GREEN NEWS & VIEWS
GREEN NEWS & VIEWS
BY CAROL BURBANK “The World is Our Body”: Healing the Loneliness of the Anthropocene
In such a culture, difference is punishable by servitude, invisibility or exile. It happens everywhere, but nowhere so invisibly as in our intimate family structures. Historically and sociologically, the more traditional a family structure, the more rigid our gender roles, and the more lonely every member of the family becomes as the small ideas about who we are supposed to be infect and isolate everyone — fa- ther, mother, children included. The isolation spread from the smaller unit to the human and non-human communities, creating networks of privilege and exploitation that reinforce “traditional” family values: patriarchal control, female nurturing, and insularity. Over time, what feels safe becomes a prison, and the cost of break- ing free is intense shame. Shame is a steady diet for people with less privilege in this closed circle, or any system that traps humans in small thinking. The small lives that result in the isolated houses and commu- nities that promote stereotypes of superiority and inferiority become excuses for consumption that proves we are not, after all, small — but dominant, right, in control. And our isolation from each other means we each need to consume more resources to maintain our separation. Lather, rinse, repeat this formula for each effort to make some people less so others can feel like more. continued on page 70
our destiny, one not more important than the other.” Not one more important than the other. This reminder of the in- terconnectedness of our human-centered Anthropocene is not only a source of wisdom; it is an antidote to the ego-centered consumption that poisons and isolates us as individuals and as a species. It is an invitation to step into relationships that will ease the loneliness at the heart of our separation from the natural world. Confront Bad Human Habits This prayer may be familiar to many readers, part of their daily spir- itual practice and activism. It’s simple — but not easy — to step away from the myths of the Anthropocene. Many of us have learned from indigenous wisdom and take small and large steps to ensure health to all creatures, including but not limited to ourselves. But some of the worst habits of the human culture are hard to shake, and some of our actions and beliefs have environmental consequences we may not even be aware of. Here, I’m not talking about our embrace of computer technology and AI, creating cultural isolation and using vast amounts of water, plastics, and power. And I’m not even talking about our un - examined dependence on fossil fuels, or the toxic waste generated by the fashion industry or conventional construction practices. Instead, our relentless consumption grows out of a post-industri- al, cultural sense of entitlement, bolstered by traditional hierarchies and social structures that increase contempt not only towards nature but also other people. The greatest delusions of the Anthropocene are rooted in the hierarchies that shape our behaviors, usually with- out consciousness: the superiority or inferiority of certain races, rigid ideas of masculinity and femininity, and supposedly innate differenc - es between one class of person and another. All these slights and elevations that distract us from human inter - connection justify the social and political and environmental decisions we make every day. They are at the heart of the challenge to truly see that co-creating a healthy world begins with an equality of respect — for ALL our relations, close and far. If we cannot see this in our human cultures, then how can we step into the radical notion that everything in the natural world deserves our equal respect and gratitude as family? Our cultural and person- al prejudices make oppressive power-over-choices feel normal for privileged groups; we “deserve” the ease and convenience we take for granted, and imagine it will protect us. We are also taught that we “deserve” the subordination that makes us less than other kinds of people.
crippled by drought, starvation and poverty have created climate refu- gees around the world. Protecting ourselves only delays the necessary, unique steps we might take towards healthy change. Invoke Interconnectedness The question for me is this: How do we transcend the despair that often shuts us down, discouraging us from seeing interventions that can improve our health as a species and as a planet? Every action begins with a consciousness shift. When we see the mechanisms that justify dominance, greed and privilege, we can turn the toxic tide that threatens us all. Environmental philosopher Joanna Macy argues that shifting our consciousness can relieve “the lonely and [falsely] heroic journey of the ego” and reclaim wholeness through connection. In Greening of the Self , she writes: “The obvious choice, then, is to extend our notions of self-interest. For example, it would not occur to me to plead with you, ‘Don’t saw off your leg. That would be an act of violence.’ It wouldn’t occur to me (or to you) because your leg is part of your body. Well, so are the trees in the Amazon rain basin. They are our external lungs. We are beginning to realize that the world is our body.” “The world is our body.” In other words, the health of every creature (human or non-human, plant, animal and fungus), and the viability of every rhizomatic interconnected mile of landscape, is part of us. The much-celebrated Lakota prayer of “Mitakuye Oyasin”, or “all my relations” brings this interconnectedness to a lived spiritual truth, in- voking gratitude for the mineral nation, the plant nation, the animal nation, the human nation, the Spirit nation, and the winds of change and growth, all of which are “co-existing, co-dependent, co-creating
If the world is to be healed through human efforts, I am convinced it will be by ordinary people, people whose love for this life is even greater than their fear. ― Joanna R. Macy It’s sometimes hard to look at the devastation of climate change and feel a sense of hope, or even understand how we have allowed things to come so far. The physical, economic and spiritual evidence of our greedy, human-centered choices calls us to witness and to act – but where do we start? What is ours to do? Denial and fear drive so many of us. Even as the world suffers from wildfires, drought and deforestation, or paradoxically, super-storms, floods and polluted waters, whole swaths of Americans cling to the be - lief that these changes are normal, even natural. Nonetheless, we are living in the age of the Anthropocene, the geologic age where human activity dominates and transforms the planet. Mapping your choices and taking care of yourself in the midst of devastation is not easy. We long to feel safe where we are. However human it is to hunker down in our relatively safe havens, those of us who love the planet know it is not the land and creatures “over there” that suffer. As a species, we are the makers of suffering in the natural world, and we also suffer as a result. Our food is impregnated with microplas - tics and modified by GMO manipulation that requires pesticides to be harvested. Miles of neighborhoods and whole stretches of waterways have become cancer clusters because of industrial pollution. Nations
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68—PATHWAYS—Fall 26
PATHWAYS—Fall 26—69
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