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| ISSUE NO. 690 |
| I WAS YESTERDAY YEARS OLD (40!) . . . when I learned about the origins of Earth Day. Each year on April 22nd, elementary aged kids around the world engage in organized events to highlight how we can care for the environment. (We must note that one day alone is insufficient - the Earth deserves the indigenous practices rooted in reciprocity that pay respect to our relationship with nature in every interaction.) What I did not know until yesterday is that Earth Day was spearheaded by a Wisconsin Senator, Gaylord Nelson, in 1970. He fashioned it after teach-ins on college campuses, having seen their influence through the anti-war protests of the previous decade. He recruited the help of a young activist named Denis Hayes to get the ball rolling. The story of Earth Day holds extra significance this year. The past week saw a spark of solidarity, starting at Columbia University and spreading at colleges across the country, of student encampments demanding divestment from genocide in Gaza. The demonstrations showed a powerful display of community: firsthand accounts from witnesses detailed the ways they welcomed people, the spirit in which they served, the community care they fostered, and how they acted as a magnet, drawing people in to understand why and how they were raising awareness about a century of occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people. I've seen images of people sharing food, bringing blankets, teachers creating chains to protect students from police, people gathering to provide coverage while folks engage in sacred prayer, dancing, singing, teaching, and togetherness. The history of our Earth - the full ecosystem that includes human life as one small part of it - is not in the past. The history of how we will see and speak to and acknowledge one another - and all living things - is unfolding in this present moment, right now. Emergency Magazine shares a conversation with Merlin Sheldrake and David Abram "exploring the many kinds of selves that compose our breathing biosphere" and capturing this better than we could say it. The ever increasing demands of unregulated capitalism require our purpose and pleasure to feed its exploitative goals. While the most behemoth of businesses - fossil fuels and weapons manufacturers - encourage conflict to feed increasing production and profits, the second tier of big business - industrial agriculture, technology, entertainment, mass media, and fast fashion - encourage consumption to distract us from the details and numb us from the pain. Earth Day is a celebration of the beauty and bounty of this world that invites us to step into our duty to honor the Great Mother through our actions. From Alnoor Ladha's interview on the Upstream podcast (shared in Tidbits below), the Sufi proverb rings true: You are entrusted with everything and entitled to nothing. In plain sight this week is that the answer lies somewhere between the binary narrative that your choices alone will save the planet (because they can't) and that the responsibility lies solely on big businesses to change their ways (they won't). The answer is and will always be that we all get free when we co-create cultures of care. We get free when we co-create webs of support within our communities. We get free when we work together. In solidarity, Tay + Dor |
tidbits...resources on anti-racism, environmentalism and food culture AKA stuff we're reading / listening to / watching / noticing / thinking about / captivated by this Tuesday . . . |
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