I get ill-natured and close my heart and hold grudges as well as anyone. But in my faith tradition's liturgy, I was taught to step into sacred space and say
"Oh Earth,
I am your sister of earth
and I greet you with earth..."
And I take those words as True. I have to, otherwise I lie everyone time I cast circle. I am your Sister of Earth. You are my Brother of Earth. The Earth is our sibling, our Self.
I think that the best way to celebrate Earth Day is to cultivate a sense of One Shared Being with everyone else on the planet. If humans could do that, then the strong bond of shared purpose and affection that would grow would open our heart centers to include all the rest of our brothers and sisters, the non-human cells in our vast Being of Oneness. I am refraining from hating the Tsarnaeva brothers. I am refraining from hating the chairman of Nestle Corporation. I am refraining from hating Fred Phelps. I am praying that their diseased and afflicted conditions are healed and do not spread to the rest of this, the Earth-my-body and your body.
Blessed Be.
