August 20:

“I want to show that what is useful can also be beautiful.”

–Gandhi (Harijan, April 7, 1946)

As I took a long walk this evening with my neighbor’s dog, Fancy, beneath the oaks and redwoods, I thought about nature, her forces, her weather, and how it is often described as violent. I’ve seen an entire series of books about natural forces called “Our Violent Planet.” You’ll see burning lava and hard rains; rushing rivers and strong winds.  OK, but to call it “violent”? That was not very accurate to me. Sure, there are destructive forces in nature, but she never destroys without re-creating, rebuilding, on her own time. And, I have to ask, does the concept of destruction mean the same thing in the context of the Earth’s processes as it does when it applies to human beings, endowed with a will and consciousness of harm? To be sure, we do not really know how “conscious” the Earth and her systems are. We know they are intelligent in some sense; so maybe Earth is violent? I’m not convinced.

There is a story most of the modern world has accepted since the Industrial “Revolution” (was it really that revolutionary after all?) that the Earth is a dead resource to take what we want from and do whatever we want to. Where before she was a living being, to be respected and cared for, even trusted, we “dehumanized” and reduced her to her material components alone. Is it a coincidence in this process she got labeled as “violent” as well? Isn’t that what we do to human beings when we want power and control over them? We cast them as violent which justifies our own use of violence toward them? The Earth is an interesting psychological and spiritual mirror for us. She is not our enemy. She is our beloved home and nurturer. How about the next time we hear her processes described as “violent” we reconsider the full picture: perhaps, just perhaps, she is nonviolent. Maybe her strong winds are pushing us toward one another, strengthening our bonds with one another. Maybe her droughts teach us to be wise and careful, and to share. Perhaps her floods are tears. The earthquakes are her contractions. And the rainbow?

Experiment in Nonviolence:

Find examples of nonviolence in nature today.