Hello, everyone! I thought I’d add my experience with the Rubin Museum.
I visited the Rubin Museum last Friday with the main interest into the upper floor exhibitions regarding the Buddha. Titled, “The Second Buddha” I had heard about this exhibit from the advertisements found across the city and upon my visit and making my way to the floor it was being held I was overcome with a sense of relief. Relief found within meditative states, especially when ascending via stairs to the floor, mostly from how quiet the Museum was in particular. With little to no visitors in the vicinity, it felt like a soul searching journey and upon viewing the many depictions of the Buddha surrounding and looking at me. It was if I was making that first step to reaching an inner peace within my inner self, absolving all stress or pain in life. All carefully detailed in a mystic sense, contrasting the traditional Greek proper anatomical artwork found in Europe all of which from what I saw was capturing what the artist exhibited as their own Nirvana. Layered within their depictions of the Buddha, “the enlightened one”.
I really enjoyed listening to this podcast because, as Maddy so beautifully mentioned in her post, nature and humanity are linked. The idea that to connect with nature means we have to run, screaming from cities is not only unsustainable, but also reinforces the idea that nature is something that happens, “out there.” In this interview, Janine Benyus talks about taking the intelligence of different ecosystems and applying them to the elements of design for individual buildings and cities alike. Biomimicry is new to me but, shockingly, I am now hooked on learning as much as I can about it. I believe that it could be a innovative and healing way to reintegrate the ideas of the natural world into how we view cities, and ultimately make them healthier for both the human and non-human residents. https://forthewild.world/listen/janine-benyus-on-redesigning-society-based-on-nature
Warm weather reminds me of myself again in ways I don’t realize I had forgotten (maybe that’s just Seasonal Affective Disorder?) but I had a similar experience coming down from the mountains in China after a month of monastic retreat, down into a completely different environment: the city of Ningbo. Walking on the sidewalk in a crowd, watching traffic lights, crossing between cars, all very mundane activities of negotiating the city, made me feel immediately at home. There was the same feeling in Dublin last winter. While I had never been to Ningbo, I had been to Ireland & Dublin many times. But last winter, when we came to the city, after being in the countryside for days, I realized I felt at home in Dublin in a way I couldn’t feel in the vast farmland of County Kerry. In the countryside, I could certainly love, and be in awe and gratitude standing on the breathtaking Irish shore or laying on the gorgeous rolling green hills. But it didn’t hit my heart in the same way the narrow pavement, tall buildings and crowded streets of Dublin did.
The way the authors of Spiritual Ecology, and sometimes Kimmerer too, talk about human orientation to nature, it is an experience of primordial, overwhelming love, and their calls for ecological awareness tend to follow the narrative of humanity returning to nature, to our natural origins–our purity, our truth. But I think something Miller makes clear in China’s Green Religion is that, in a way, we’ve never lost that connection because nature and humanity are not ontologically separate entities.
Furthermore, the ‘return to nature’ narrative (implied it seems by the discourse around the Anthropocene) feeds into this urban/rural dichotomy, where the two are antithetical, opposing forces. But, speaking to a group of people who have chosen to live in New York City, aren’t the experiences of kinship and awe, often used to describe a loving human/nature relationship, also felt in an urban landscape? The urban/nature divide doesn’t recognize that experiences of happiness or transcendence happen in the City. It doesn’t imagine a future where human life consists thoroughly of both the urban and the natural; but, as we know, if the progression of human technology is to continue, it must also include the flourishing of nature.
I wanted to share this poem by Mary Oliver that has been rolling around my brain throughout the course because I feel that it so speaks to the thread of connection to nature as a force that is grounding/nurturing and a way to orient oneself in the world. I was shown this poem by my rabbi when my family first moved upstate from manhattan and started going to his synagogue in Woodstock, which was in the middle of the woods. I’d told him that my brother and I were having trouble sleeping at night because in the city, we lived on a very loud and busy street, and it had served as a sort of noise machine we’d grown accustomed to. Upstate, we were both weirded out by the silence in which you could hear the rustles and chirps of so many living things, particularly the slow, drawn out chirp of the crickets, a sound we are both now deeply attached to. My Rabbi suggested that the various nature sounds were just a way of our new environment welcoming us home. I brought it up with my brother this week and he described that period of adjustment to the proximity of the natural world outside our window as a sort of “plugging in,” a new awareness and appreciation that has not left either of us since.
Also: There’s a great site called learningtogive.org that’s centered around philanthropy based education for kids, and I found a lesson plan on it that I loved based around the Jewish value known as Tikuun Olam – to repair the world. Several elements of this lesson plan were heavily focused on the importance of nature, and one’s obligation to protect and cherish it. I’m including an excerpt below.
The Hebrew word for nature is teva. It is considered a mitzvah to protect or guard nature–sh’mirat ha-teva. Judaism tries to instill within humanity the idea that people are partners with G-d in doing the work of creation. Humanity does not exist in a vacuum, but shares the Earth with other living things. There is symbiosis in existence with every element dependent in one way or another upon every other element. We are to be thankful for the bounty of the growing things of this world. This lesson is taught in the story of creation found in the Book of Genesis, but also reinforced in the writings of the Rabbis. Incumbent upon this, as well, is the notion of ba’al tashchit–we should not be destructive, but rather work to preserve the good and useful things of this world. This, too, is our obligation.
I recently saw an article on the New York Times website about carbon footprint reduction. It’s an in-depth and easy to read guide about carbon emissions and how to reduce them, a part of the paper’s new series of guides: “A Year of Living Better.” At first, I thought it was great—the page is dynamic, with hypertext, images, and lots of information without being overwhelming. It even had a quiz and a Q&A. Then I noticed that these guides are only available to subscribers to the paper.
This kind of information should not be behind a paywall. While everything in the guide is available for free elsewhere, it’s compiled so well here, and this easy, all-in-one resource should not be available only to those who can afford it.
So the following is a summary of information and resources the Times provided (but here, it’s free).
-use gas and breaks lightly while driving to be more efficient; service your car regularly; don’t carry extra weight; use the air conditioning less often; try cruise control; and of course, whenever possible, use public transport, carpool, walk, bike, etc.
-turn down heat, water heater; turn everything off when not using it; stream movies on a smart TV, not a game console (consoles use much more energy; use a laptop, not a desktop; use LED lights; and replace your old fridge if you can. insulate and seal your home; plant trees and shrubs around your home; consider installing a cool roof; you could even be eligible for incentives to make your home more energy efficient
Buy used goods and clothing (with reusable bags!); if you buy new, try to buy quality products that will last; opt for natural fabrics (cotton, wool) over synthetics; consider who is making your clothes
I actually find that without consciously considering my environmental impact, it is so much easier to dismiss the environment than when I actually make the effort to be eco-friendlier. Everything around the city has become so disposable and purposely convenient that paying an extra $2 for a reusable tote bag at a store sounds worse than using multiple plastic bags to back items (it’s capitalism but anyway). Regardless of what is found directly in front of us, there are still simple ways to be eco-friendlier.
Some simple earth-friendly changes from the past week:
Like most people, I buy coffee almost every day EVEN THOUGH my apartment has a coffee maker in it. My laziness on most mornings prevents me from turning it on and instead, I have to shell out an extra $2 while late on the way to my 8 am class. I used to use our coffee maker often but have started waking up too late to turn it on in time. Recently, I have returned to using it instead of buying paper cupped coffee at the over abundant coffee shops for my 8 am. Even though my paper cupped coffee days are still here, by reducing constant purchase of this eco-unfriendly garbage to only 2 times a week is better than doing nothing at all.
We have fairy lights in our dorm kitchen that people always forget to turn off, in turn casting a (quite frightening) soft light on the kitchen in the night. We don’t need them on except when we are using the kitchen but the nice “aesthetic” that we get from the lights make us less inclined to turn them off when we get home from classes around 1 pm while it is still light outside. Because I am usually the first person awake in the mornings I have started unplugging them when I leave the room because I know that if I don’t do it others won’t either.
My roommate and I try to do laundry on the same day so that we can use the same dryer and save money. Because the dryers in our dorm are so large, at least two loads can fit in at one time. She and I put our clothes in the same dryer to save space, time, and water!
As only a budding conservationist, it is still difficult to remove myself from the convenient harmfulness of everyday city living, but every little change and effort counts even if we do not feel like it does.
I really love this podcast and found this particular episode very interesting. Although I don’t agree with all of Mrs. Gate’s ideas on the future I think there are some compelling ideas about how technology can play a part in the battle to combat climate change. That said, I wished they’d spent a bit longer on that topic and some of the ideas she delights in TERRIFY me. Give it a listen!
I thought it would be interesting to note upon a discovery I had made not a few days ago and this applies to our neighbors to the Great White North. I had visited Canada in 2012 for a weekend and enjoyed myself rather pleasantly and like any average person, would want to take back home a souvenir to remember this extraction. I had taken a 5 dollar Canadian bill which gave off the scent of maple syrup that is long gone and like average currency it was made of paper, that is until recently. A few years ago, the Bank of Canada issued new bank notes that are now made from plastic instead of paper, while the idea is to prevent counterfeiting it remains a wiser upside to the continued use of paper. Especially coinciding with Canada’s discontinuation of the penny in the same year I went, due to the penny’s lack of worth.
Stephen Jenkinson is one of my favorite thinkers and this interview with For the Wild host Ayana Young speaks about many things we have touched on concerning the intersections of spirituality, the wandering of the soul and seeking a connection to place. I hope you enjoy!!! http://forthewild.world/listen/stephen-jenkinson-on-ancestry-and-misanthropy
