Thank you so much for inviting me to talk with you today and by the generosity of our friend John Moran, whose photos evoke the hymn:
For the beauty of the Earth, for the glory of the skies,
For the love which from our birth over and around us lies;
Lord of all to thee we raise, this, our hymn, of grateful praise.

On Earth Day 2015 John’s message included a call for 20 million organ donors. He was asking us to give our hearts to Florida and commit to cleaning up our springs, rivers, lakes, and coastal waters. My intention is to follow on that path.

As Gainesville’s City Arborist, I spoke at celebrations, but really never had the time or inclination to wonder deeply about how best to give meaning to Earth Day, because there were trees to plant! This has been different. We are in a place of worship, a sanctuary, a place of reverence, celebration, spirituality, and responsibility.

The saga of Earth Day began with John McConnell. A scientist, he was 24 when he helped pioneer a plastic manufacturing factory and realized how much pollution would be generated by the processes he was enabling. He was a dedicated Christian inspired with a mission to care for the environment, peace, and people. He often quoted Psalm 115:
“The highest heavens belong to the Lord,
But the earth He has given to mankind.”

God gave us the Earth. And I guess we could say He gave Earth us. May we be worthy of each other in a relationship of mutual support and nurture.

At the UNESCO conference in San Francisco in 1969, McConnell proposed the global holiday to celebrate Earth’s life and beauty and to advance peace. That was the year Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. “One small step for man, one giant step for mankind.” We had such hopes, and the countries of the world agreed not to exploit the moon as a place from which to launch missiles.

In 1971 Earth Day was celebrated world-wide, and U Thant, the Secretary General of the United Nations, proclaimed:
“May there be only peaceful and cheerful Earth Days to come
for our beautiful Spaceship Earth as it continues to spin and circle
in frigid space with its warm and fragile cargo of animate life.”

Much has happened in our world since. In 1980 the Federal Government published a list of the 10 most hazardously polluted sites in our nation. Gainesville had one. For 25 years persistent citizens pointed at the total lack of progress on our local Superfund site. Remediation of Cabot Koppers in the Stephen Foster Neighborhood finally began in 2005; efforts are still under way. But the site is much less toxic and dangerous than when it was draining without treatment into Bailey’s Branch and Springsted Creek, and then to Hogtown Creek and down Kanapaha sink to the aquifer, the well from which we all drink. We owe many local environmental protection professionals and advocates our gratitude for their persistence.

A similar second major local accomplishment is in SE Gainesville. Where we had the terribly contaminated wasteland that was the old railroad switching yard near GRU, we now have the happy place called Depot Park. These remediations of point-source pollution were typical of environmental clean-up efforts in the 20th Century to the present time.

Non-point source pollution is much more difficult. It is the small amounts we all contribute that cumulatively are changing the planet and community before our very eyes. The nitrates discharged from water treatment—both wastewater plants and septic system–meet the EPA regulation for safe drinking water. The standard is set for humans; we can tolerate up to 10 ppm. But consider, at 1ppm, the water in our beloved springs bubbles not from an aqua-tinted chimney into clean sand and gravel, but from a green cave. The Cherokee believed the Florida springs were places of sacred pilgrimage, where the connection between the deep earth and the surface was pure and spiritually renewing.
In our efforts to live gently on our planet, we have made some progress. Recycling is easier. Solar energy is gradually being adopted, and our community even buries our dead in a non-polluting way at Prairie Creek Conservation Cemetery. Changes to our local tree ordinance ensure development plans and construction activities protect our strongest and healthiest large trees. New trees must be planted so our parking lots are park-like. We aspire to live sustainably here in Gainesville and Alachua County, and Earth Day is sweeter because we have achievements to celebrate.

Which does not mean that Earth Day does not remind us of real causes for concern. We understand that much needs to be done. Scientific research warns that Earth is transforming into habitat where weather extremes will happen with greater frequency and severity, compromising food production in a world where the human population continues to grow rapidly.

Problems of environmental instability go hand-and-hand with the problems of social inequity. Most of us feel deep gratitude to the study that grew out of your Church’s desire to bring about real social equity in Alachua County. Data are the first step in confirming any problem. Not that our neighbors who have suffered under inequitable social conditions were not all too aware of the truths that the data showed. They told us. Many believed them. Others did not. Just progress could not be made at Cabot Koppers until the data proved false the claims of the owners that those barrels of hazardous waste were not a threat to the health of all, so we could not make real progress insisting on changes that promote social justice. Modern democracy always starts with data to confirm the truth of what we think we are experiencing. Now that we know how we are failing African-American children and families, we must take action, and we will. And yet the there are the multitudes of impoverished throughout the world. As Psalm 115 said, God has heaven. We have earth. I have faith we will do better. Faith, “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Hebrews 11.1

All of us in this sanctuary are here now because adults took care of us when we were children, feeding and educating us. We were born in a country that codified a bill of rights to ensure as much as possible that personal freedom can be ours. As Jesus said “For unto whomsoever much is given, of them shall be much required.” How can we use Earth Day to help us understand how to live rightly?

Right living requires balance. Consider the Tao. Yang energy rises. We accomplish. We are active. Much is expected of us, and we try very hard to get it all done. And Yin energy falls, it returns to the source, pauses, and then rises again. Always the interconnection. We need attentive relaxation so our souls can be restored. Mindfulness.

So let’s go back to Psalm 115, which really has as its subject “idolatry” and the pursuit of false ways. Idols are not real. They are fetishes.

“They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see.
They have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but cannot smell.
They have hands, but cannot feel, feet, but cannot walk
nor can they utter a sound with their throats.
Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.”

We have to be real, and that takes awareness of the world our senses perceive as well as the ideas in our minds. Idols are not alive. Matinee idols who live on the screen or in the tabloids—are they really alive for us? The images we see on our screens, in FB etc., are just that, images. They are not bad or good, per se, though some clearly are in their effect. What I’m saying is that they are not immediate, right here, right now, real. We go to the screens for relaxation as well as study, and they can be too much of a good thing.

Spending more time being real will help us heal the Earth and our societies. We need relaxed use of our five senses to develop the compassion and awareness of interconnectedness. We have the privilege of understanding so much, but too often we don’t take the time to let our knowledge settle so our behavior can change. If we only perceive nature when we’re trying to solve problems, we’re missing out on an activity that leads to renewal– appreciating the wonder in our world.

Nature is full of mysteries. Consider the four stages of insects that undergo complete metamorphosis – egg, larva, pupa, adult. Think of the plants that exploit the sunlight in the normally deeply shaded deciduous woods. They live as spring ephemerals. They bloom and seem to disappear when the leaves expand and deep shade ensues, but they live on through much of a year as underground bulbs, some of which are miniscule. The corm of a crocus looks for all the world like a piece of hard crud in the soil.

Rust fungi have five life stages—each seeming like a complete life form, yet it is one organism that requires two hosts, alternating generations, and five sequentially produced different forms of reproductive propagules –teleospores, uridineospores, basidiospores, spermatia, and aeciospores. We know much about the amazing complexity of Rusts because they destroy wheat crops and compromise our ability to feed people. The ability to control this pathogen reflects a triumph of Yang energy, and our commerce loves such efforts. But our lives give short shrift to the Yin connection, the calm appreciation of the ordinary miracles of intricacy on Spaceship Earth. We need more genuine rest and reflection.

Many of us meditate to cultivate the intention of not rushing to believe our own thoughts and opinions, to slow down our very helpful but sometimes too persistent thought processes. Likewise, prayer is listening as well as stating, watching birds is for more than the ability to name them. This attentiveness is the way we really we really see, hear, touch, taste, and smell—the way we acknowledge and recharge before becoming active again.

The cultivation of loving attention makes us more spontaneously generous with each other. I overheard a conversation between two women. One was making a cherished trip abroad. The other said, “well, what’s your carbon footprint for that going to be?” Too harsh. The person making the trip will change as a result of travel. She will see other ways of living in the world. And some people in the world we will see our country differently because of her. Let’s save our instinctive harsh judgment for truly deplorable behavior. Six million Jews died in the Holocaust and some Americans deny it ever happened. We have to try to make good distinctions, not rush to judge others or ourselves. If we respect honesty and compassion and act with fairness, should we have faith in our ability to judge what is right? I think so. Some call it living skillfully because it takes some interior management to really find the truth.

The ancients used to knock on a tree before they cut it down. They were advising the spirit that inhabited the tree that it was time to leave. The action suggests a level of respect for life that we should consider including in our repertoire.

We have learned so much using scientific methods. Still, it’s worth reminding ourselves that science comes up against limits. Thus far in time we are unable to measure certain aspects of life. That does not mean that what has not been measured does not exist. For example, whether a tree has a spirit. We don’t know how to test for that. Inability to collect data does not mean that the null hypothesis is confirmed. We sometimes forget that.

Consider life and death. Because there is not scientific proof of the afterlife, some believe with all their hearts that we are only our bodies and afterlife is only in the way the living remember us. Data no more confirm body death as the end of who we are, than do data confirm a heaven of the sinless and the forgiven with streets of gold and pearly gates. The data do confirm that everyone dies and no one we know has come back to discuss it with us. Near-death experience is still on this side of the veil. We don’t know what’s on the other side. Some have faith in heaven; others have faith that bodily death means the end of who we really are. But let’s be honestly aware that our knowledge is limited. Within the limits of what we know, we can acknowledge consequences, and live better with the results, certainly here and maybe hereafter.

Spaceship Earth continues to spin and circle in frigid space with its warm and fragile cargo of animate life. It’s a miracle we are here. If water didn’t expand upon freezing, ice wouldn’t float and marine life would be impossible.

Let’s recognize that animate life matters and do what we can to diminish suffering. We have power over the lives of animals. Our buying choices can embrace mercifully raised poultry, dairy, and meat. We can pause just a second before we cut down trees and remind ourselves that they too live in ways we don’t completely understand. And we have power over other people here on earth, so vote with wisdom.

Thank you for giving me a chance to speak on Earth Day. Scientific research has confirmed that hospital patients who can see a tree from a window recuperate faster. Imagine what we can do with health! Just go outside. Refrain from hurry. Make yourself as comfortable as possible; allow connections to happen. There will be sensations, thoughts, worries intuitions, memories, feelings, and if you wait, sometimes a sense of quiet completeness occurs that is deep, aware rest. And then when you again focus on what’s up with your life, maybe take a moment to thank the trees and plants that generate the oxygen on which you depend. We don’t know that they are not thanking us in return for the miracle we generate in producing the carbon dioxide essential for photosynthesis. The partnership. The Great Mystery of life.

Meg Neiderhofer
4/22/2018
BPM Earth Day Service