[Fuusmchat] Fw: To be placed creatures -- The Pause, part of the On Being Project
Martha McGovern
marthamcg at suddenlink.net
Sat Apr 18 08:02:57 CDT 2020
On Being
From: The On Being Project
Sent: Saturday, April 18, 2020 6:56 AM
To: Martha McGovern
Subject: To be placed creatures
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At a time when words are offering refuge, we’ve noticed many people turning to Wendell Berry’s poem, “The Peace of Wild Things,” on onbeing.org:
“When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things ...”
Berry writes with such intimacy and particularity about his connection with wilderness. As the 50th anniversary of Earth Day approaches next week, we’re delving into his writing — as well as theologian and conservationist Ellen Davis’s agrarian reading of the Bible — for their poetic perspectives on being in relationship with the natural world. For Davis, connecting to land and all that’s living can guide our connection to one another. "We are a part of an intricate web of physical relations which are, at the same time, moral relations,” she says.
But being in relationship with the world requires us to recognize a kind of constant and inexorable loss, whether because of climate change or mass extinction or gentrification. Many people shy away from it. Ecological philosopher Joanna Macy understands: “Our difficulty in looking at what we’re doing to our world stems not from callous indifference or ignorance so much as it stems from fear of pain,” she says.
But what might come of turning toward this grief, of staying curious about it? Here again Macy offers some guidance: “If we can be fearless, to be with our pain,” she says, “it turns ... to reveal its other face, and the other face of our pain for the world is our love for the world, our absolutely inseparable connectedness with all life.” For some, like writer Terry Tempest Williams, this connection and love for the world is a call to act in its interest. “The other side of that love and loss is that empathy rooted in action,” she says. “I think it’s about making commitments to do the real work, the hard work, because ultimately that’s where I have found the most joy.”
This year, on Earth Day, exploring our connection to the natural world may require us to turn toward grief. But doing so will also allow us to look past it, with renewed focus on all that’s left to act upon.
Yours,
Kristin Lin
Editor, The On Being Project
P.S. — We’ve released a new content “care package” for those in the health care community. Explore the offering of poetry, podcasts, and meditations to accompany a time of crisis.
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This Week at The On Being Project
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Our Latest Episode
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On Being with Krista Tippett
Wendell Berry and Ellen Davis
“The Art of Being Creatures”
A theological and poetic meditation on what it means to be “placed creatures” — to take care with the natural world; to eat; to slow down.
Listen on:
Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
Spotify
Our Website
Living the Questions
“How can I find my footing in a shifting world?”
Krista reflects on this moment as one of collective transition and ponders what we might integrate into the people we become on the other side of it.
Listen on:
Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
Spotify
Our Website
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Poetry Unbound and Friends
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We’re thrilled to introduce this new video series, unfolding on Instagram. Each weekday, you’ll hear from poets, former On Being guests, and friends of the show, all reading and reflecting on poems that are resonating with them in this strange moment.
This week we shared contributions from Poetry Unbound host Pádraig Ó Tuama, Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie, and poet Marilyn Nelson.
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A Haiku for this Week
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Follow John Paul Lederach’s “unfolding poem” for the moment we’re in at onbeing.org
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Recommended Listening for Health Care Workers
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Illustration by Jocelyn Tsaih
Selections from our new care package for the health care community:
“Lighthouse Keeping” by Kay Ryan
A new recording of Pádraig Ó Tuama, host of Poetry Unbound, reading a poem selected in honor of health care workers.
“How can we be present to what's happening in the world without giving in to despair and hopelessness?” | Living the Questions
Krista answers a listener’s question about seeking hope and joy in troubling times.
Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen — The Difference Between Curing and Healing | On Being
An excerpt of Krista’s beloved conversation with Dr. Remen, a pioneer in the “human agenda” in medicine. She says the power to help — to be a healing presence — is not dependent on the power to cure.
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Events
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Universe in Verse
Saturday, April 25 at 4:30 p.m. EST
Digital livestream
Maria Popova’s annual poetry celebration, Universe in Verse, is going virtual this year. The event, held in partnership with Pioneer Works, will feature classic and contemporary poems performed by a largehearted cast of scientists and artists, astronauts and poets, Nobel laureates, and Grammy winners. Krista, as well as former On Being guests Robert Macfarlane, Marie Howe, Brian Greene, Ross Gay, Eve Ensler, and many more are taking part. The livestream is free, but will not be available in its entirety for later viewing. Any donations to Pioneer Works will be received with deep appreciation. Learn more.
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