We Belong To Each Other

Blog - Columbia Faith and Values

I thought long and hard about beginning this post with scary facts about climate change.

I could have said that 40 percent of the worlds population is seriously close to not having
enough clean water to drink. I could have focused on the delicacy of our Earth system; on how
during the last ice age, the global temperature was a mere 5C cooler than now. Imagine the
difference a few degrees can make, especially when humans lend a remarkably inexperienced
and naive hand.

I could have focused on those things, and many more

Instead, I want to write about why the scary facts are important, and why we should start living
differently.

Right now.

When you live in a world filled with iPhones, Netflix, and gossip, it becomes incredibly easy to
forget where you are.

You live on a rock, hurtling through space at 67,000 miles per hour. A thin layer of atmosphere
separates you from certain death. This planet is but a speck of dust in the big picture of the
universe. And the universe is infinite.

The odds of us being here are nearly impossible. I happened to be born as a conscious being
on a planet that happened to be in the perfect position of orbit around a star in order to sustain
life. All of our lives, and all life on Earth, are held in balance because of an intricate system we
are only beginning to understand.

When I think of this home as what it actually is, instead of what we want it to be, I can see that
our way of life is seriously damaging the stability of life for everything else on the planet.

Sallie McFague, author of A New Climate for Theology, points out that what we view as our way
of life has only been so for about fifty years. Frivolous air travel and two hour commutes are new
in the grand scheme of human history.

The most important part of coming to this realization is that everything is connected. Our lives
are cyclical, as is the Earth. Every time I step foot on an aircraft, I am making a moral decision.
The carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere by that plane WILL affect someone I dont
know, and some creature Ive never seen.

Western culture has glorified individuality and independence. In some ways, this is great! I can
be who I am without worrying about consequences. I am proud of my ability to take care of
myself.

On the other hand, we have become disconnected from our home. So much so that we have
neglected it to the point of destruction. We come from the Earth. We are made of it, and
eventually we will go back to it. Most of us have forgotten this. We have started to view other
people as obstacles rather than allies, and the world as a resource rather than the place we
depend on to live.

McFague claims that some widespread ideas about Christianity are partly to blame for this
disconnection, and I tend to agree with her. We are taught in Sunday School that being a
Christian is about individual salvation, are we not?

What if a persons salvation is not found in their ability to worship God? What if salvation is
actually about a persons ability to root themselves in human flourishing? In the flourishing of all
life on Earth?

There are many parts of McFagues writing that spoke to me, but perhaps the most mind-
blowing one of all is that we do not belong to ourselves. We belong body and soul to others -
other people and other life-forms.

Each piece of life on this blue planet depends on every other piece of life to continue living. We
belong to each other.

We have lifted ourselves up, above all other creation, as more important. We have taken our
ability to think and exploited it. McFague says that we have made ourselves the measure of
worth, when what we were meant to be are the measurers.

What does it mean to be a measurer? It means to observe, admire, protect, and reflect on all
that is around us. To be a measurer is what makes you and me special, just as a fishs gills
make it special.

Our gift, our specialness, is that we have the ability to take care of the world. We have used our
gift for a much different purpose.

In order for change to happen, there must be a significant shift in the way we perceive and treat
our home. It begins with acknowledging that I belong to you, and you belong to me, and we
belong to the deer in the woods, and the squirrels in the tree outside of my window.

Then, we must take care of the things that belong to us.