Love the Earth

 

            My friend sent to me and many others an interesting article.  I think I may have seen this article in a periodical I read, but I had not given it any thought.  I know I did not read it.  However, if it is important to my friend, then I figure I ought to look at it.  It was a story about

Bill Jacobs, a Long Island, NY resident and no one I know.  The first line of the article was engaging.  “If Bill Jacobs were a petty man, or a less religious one, he might look through the thicket of flowers, bushes and brambles that encircle his home an see enemies all around.”  That piqued my interest.  I could almost see the jungle-like area around Bill’s house.  But the next line was arresting.  “For to the North, and to the South, and to the West and East and all points in between, stretch acres and acres of lawns.”  I was had!

            The author continues to describe these immaculate lawns, many owned by rich folks and kept in pristine beautiful shape by countless workers probably working for minimum wages.  Oddly, the author quotes Mr. Camp who says of Bill Jacobs, “It takes a special kind of person to do something like that…I mow lawns for a living, so it’s not my thing.”  I love how the author describes Jacobs’ house as “barely visible, obscured by a riot of flora …”  Then we are told that Jacobs is a Catholic and ecologist. 

            What is behind Jacob’s seemingly odd approach to lawn care?  The author tells us that Jacobs feels it is important for all of us “To reconnect with nature and experience the sort of spiritual transcendence he feels in the forest, or on a mountain, or amid the bounty of his own yard.  It’s a feeling that, for him, is akin to feeling close to God.”  Of course, he is sensitive to the environmental crisis that looms ahead---at least, according to many leading scientists.  I want to listen to them and to Bill Jacobs.

            Jacobs tells us, “We need something greater than people.”  He adds, We need a calling outside of ourselves, to some sort of higher power, to something higher than ourselves to preserve life on earth.”  There is the heart of it.  Bill Jacobs is concerned about what human beings are doing to our earth and the gift that nature is.  After all, we are part of nature, too.  In a way we could say it’s self-abuse!  But we don’t see it that way.  Most of us think everything is ok…or at least, not that bad.  We are not aware enough to think about any kind of change.

            Interestingly, our lawns are a reflection of human indifference, on one hand, and human awareness on the other hand.  We are indifferent to what ecologically seems to be happening to our world.  And yet, we certainly notice when a neighbor is lax in the care of their lawn.  Indeed, we snip that someone’s yard looks “like a jungle.”  Of course, most of us have never seen a jungle!  Or we conclude that the neighbor is surely lazy to let the thing get in that kind of shape.  The implication is we are not lazy---or rich enough to afford others who are not lazy. 

            We were told that three years ago, Bill Jacobs teamed up with another Catholic to begin an initiate “the creation of wildlife-friendly gardens that feature native plants and offer a place to reflect and meditate…”  As I type that, I am aware the two folks mention want to create a garden.  It reminded me of the primordial garden described in the early chapters of Genesis, the Garden of Eden. 

            Most of us probably have not given any thought to what that Garden looked like.  Given what we are used to, however, I suspect we imagine a nicely manicured, luscious green lawn with a few trees and one in the middle which is the “no-no” tree.  Maybe the Garden of Eden even had sidewalks, so Adam and Eve would not stumble.  Indeed, it is perfect.  The irony is the Garden probably was perfect, but not in the manicured way we are thinking.  It was simply divine!

            But we know the story.  Adam and Eve trashed not the Garden, but themselves.  Tradition has it that sin entered the picture.  And we, their children, are now trashing our gardens and the whole world.  Again, the irony is we swear we are not trashing it.  Just look at it: so clean, so beautiful, so cared for.  It looks so good, it seems unreal.  The joke is on us; it is unreal.  And it is not divine to do it that way. 

            I like what Jacobs tells us.  He says that “People have to love the Earth before they save it…So love is the key.  We don’t do doomsday stuff.”  How spiritual this approach is.  He and his friends are not pounding us for being like Adam and Eve.  He does, however, remind us that we have to love the earth.  We likely think we do, but do we really.  I have heard people say they love a lot of things, but seldom or maybe never have I heard anyone say they love the earth.  It is about time.

            Maybe like our ancestors, we will have to be thrown out of our gardens---our well-manicured, beautiful gardens.  Then we can begin to love the earth---this world God created with us right in the middle.  If we can love the earth, then we can take our rightful place as co-creators with God.  Thanks to Bill Jacobs, I have a clue what this means.  Love the earth.