I started writing this reflection a week before the collapse of the apartment building in South Florida. A true tragedy on many levels.
Usually I sleep soundly, but last night was not one of those nights. I made the mistake of reading an article in Bloomberg Businessweek, before turning out the lights. “Palm Beach Billionaires’ Fix for Sinking Megamansions: Build Bigger”. The more I read the more my stomach churned.
In the article Prashant Gopal, and Amanda L. Gordon wrote that Thomas Peterffy one of the world’s richest men who is now 76 years old, built his Mediterranean-style mansion seven years ago on a vulnerable stretch of Florida’s Palm Beach Island. When asked about his home and climate change his answer according to the article was: “I don’t have a care about it at all,” he said this over lunch at Mar-a-Lago. “If something needs to be done to save it,(IT meaning the planet I guess)” he added, “it’s not going to be my problem.”
I found myself yelling out loud “IT’S NOT GOING TO BE MY PROBLEM” “IT’S NOT GOING TO BE MY PROBLEM”... are you kidding me? I am glad I was alone because I’m sure I sounded crazy ranting alone in my room...
The article went on to quote another man: “Let’s build this thing the way we want it,” said Michael John Vincent Spaziani, a property appraiser and member of Palm Beach’s planning and zoning commission, he went on to say, “If it gets dangerous, we’ll sell it and move somewhere else.”
Let that sink in, “If it gets dangerous, we’ll sell it and move somewhere else.” Sell it to who? More ranting... And it did get more dangerous! As I get ready to post this, the death count rises, as they search for bodies in the rubble of the collapsed apartment building.
For me this mind-numbing crassness, this arrogance, and ignorance is one of the many reasons our home planet is dying, and this article left me sleepless, but for every story like this there is also another story, the story under the story, a far more subtle and elusive story.
Unfortunately when we fail to see the flip-side, our own reflection in the mirror, we take the easier path of blaming others...it is so easy to point to the blatant, the obvious... the individuals/corporations/governments who seem to truly not care if life on Earth comes to an end, or that unbridled consumerism means death for millions of people and all manner of other kind...as long as money insulates individuals personally.
Advertisers convince us 24/7 that this is “The American Way”! Consume your way to happiness and health… just green up your consumption if you want to be seen as a caring human ... Life liberty and the pursuit of individual happiness, you shop at Whole Foods, buy Eco-friendly products, recycle your plastics… you’re doing your part.
I must admit when I look in the mirror I think I am doing my part. Co-founding Green Mountain Monastery counts for something I guess, and of course my art work is Eco-edgy, I try to grow most of my own organic veggies even at the Thomas Berry House here in Pensilvania, I look for green products, try to shop local and farmers markets when in season... I can quote Thomas Berry, and like so many of my friends I thought I would get high marks when it came to “Saving Earth”!
But then I read Sarah McFarland Taylor’s book:
“Ecopiety — Green Media and the Dilemma of Environmental Virtue”
This book is hard, and now I am not looking so good! And because it is hard to read, I recommend to everyone living in our media soaked world of consumptive insanity.
Reading Sarah McFarland Taylor’s book calls for a true Eco-Examination of conscience. In religious life Ignatius of Loyola considered the examination of conscience as the single most important spiritual exercise. In a religious context, an examination of conscience is a review of ones thoughts, words, actions, and omissions.
Ecopiety shakes us from the complacent fantasy that recycling plastic, and smugly consuming pricy upscale Eco-friendly products gives us a pass, that we are doing our part, that we can sit back, make minimal changes in our lives, and everything will be okay, somehow we will be saved from the coming dark night of the planet.
For me the echo of the heart-stoping line from Drew Dillinger’s poem “Hieroglyphic Stairway” ring in my ears “what did you do once you knew?” by this time I believe we know, we all know, we know climate change is real and happening even as I write. Like me I am sure we all feel it deep in our bones.
As the Western states burns, as droughts worsen, storms become more severe, how can we not know? Science has known for decades, and has been sounding the alarm. We must all do more, start by reading Ecopiety, it helps us grasp the reality of the absolute need to change our perceptions. We are running out of time, some say we are out of time.... I am not as some have called me Chicken little nor am I negative or Debby Downer… I still have some hope, for the children and for a future I will not see.
So I will end as I began, “The Truth Will Set You Free”, and as Gloria Steinem said, “but first it will piss you off.”
