check_other (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} check_other) wrote,@ 2009-02-18 12:30:00 |
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*More* Stories from of the Lake (Imagine: Dulac, LA)
What We Have
This Shabbat morning, we created blessings, considering what we needed to be thankful as we celebrated the day of rest and reflection on the Gulf Coast and in the context of service and learning and contemplating privilege and melding communities. We began from a place of comfort and heart for may Jewish people with the traditional Jewish blessing refrain: Baruch atah Adonai, eloheynu melech ha'olam (Blessed be <insert preferred God/Creator term here> sovereign of the universe... ). Then we added.
Those who shared their blessing aloud spoke of hom, family, stability, and other somewhat immaterial "things" for which they were grateful. What of the things we have which were not said? The littler material things in life... My iPod to listen to music for entertainment or solace at will, my cool sneakers (there were some very cool sneakers in attendance at services that morning) which are so comfortable and fly... my laptop and internet for work, resources, staying in touch.
Later in the kitchen a youg person washes lunch utensils at the request of her good friend who dragged along. Their turn. She hated it, the knives covered in hummus, jam and peanut butter. the forks were slimy with salad dressing, the spoons spotted with bits of hard-boiled egg yolk and chunks of tuna. Gross! This is why I live in NY. Where we have dishwashers! She washed them. I hope she grateful for her dishwasher.
I also hope that I may learn in my work to help make more of these connections, between not only the material and the non-material, but between material and waste and practices that show a disconnect between our desire to help and lack of awareness of the consequences of human's interaction with nature. Climate change may be part of the problems on the Gulf Coast, but more so is the engineering of the river direction change and digging of channels without thought of how the land taken away affects the land's and the people's sustainability into the 21st century.
If we, the staff, weren't here to say wash the spoon it would be thrown away. And then... what oil must be found lying beneath Louisiana marsh grasses for new plastic, and what canal dredged to transport it to New Orleans, and what coal-powered manufacturing plant powered up for spoon-making, and what trees cut down for the packaging, and what truck using gas to transport the goods to the store and what car from the store... to get us another spoon? And what piece of Louisiana earth will the old spoon then inhabit so that living things may no longer? The spoon IS our work here. The spoon matters as much as our work clearing storm debris, tearing down flooded homes, and painting new ones. The spoon matters.
Mark
What We Have
This Shabbat morning, we created blessings, considering what we needed to be thankful as we celebrated the day of rest and reflection on the Gulf Coast and in the context of service and learning and contemplating privilege and melding communities. We began from a place of comfort and heart for may Jewish people with the traditional Jewish blessing refrain: Baruch atah Adonai, eloheynu melech ha'olam (Blessed be <insert preferred God/Creator term here> sovereign of the universe... ). Then we added.
Those who shared their blessing aloud spoke of hom, family, stability, and other somewhat immaterial "things" for which they were grateful. What of the things we have which were not said? The littler material things in life... My iPod to listen to music for entertainment or solace at will, my cool sneakers (there were some very cool sneakers in attendance at services that morning) which are so comfortable and fly... my laptop and internet for work, resources, staying in touch.
Later in the kitchen a youg person washes lunch utensils at the request of her good friend who dragged along. Their turn. She hated it, the knives covered in hummus, jam and peanut butter. the forks were slimy with salad dressing, the spoons spotted with bits of hard-boiled egg yolk and chunks of tuna. Gross! This is why I live in NY. Where we have dishwashers! She washed them. I hope she grateful for her dishwasher.
I also hope that I may learn in my work to help make more of these connections, between not only the material and the non-material, but between material and waste and practices that show a disconnect between our desire to help and lack of awareness of the consequences of human's interaction with nature. Climate change may be part of the problems on the Gulf Coast, but more so is the engineering of the river direction change and digging of channels without thought of how the land taken away affects the land's and the people's sustainability into the 21st century.
If we, the staff, weren't here to say wash the spoon it would be thrown away. And then... what oil must be found lying beneath Louisiana marsh grasses for new plastic, and what canal dredged to transport it to New Orleans, and what coal-powered manufacturing plant powered up for spoon-making, and what trees cut down for the packaging, and what truck using gas to transport the goods to the store and what car from the store... to get us another spoon? And what piece of Louisiana earth will the old spoon then inhabit so that living things may no longer? The spoon IS our work here. The spoon matters as much as our work clearing storm debris, tearing down flooded homes, and painting new ones. The spoon matters.
Mark
