The Creation (a review)

I just finished and set down next to me E.O. Wilson’s The Creation: An appeal to save life on earth.  When I picked it up at a bookstore months ago (I’ve been reading it in small chunks here and there between reading other books), I was pretty excited about it as I’ve been wanting to read something by Wilson for quite a while…and this one was written under the premise that scientists and religious leaders need to work together  to preseve the Earth’s rapidly vanishing biodiversity.

I have to say, I did enjoy it…but I’m not so sure Wilson succeeded in his premise.  His thoughts and words about biodiversity and its importance were beautiful, but he seemed to head off onto various rabbit trails (I know his specialty is ants, and the near entire chapter he wrote about a certain species of ant in the Caribbean and its ethno-natural history was fascinating, but I honestly can’t figure out what it has to do with urging scientists and religious leaders to work together…or helping people in the religious community further value the creation). 

When he writes about the wonders of bacteria and the near countless species of microorganisms and SLIMES that a square meter of soil contains, he’s at his best.  But to me it almost seemed like Wilson was appealing to the worst in people when speaking of the value of earth and its biomes and biodiversity in actual monetary value or basing its value on how these organisms might benefit us directly (through possible medicines, cures, etc.).  I would have much rather he stayed on valuing organisms and biodiversity because of their intrinsic value and the beauty of the relationships and interconnectedness between them.  As Wilson writes at one point, “…ecosystems and species can be saved only by understanding the unique value of each species in turn, and by persuading the people who have dominion over them to serve as their stewards.”  If he had stayed on this path, I think the result (and his argument) would have remained strong (and in my opinion, created MUCH more common ground for scientists and religious leaders to stand on).

I really enjoyed his last section, “Teaching the Creation” and the chapters included within (How to Learn Biology and How to Teach It, How To Raise a Naturalist, Citizen Science).  Perhaps this is simply where I’m at and has to do with what I’ve been trying to exercise and encourage in others, but many of his suggestions and examples in these chapters were great.

He concludes his “letter” hoping that he has succeeded in convincing religious leaders of the value and need for saving Earth’s biodiversity.  Although I was already convinced of this before I took the book from the shelf, I hope it serves in urging others in the religious community in understanding and working toward the preservation and restoration of the creation we were called to steward.

this stinks

Up here in the mountains the few cherry trees on people’s properties are finally in bloom.  So is the serviceberry and balsamroot.  And the grass is coming up.

We have a patch of lawn here at the cottage the church provides for us–approximately 75 feet by 40 feet (I measured today).  The property is right next to the river.  Not only have I become more and more ‘organic’ in my view of how we treat and tend the environment we find ourselves in, I am even more aware of it now that we live right next to a water source and I’ve been doing a lot of thinking as to what it means to be a member of the watershed I live in (a sort of watershed examen, I guess).  The church is having the lawns and field on the church property sprayed this week (fertilized and sprayed for dandelions).  I asked the groundskeeper if we could prevent our lawn from being sprayed, and he said yes.  It was just hydroseeded last summer before we moved in, and as far as I know has never been treated with chemicals, so we’re starting with a good base.

I’ve spent the last couple week reading about organic lawn care (to be honest, my preference would be to actually remove the vast majority of the 75×40 ft. chunk of monocultured lawn grass, but, you know…).  So I guess one of the best things I can spray on the lawn is compost tea, which is the product of soaking a porous bag of compost in some water for a week, and all the good micro organisms and nutrients that leach into the water get sprayed onto the lawn, percolate into the soil and get it healthy and breaking things down and converting it to useable energy for the grass, etc.  But I can’t find a siphon attachment for our hose, and every place I go looking for one…no one knows what I’m talking about. 

So instead, today I went and bought 12 bags of steer manure at the hardware store.  I dumped 6 out over various areas of the lawn and raked it in.  It stunk.  And it didn’t go nearly as far as I thought (and really hoped) it would.  One bag is recommended for every 100 sq. feet…but it didn’t spread well at all.  I don’t know how many it will take.

Did I mention that I smell like crap?

I think the groundskeeper things I’m going overboard, but he’s a nice guy and he doesn’t say anything.  Just let me do my thing.

After I get the lawn covered in bull shite, my next project is to hang a clothesline.

And find a siphon attachment for the hose.

on stewardship

Wow…has it actually been almost two months since my last post?

Been reading a lot lately.  I had some time to kill while in Seattle the other day and, after getting my obligatory bag of donuts from Pike Place Market, wandered up and into Left Bank Books.  I didn’t have near as much time as I wanted to spend in there…but I did leave with The Creation: an appeal to save live on earth by E. O. Wilson.  A naturalist, entymologist, and expert on ants, he begins the book with: “Dear Pastor…”  The entire book is written as a letter/conversation with a pastor, and is a call for scientists and religious leaders to work together in getting people to understand the importance of biodiversity and environmental conservation.

“…ecosystems and species can be saved only by understanding the unique value of each species in turn, and by persuading the people who have dominion over them to serve as their stewards.”

a journey to be more simple…I hope.

Well, we’re moved and settled into the new community.

We’re living in the church’s first parsonage, built in 1912 and affectionately referred to by many as “the Cottage.”  Evidently they didn’t need closets back then, as the house is compltely devoid of any.  Houses were MUCH smaller, too.  But we love it.  Just moving into it was an exercise in just flat out getting rid of stuff: furniture, clothes, trinkets, junk that we’d been holding onto and didn’t need.  But it took something like this to actually go through it all and get rid of a bunch of it, because we simply didn’t have the space for it.  It’s been a really nice step toward simplicity (how appropriate that I started reading Foster’s Freedom of Simplicity just as we started the moving process?).

I hope this continues to be a new path we take in regards to how we live, and how much we live with.  For a while now I’ve wanted to have a smaller footprint in regards to the amount of waste I create, how the surrounding environment is affected by our living structure, how much and what kind of energy I use, etc.  The Cottage is a good first step…hopefully the first of MANY I hope to take.  I want to live more simply and friendly, and I’m not sure if it’s easier or harder to do in a place like this (so far, it seems that many people who live this far out in the mountains tend to be of the ‘we need to fight and subdue nature’ mindset).  Last week I was mowing our lawn with a reel mower (which I’ve used and loved for three years now), and the church groundskeeper came by and said there was a tractor/mower in the garage that I could use.  I told him I preferred the reel and didn’t the little bit of extra time and effort it took to use it.  “Alright, if you actually enjoy it,” he said.  “But it’s there if you change your mind.”

I think I’d rather downsize my lawn (which we rarely use, anyway) before I upsized mowers.  Something that requires so much water and care and naturally goes into dormancy when it’s hot and dry out (which is when we ironically try to keep it the most alive)…is that really the best way creatively tend and order the creation?  I actually did some research this past summer on the history of grass lawns.  Evidently, they were initially a symbol of wealth and high social status.  At the time, most people didn’t own much land, and so the gardens they grew and harvested food from were often planted right outside their doors due to the small plots of land most people could afford.  As the wealthy acquired more land and the land was turned into an estate, lush grass lawns were put in place, and the subsistence gardens for the estate were planted at great distances from the house to communicate the wealth of the person and their ability to spread out.

I really started thinking about this, and I wondered if this is still at play in modern suburbia.  I mean, how much time do people spend manicuring their lawns?  Why is it so important for so many to be the ‘pride of the neighborhood’ with a green, lush lawn in front of their house?  When it came down to it, status and attention seemed to be the only real reasons I could come up with.  But what if we chose a different paradigm, once that took into account our specific locations and watersheds and environments?  What if we tried to create islands or bridges of habitat around our houses for populations of native wildlife?  No animals I’m aware of (including many insects and invertebrates) really thrive in a monocultured swath of manicured grass.  Short of playing tag and kicking a soccer ball and playing catch (which do have their place, don’t get me wrong), lawns aren’t really useful for much, and especially aren’t complimentary to the environment.  But what if we planted our lawns with various trees and shrubs, especially native ones that are well-suited for the native climate and didn’t require that much additional water (if any)?  What if we decided not to simply be encroachers on the birds and lilies….but neighbors?  What if we used water with native fish and salmon in mind (that require decent river flows in order to spawn and ‘produce more of their kind’)? 

This summer we had a clothesline.  I used to think those were for people who either didn’t know that dryers had been invented, or just couldn’t afford one.  But one day I decided to hang our laundry on the line (after reading an article in Better Homes and Gardens about how dryers don’t always get rid of viruses and germs and whatnot…but the UV and ozone from natural sunlight does).  I don’t know any other way to put it, but the practice of putting clothes out to dry just seemed…spiritual.  There was something almost worshipful about it, about the action of light through fabric and movement of sheets in the wind.

It seems this sort of life allows a greater awareness of the presense of God, and in the end, that’s my goal.  I desire an immense understanding of the weight of glory, an understanding that compels me to become an active and incarnational tool for God’s shalom, for the healing and restoration of His creation and our relationships to it and each other.  It’s such a huge thing, yet seems to hang its peg on something so simple as putting sheets on the line.