Bloggin on the Earth

Practice of earth care
One of the primary elements that both environmental education and religious education have in common is their goal of inviting people into beliefs and practices that are not supported in the larger culture – indeed, in some instances they are actively counter cultural. During the spring term I am asking that you choose a practice of earth care that is new to you and attempt to make it a habit. The list of possibilities is potentially endless, with several that have been identified by national organizations as helping to reduce your ecological footprint. The Simpler Living, Compassionate Life text is also full of ideas. Please email me by February 22nd with your choice of practice. I’m happy to be in conversation with you if you’d like to brainstorm about what practice to choose.
My goal in this assignment is to provide an experience of embodied learning that is connected to the ideas of the course. Please be assured: I am not in this way implying that faith requires particular practices. Rather, I am suggesting that faith invites response, and that that response is always embodied, always by Christian definitions incarnational. Religious educators need to know how to support such responses, and how to do so in sustainable ways. We can learn a lot from our environmental educator colleagues about how to support and nurture responsive practice.

So this is the task at hand. Chose a practice and do it. I must say it was my goal at first to have a book read at this point and be writing about that but life what it is has not allowed that.

Being the family guy I am I try and include my wife and 2 kids in my school work as much as I can, being at a Seminary there is a lot that I do not because quite frankly it is over my head and am often times working it out well beyond the semester. Although I must say I learn a bunch about theology when I talk with my kids. So when I read about this assignment I was excited because this was something that we could do as a family. As we discussed the earth and environment and what we could do my son said that we could recycle. It was something that they had studies in school last year and he was excited. My daughter was just as excited about it as they feed off each other. I know at this point you may be saying, recycling that is so 20th century, I have been doing that for years. And yes I agree it is and many have but this is the way my family can start to develop a habit that still can impact the Earth and our environment.

So our plan is to keep each other accountable and make sure that we are doing our part. We have set up paper bags for plastic, cardboard, paper, glass and cans.

It has been a little over a weeks since we have committed to this and I would say that things are going good. I have found myself carrying my plastic soda bottles across campus so that they can be put in a container rather than the trash. Have I missed a few things? Yes. Do I generally catch myself and dumpster dive, only at home in my own garbage. I find that my kids keep me most accountable as the little details of life do not seem to escape them, unless of course it is their backpacks for school, lunch bags, shoe, ect when we are trying to get out of the house.

As part of our plan for this I hope to point out the recycling post where ever we go. I am also compiling a list of websites that have information on recycling and its impact on the environment. I also hope to look for movies that can teach us and still be entertaining. So if anyone out there has any suggestions the kids are 7 and 4, so they should also be age appropriate.

Well I suppose that is all for now. The reading continues for all classes and the world keeps turning. I am thankful for my family and thank God every morning that my feet hit the ground the O2 CO2 exchange happens in my lungs. Ah the oxygen and water cycles are so interesting, but that takes me back to 1993 and environmental science class in undergrad, perhaps more on that in another entry. Take care.