Moving from Mechanism to Earthism
Passage #1
One day in my morning routine, I bought coffee at local coffee chain and approached the coffee bar to put lots of milk and sweetener. Standing in front of the bar was a woman, maybe in her 50’s or 60’s standing in the center. She had a blue hat, a blue blanket covering her back, and blue plastic sandals. As I drew closer to the bar, the smell of dirt, sweat, urine, and feces misted in my nostrils. I hesitated, but decided to go to the edge of the condiment bar as far away as I could. Hands with blackened fingernails rushed around the table as she picked up the milk containers and sugar packets. Coffee splashed out of her coffee cup as she slowly and deliberately prepared the coffee and cleaned the table. I finally grabbed the milk and sugar and moved to a table to get away from her. She stayed at the table for several more minutes, and then wandered around the shop, and then to the bathroom. She walked as though no one noticed her, going about her business. I can still hear the shuffling of her sandals dragging across the floor. I watched her through the window as she walked out of the store, people avoiding her.
The thought of loneliness, of being treated as pariah overwhelmed me. To know what people are thinking of you, no chance to converse with another human being in a socially acceptable way. She has all the same amazing sacred emergent awareness and feelings as every human has had. She has the same co-creative life-giving evolutionary history from which the miracle of life sprung on this earth four billion years ago. Perceiving her plight as suffering, loneliness and pain swelled in my heart and in my eyes. Jesus taught us to experience the world unfiltered by fear, with courage.
Where does breaking open your heart to suffering and pain lead?
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