January 12, 2009
Rev offers today's holy writ: "The Creation" by E. O. Wilson
Billy with jacket
Rev interjects: ....and skipping ahead a half page... this is in the chapter called "Ascending to Nature" and oh can I preach this? It needs a cooing choir behind it, or you could Youtube a good sermon with this language - with the church stranded in some grand wilderness, with robes and hiking boots. Amen?
"Granted, many people seem content to live entirely within the synthetic ecosystems. But so are domestic animals content, even in the grotesquely abnormal habitats in which we rear them. This in my mind is a perversion. It is not the nature of human beings to be cattle in glorified feedlots. Every person deserves the option to travel easily in and out of the complex and primal world that gave us birth. We need freedom to roam across land owned by no one but protected by all, whose unchanging position is the same that bounded the world of our millennial ancestors. Only in what remains of Eden, teeming with life forms independent of us, is it possible to experience the kind of wonder that shaped the human psyche at its birth.
Rev remarks: ...from the beginning our Stop Shopping Church we've had two big beliefs. One: Let's not consent to be consumers, because then we're idiots and Two: Consumers are killing the earth.
Amen! Sometimes it's hard to connect the two ideas, one is so personal and the other is so universal, so Reverend Wilson thank you.
Comments
Paradox
Is the society we have created a "perversion"? Is a chemical plant any less natural than an anthill? Maybe not, be we have a different sort of awareness than ants seem to, and this gives us the ability to recognise the consequences of our actions in a way ants (apparently) cannot. This means we alone are responsible if we destroy ourselves in a literal or abstract sense.
On an unrelated topic, I saw a video of you being harassed by some "Johnny Cigar" character. What struck me was the way you put the podium over your shoulder, and slowly walked across the street to Starbucks; it brought to mind Jesus trudging to his own crucifixion. Was this effect intentional? If so, bravo! They don't call it The Tombs for nothing, so I'm told!
----SeaQ
Escaping to other planets and to the Tombs
I don't feel contradictions from outer space. I don't imagine those futures - and I know some very important people do. Timothy Leary for instance. Something about me is more practical, or impatient. My survey of our lives goes to "Are we life in service to life?" Ask that question and the chemical plant doesn't offer an intellectual riddle. Know what I mean? Shut it down.
As for Johnny Cigar. There will be a lot of Johnny Cigars. He's not from outer space either... Amen? That Johnny Cigar at the demo that day... was more like Jesus than me. He was, for one thing, very young. And Jesus was like James Dean in this regard. He arranged for a very early departure. Like most of us, I declined. -- Rev
Escaping to other planets and to the Tombs
I don't feel contradictions from outer space. I don't imagine those futures - and I know some very important people do. Timothy Leary for instance. Something about me is more practical, or impatient. My survey of our lives goes to "Are we life in service to life?" Ask that question and the chemical plant doesn't offer an intellectual riddle. Know what I mean? Shut it down.
As for Johnny Cigar. There will be a lot of Johnny Cigars. He's not from outer space either... Amen? That Johnny Cigar at the demo that day... was more like Jesus than me. He was, for one thing, very young. And Jesus was like James Dean in this regard. He arranged for a very early departure. Like most of us, I declined. -- Rev
Escaping to other planets and to the Tombs
I don't feel contradictions from outer space. I don't imagine those futures - and I know some very important people do. Timothy Leary for instance. Something about me is more practical, or impatient. My survey of our lives goes to "Are we life in service to life?" Ask that question and the chemical plant doesn't offer an intellectual riddle. Know what I mean? Shut it down.
As for Johnny Cigar. There will be a lot of Johnny Cigars. He's not from outer space either... Amen? That Johnny Cigar at the demo that day... was more like Jesus than me. He was, for one thing, very young. And Jesus was like James Dean in this regard. He arranged for a very early departure. Like most of us, I declined. -- Rev
Onanism
However, as far as "life serving life", the greatest thing we can do for life on this planet is to ensure its survival. There are events beyond our control, and we should try to prevent our spark from being snuffed out randomly; this means heading out into the great beyond. However, this may be the role of vaccum/radiation resistant bacteria, not us.
As for JC, I burst into laughter when he said "Starbucks DOES pay premium prices" etc.
"I know it you know it, we don't need proof". I guess having this attitude makes life easier, in the short term at least.
How often do you get people trying to capitalize on your fame? How often do bystanders react violently towards you or the church when you are out and about? How often do average people simply try to shout you down? I've seen a few examples, like the guy pretending to be Nixon, and the other one who threw a punch at your wife(!?). How often does stuff like that happen?
___SeaQ
PS: Have you listened to "Gila Copter" by the Revolting Cocks? It contains some inspirational words by T. Leary, and a catchy tune.
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