In his essay on Mark 10, Norman Wirzba suggests that intentional communities will be marked by the following four attributes: gardens, responsible shopping and support of local economies, generously designed households, and celebratory practices. I'm going to go through the ways in which I've seen these attributes reflected in Hyaets, then offer some thoughts on finding good reasons for caring for our plot of creation.
Gardens
Hyaets is gardens. It is an unwritten rule of the community that one must plant a garden to be fully part of the way of life here. Some members of the community get pretty into the whole garden thing. Greg and Helms contribute to a blog called Farm City Folk (http://farmcityfolk.wordpress.com). A blog about farming. In the city. Yeah. They are pretty hardcore. I'm not going to go down the list of all the things that grow in the Greg/Helms garden, but its pretty extensive and incredible and I'm sure they would be more than happy to tell you about it themselves. There are many an evening when much of what is on the dinner table in our house was harvested from the backyard. And then you have Jason, who knows about edible plants one can find in the wilderness (or on Tuckaseegee). And then you have Anna, who studies herbal medicine. Yes, Hyaets is chock full of people who love tending to the earth.
Responsible Shopping and Support of Local Economies
Quick story for you: Once upon a time, it was the summer interns' job to go to the store on Saturdays do all the grocery shopping for the upcoming week. The summer interns were at the grocery store for the first time and checking out when, all of the sudden, they realized that they forgot to bring the canvas grocery bags from home. When the cashier asked the ubiquitous question, "paper or plastic?"- the interns cried in unity, "Neither! We're going... BAGLESS!" The cashier, with a look of unsettled shock on her face, helped the interns load their unbagged groceries into the cart. When they got home, one of them ran into the house, sneaked the canvas bags out to the car, and they then proceeded to canvas-bag all of the groceries for the trip from driveway to kitchen. And everyone lived happily ever after. The End.
What's the point of this tale? Though we did not save our planet by going bagless that fateful Saturday, we were being intentional about shopping responsibly. That means aiming, with good reasons behind our actions, towards less wasteful, less harmful, and less consumerist shopping habits. People are big into this at Hyaets. Otherwise we wouldn't have been scared out of our minds to bring home plastic grocery bags.
We also support our local economies. That means trying to go to Chat-n-Chew or the local Farmer's Market, or Value Village instead of McDonalds or Trader Joe's/Harris Teeter or Wal-Mart. Simple, simple, simple.
Designing Generous Households
This attribute is tied in with sharing and hospitality, which I've discussed previously. But for good measure, I'll tell you about the Green-not-a-Green-House. I was reading an article in the Independent about how this woman and her husband built a "green" (i.e. environmentally friendly) house and how she wrote a book about it. The article goes on to talk about how green the house is and then describes one of the "splurges" that accompanied the green-ness. That is, the woman built a kitchen with two
of everything. Two dishwashers, two ovens, yada yada yada. And I thought to myself; "that would be unheard of at Hyaets! If I wanted another one of some kitchen appliance I would just go over to Jason and Joanie's house and use theirs!" And that has happened in the past, such as at the beginning of the summer when we cooked additional pizzas for kids' lunch in their oven and last week when their crock pot became our second crock pot, twice. So, in this way Hyaets is more green than the faux-green house described above, simply because of a household design focused on the generous sharing of resources.
Celebratory Practices
At Hyaets, we try to encourage practices of celebration. By celebrating, our lives become more like a prayer and more like life in heaven. We, in Norman Wirzba's words, strive for an "ethos of compassion and attention so that the integrity and grace of creation will visibly emerge." Tomorrow evening, Hyaets will celebrate us intern folk at Family Night, and we will eat okra from the backyard, grown and harvested from a seed with care.
Why we should care
I think there is a danger inherent in our caring for earth, however, and would like to end with a few brief remarks about ensuring that our caring is for the right reasons. As Christians, we have to remember that while the earth and its environments are God's Creation and that by caring for and sustaining Creation we partake in the life of God, only humans are made in God's image:
“And God created man to his own image: to the image of God he created him: male and female he created them. And God blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and all living creatures that move upon the earth” - Genesis 1: 27-28
Moreover, we have to remember that the greatest of all virtues, agape, is the most perfect and divinely infused of the virtues. "God is agape" (1 Jn 4:8) and to show agape towards others is to participate in the life of Christ. Agape, as I believe I mentioned in an earlier post, is a type of friendship, and since it is a type of friendship, plants and animals are not proper objects of agape. So insofar as Creation is not a proper object of agape, how does care for Creation factor into the schema of Christian moral theology?
I would think that caring for Creation would be an activity more in line with the virtue of prudence. That is, caring for God's creation is a practical activity of the intellect by which we can judge our actions towards Creation with respect to moral value. For example, we may ascertain in a certain situation that an institution (e.g. Wal-Mart) uses the fruits of Creation as the means to an unjust end. While care for Creation has no moral content in an of itself, it does have moral content with respect to other virtues (such as justice) as well as vices by way of its being connected to prudence.
Most importantly, I would suggest that within the scope of the Christian faith, that to "love Creation" would be a form of idolatry. The Creation doctrine quoted above, the first commandment of the Decalogue (Ex 20:2-4), and the two commandments of "love God" and "love your neighbor as yourself" (Mat 22:36-40) work together to provide a Scriptural ground for this view. You may see where this going and pose the question as to why can't love of God's creation coincide with love of God and neighbor even though not explicitly commanded. My reply to this question would hinge on the definition of agape. Agape is that special type of "God is love" love which as a virtue is rooted in the highest human end, vis a vis everlasting happiness. Since only humans can attain that happiness and participate in this special communion with God, to include Creation in this higher plane by seeking to "love" Creation would be at least inappropriate and at the most against God's will.
Of course all this is very sloppy, another book length project, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH. However, I would be deeply indebted to any person whom would challenge me on the above point. As I've been reminded at various points in my life, two virtues that I am more than a little deficient in, care and humility, are of the utmost importance for both the good life and the good argument. One way that I can work to develop more careful and humble habits is through dialogue, so please comment or talk to me if anything is either unclear, or too poorly put, or the views are not quite right.
Only two marks and two days at Hyaets left. Wow! This summer has been one hell of a ride, but I am convinced that it has been full of blessings. And as a new friend would say, "I will go to my grave believing that."
Pax et bonum.
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