Must Have Been Moonglow

I've been watching the moon's progression to full this past week through our bedroom window. We have the curtains down right now and are due to get our new blinds any day now. (We try not to give the neighbors too much of a peak show when we're getting ready in the morning!) In anycase, it's been beautiful and makes me both melancholy and delighted in the wonders of planet Earth. Finley has really been gaining an interest in space lately. We got a really fun book of planet poetry for kids and I bought him a new quilt with the planets and a matching "Pluto" pillow. He loves it and we talk about why Pluto isn't a planet any more and how big Jupiter is and what a comet is. I've enjoyed looking up facts on space so I give him accurate answers to his many questions.

I'm also pre-occupied with several items: For one, our ongoing septic field installation; had a few hang ups with getting the pump tank wired but we are on our way now. This week is busy with a playdate for our pre-school that I had to plan, a board meeting for the pre-school for next year, preparing for a sermon this Sunday, (I'm a lay minister in my church and scheduled to speak at one of our local congregations in Seattle), and tomorrow we are going to Samish Island for the ordination of a dear friend at our church campgrounds. The logistics of it all seem daunting in the late hours of the night or the first light of morning when the kids are waking me far too early.

However, I've been reading some incredibly powerful stuff in preparation for the sermon; one of the positive side-effects of having to prepare a paper or presentation is the personal growth and insight gained in the effort. The latest issue of The Sun, July 2008, had an article with Wendell Berry, an essayist, novelist and poet, sustainable farming expert and cultural icon. The interview was called, "Digging In: Wendell Berry on Small Farms, Local Wisdom, and the Folly of Greed", done by Jeff Fearnside. It was both inspirational and disturbing. Some of my favorite quotes:

On the modern media and technology:
"To make yourself a passive receptacle for information, or whatever anybody wants to pour into you, is a bad idea. To be informed used to be a meaningful experience; it meant "to be formed from within." But information now is just a bunch of disconnected data or entertainment and, as such, may be worthless, perhaps harmful. As T.S. Eliot wrote a long time ago, information is different from knowledge, and it has nothing to do with widsom."

On our disconnect with our food source and harmful farming practices:
Fearnside: Do you think that our unhealthy food practices have to do with our lack of connection to the sacred?
Berry: I would say so, because when you are in the presence of something you consider sacred, the natural response is to be humble and respectful and careful.

I found this interview deeply moving and I couldn't stop thinking about the things I mistreat in my life because I don't view them as sacred, or I have stopped viewing them as sacred. Take for instance, my own body. I fret about my weight but I continue to crave my diet colas, my french fries, my raisin nut toast with real butter, my ice cream. The Judeo-Christian ethic has much to say about our body as a temple, our body as clean or unclean, our body as a vehicle for the holy spirit. I certainly have lost or never understood completely, the holiness of my own body. I have some exploring to do with this.

The earlier quote regarding information hits hard for me. I feel a constant need to consume more and more information but for what gain? As a child, I used to read about horses or some other country because I loved them or had a keen interest. Now, I read the paper or magazines as a way to feel worthy, be informed or have amunition for an argument or political debate. Hmmm. Something to think about....