I live in the United States, it is June 2018. We are experiencing transforming shifts of perception in U.S. national and world politics. I look to nature, and I look to eco-feminist theology for some wisdom to sort out the new paradigm of U.S. society. The image of sardines came to me. Let me unpack this...
I am 54 years old, I grew up during the era American superpower dominance. Last weekend, I attended protests of the US government policy of separating family children from parents of international refugee family asylum seekers at the southern US border. The US also withdrew from the UN Commission for Human Rights. As I heard speakers at the Otay Detention Center, the images of African slave families separated, of indigenous native people families separated flashed through me. Talking to Reverend Bonnie of Church for our Common Home at the rally, she empathized with me about my own mother's experience of Japanese internment camp separation during World War II, and the trauma inflicted.
My thought is the overwhelming patriarchal, "power-over", and master/slave racism is the foundation of civilization and the U.S. culture since the beginning. During the era of super-power dominance the elites in the U.S. religiously spouted cultural message of freedom and democracy that papered over the underlying white supremest mind set. However, American power on the decline, the message is now overtly racist and oppressive. No more illusion that now middle class America will be left behind as the country moves toward a new Russian style kleptocracy. For me, this is new to me openly marginalized. Going forward, the way to accumulate wealth will be to steal from the poor, like in most poorer countries in the world.
So the first time, I feel like the bottom of the food chain, and the image of sardines came to as I listened to the speakers in Otay Mesa. Can you have fulfilling spiritual life when you are no longer safe? The sardines niche in the eco-system is to fundamentally be unsafe, and be food for those above on the food chain. Can you be spiritually equanimous and whole when fundamentally unsafe in the physical world? This is what I call spirituality like a sardine. I heartily say yes, you can be whole and accepting of the universe on the inside even if circumstances are perilous on the external world. We reject the patriarchal "power-over" mind set and live in the eco-feminist "power-with" paradigm.
That is why our inner journey is so important, and our prayerful meditative practice at Church for our Common Home is the place to cultivate resilience. This is work not do alone. I am thankful for the loving support at Church for our Common Home for loving non-dual eco-feminist and earth-centered spirituality.
Jamie
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