Belonging and The Interdependent Web

2012-09-08

Our seventh Unitarian Universalist principle says, we affirm and promote respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.1 When we consider this principle, we usually think of it as a statement about the importance of environmental sustainability. Understanding this principle in this way is important, considering the lack of respect of the environment by the human community. Expressions of concern for the environment will frequently refer to this principle. Yet as Rev. Barbara Merritt2 tells us, the interdependent web is a fact of our existence, indeed a fact of the entire family of things. It is a metaphor for all that there is, for all existence. It suggests the image of a spiders web and applies it to the entire universe. In this image we have the intellectual disciplines of cosmology, theology, and ontology, all rolled into one. You are perhaps familiar with the meaning of cosmology as the study of the cosmos, and theology as the study of the divine. Ontology is the study of the nature of being and our nature of being, as the principle says, is connected to this metaphor of the interdependent web of all existence. While we are on the topic of metaphors, let us also acknowledge the use of other metaphors for this concept of all existence. There are many words in many languages used in the same way as the interdependent web. Words such as, God, Yahweh, Brahman, Allah, Wakan Tanka, and the Tao, are all suitable approximations to ultimate reality. You can pick any one of these nouns or many others besides, but we must heed the wisdom of philosopher and scientist, Alfred Korzybski, the map is not the territory. Like a map, these words or names are symbolic representations, just as the interdependent web of existence is a similar representation. As Barbara Merritt says in her essay, our existence is profoundly interconnected. We are connected to one another and to the whole of the universe far more then we realize. Our awareness of our reality, our interconnectedness, is severely limited. Heck, there are days when I fail to realize how lucky I am to be alive, let alone connected to the interdependent web. The makeup of our body is the stuff of the universe and the elements that exist everywhere. Human beings and other living things are known as carbonbased life forms. However, very little carbon was generated at the time of the Big
1 2

See: http://uua.org/beliefs/principles/index.shtml From, With Purpose and Principle: Essays About the Seven Principles of Unitarian Universalism, Edward Frost, ed. Skinner House, 1998.

Belonging and The Interdependent Web

2012-09-08

Bang. Most of the carbon in the universe was generated by giant or super giant stars through something called the triple-alpha process in which three helium nuclei collide simultaneously under tremendous heat. The carbon produced by such stars is jettisoned in the form of dust after a super nova explosion of such stars. Joni Mitchell, in her song Woodstock, the first line in the final chorus says, we are stardust, billion-year-old carbon. That wasnt just lyrical poetry Joni Mitchell wrote. It was scientific and existential truth. Carbon became available more abundantly in the universe and thereby allowed life to form through the long process of evolution. From Wakan Tanka, the Great Spirit, there came a great unifying life force that flowed in and through all things . . . thus all things were kindred, and were brought together by the same Great Mystery.3 The Lakota wise man, leader, or spokesperson, Ota Kte sounds like a cross between a poet and a physicist! All things are kindred, he says, which is a remarkable depiction of ultimate reality, the interdependent web of all existence, especially for a Lakota writing in the late 19th or early 20th century. It is not enough to know that we belong to the universe as carbon-based life forms. Though these facts are true and we know them here in our heads, we need to know these things in our gut. We need to have the experience of belonging. Our sense of belonging may start with the facts, but becomes only real in our experience. Sometimes we take for granted that we belong to our families of origin. Sometimes we take for granted that we belong to our nation or that we are coinhabitants of this planet. These are the conditions we have found ourselves in. They are choices that we did not make. A family might be defined as a place of belonging without condition. Most of the time, you are accepted into your family without condition. You know its your family when you knock on the door at three in the morning and they let you in. It is because you belong there. A citizen of a nation is entitled to certain privileges. Of course, a person can lose certain privileges based on breaking laws or other bad behavior. Yet citizenship is rarely revoked and an example of unconditional belonging. The church has had a mixed history, but was mostly known for its conditional belonging. Once upon a time, you could only belong to a church if you gave assent to the creeds of the church. Many churches have moved a way
3

from Native American Wisdom, New World Library, Mengelkoch and Nerburn, eds., p. 43-4.

Belonging and The Interdependent Web

2012-09-08

from this intentional message about individuals belonging under certain conditions. Even many evangelical churches have lightened up on their rhetoric in this area. Though many formal conditions have been reduced for belonging, people involved with churches send unintentional messages about whether others belong there or not. Unitarian Universalist churches formally adopt unconditional belonging for all people. This is the case here at Michael Servetus Unitarian. This is what theologian James Luther Adams calls, voluntary associations.4 The experience of belonging to this, or any church community requires the first step of the individual exercising his or her free will to voluntarily associate with that community. We want people voluntarily associating with us to have the experience of belonging without condition. This is our intent. It is not to say that on occasion someone might make another feel that they dont belong. I trust that experience would be rare or nonexistent. Like the photon particles discussed by Barbara Merritt, belonging or connecting to something requires two or more entities. The two photon particles were connected to each other in these physics experiments. Our connections to those other than our family, through blood, or to our nation, through citizenship are clear and obvious. Our connections to one another in religious community are less clear and less obvious. But by our choosing to be connected to Michael Servetus Unitarian, we have a chance to experience a connection to something greater than ourselves of which we are a part of at the same time. Here is the value of a church community in our time. Back in the day, the church was on the town square of the community in which you lived. There was little distinction between your belonging to the community and your belonging to the local church on the square. They were practically the same thing. It is not so today. People are joining us from all over the Western and the northern Metro area. Our goal in our shared ministry together is to help create the context for the experiences of connection and belonging for everyone without condition. I believe we can build on our experiences of connection and belonging. What we have experienced here, or will experience here, I believe can translate into additional experiences of belonging elsewhere. There are no conditions to that sense of belonging. That is what free religion meant historically in our
4

From Voluntary Associations Socio-Cultural Analyses and Theological Interpretation, by James Luther Adams

Belonging and The Interdependent Web

2012-09-08

tradition. You do not need to be good, the poet Mary Oliver5 says. You do not need to perform by walking on your knees a hundred miles through the desert. Allow your body to love what it loves, she tells us with encouragement. It is natural. It is unconditional. The truth is, we each have times of despair. There are times when we feel we do not belong in one we feel disconnected from everything around us. Oliver wants us to tell one another what these times are like. Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. The world, apart from the human family, knows no such despair, but goes about its affairs. Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting over and over announcing your place in the family of things. The world is calling to each of us, saying that we belong. It tells you, even announces to you, over and over again that you belong that you have your place in the family of things. The facts of this condition and reality originate in science. The experience of it is yours to have in any and all ways that are possible. Mary Oliver and other poets are there to help make this condition accessible, and, by the way, so is this religious community. You belong here if you are willing to voluntarily associate with us, fellow-seekers who are also seeking our experience of the connection to the interdependent web of all existence, our place in the family of things.

Wild Geese, from New and Selected Poems, by Mary Oliver, Beacon Press, Boston, p. 110.