In this time between the celebration of Thanksgiving and the hoped for joy of Christmas, we find ourselves in a kind of “neither here or there” land.
The Christian church calls this time Advent. Mostly, in our hyper-consumer culture, too many of us spend this supposedly sacred time running around in a frenzied attempt to experience fulfillment through consumption, or by what we offer others for their consumption in the form of gifts.
Much of our economy is rooted in the hustle and bustle of the season’s passion for buying. Even the news media is obsessed with reporting about “Black Friday’s sales figures and, shamefully, Black Thanksgiving Thursday’s since many retailers opted to open on that day as well. There is a hope that the Christmas’ shopping season will be the magic formula that will pull us out of the economic doldrums.
Because our economy, and all of the economies of the world, are rooted in the exponential growth of consumerism, there is no vision for an alternative way of life which would begin to address climate change and danger it poses to future generations.
It is in this context, and in this feeling of sadness, I watched Bill Moyers interview the great poet and philosopher of environmentalism, Wendell Berry on Public Television’s “Moyers and Company.” Berry read from his poem, “The Peace of Wild Things,” which begins with the voice of despair for the world and fear for the well-being of Berry’s children and the children of the world. The poem ends in a note of hope, though: “For a time I rest in the grace of the world and am free.”
Moyers asked Berry to explain what he meant by "grace if the world."
Berry said the phrase was "meant it in the religious sense. The people of … faith know that the world is … maintained every day by the same force that created it. It’s an article of my faith and belief that all creatures live by breathing God’s breath and participating in his spirit. And, this means that the whole thing is holy…. There are no sacred and unsacred places; there are only sacred and desecrated places. So, finally I see those gouges in the surface mine country as desecrations, not just as land abuse. Not just … as human oppression, but as desecration.”
In order to survive and thrive, we must, like all creatures, consume. We must eat. We must build homes for shelter and build lives of meaning with others within those walls. We must clothe ourselves. But, if we are willing to recognize the sacredness of what we consume – the creatures and products of the earth – we will live in a spirit of humbleness. As it was in the sacred traditions of many traditional peoples, we should ask the earth and her creatures for forgiveness as we take what we need to live.
The frenzy of our Christmas season’s consumerism is, in the light of Wendell Berry’s comments, an act of desecration. In this time between the prayers and thoughts of Thanksgiving and the hope born with Christmas, we all need to breathe in deeply that Sacred Breath and enter into a sacred relationship with the earth and her creatures.
If we are able to adopt an attitude of compassion for the earth, her creatures and one another, perhaps a revolutionary vision would arise that would move us toward a sustainable way of life on our precious and sacred planet.
