The Earth
In aburst of heavenly awe, Astronaut Edgar Mitchell exuded in lunarscape: "Suddenly, from behind the rim of themoon, in long slow-motion moments of immense majesty, there emerges a sparklingblue and white jewel, a light, delicate sky blue sphere laced with slowlyswirling veils of white, rising gradually like a small pearl in a thick sea ofblack mystery. It takes more than amoment to fully realize this is Earth ... home."
TheEarth is this season's center of attention, though not as viewed from itssplendor at the surface of the moon as it is with what we do in heating up itstemperature and the consequent drastic climate warming in its biosphere.
Theclimate took center stage in the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conferencefor almost two weeks ending December 12. One hundred ninety-six nations were in attendance. They adopted an Agreement that is onlylegally binding if a number of nations producing a percentage of globalgreenhouse emission actually do something through their legal systems, which isto say, a lot of barks without much bite.
TheUnited States through its executive office is often a leading party to aninternational agreement only to be denied muscle by the US Congress, e.g., itrefused to ratify a treaty on biodiversity. The numbers in international Agreements guidenational targets adhered to by nations that are already poor because of theircompliance but ignored by the big guys that emits them. A good example is COPS 21 (on biodiversity).
Mei mei is a cute little girl's nicknameused in China. Mei is also the black mineral that is dug in Dong Bei, and the coalin Shanxi west of Beijing where 90 percent of the land allegedly is black gold. The increase on investment in China onmanufacturing was due to the low cost of coal energy that devastated China'scountryside and biosphere.
Attemptsto stifle the economic progress of China focused on its use of coal as itsenergy source. China does not haveextensive fossil fuel source to rely on though its assertive occupation of theSpratly moves in that direction and is severely criticized by the US and itsbusiness interests in Vietnam, the Philippines, and Taiwan. The United States can fly all kinds of B-52over island structures that China built but the new economic superpower is notgoing to budge, as the immediate issue of South China Sea is energy sourcerather than sovereignty, which China considers historically to be a closedissue. Besides, the place is not calledChina Sea for nothing!
The United States'current use of coal at its most efficient level emits carbon 130 times what theParis Conference aims for it to do if the nations across the planet attainseconomic parity to the US in a hundred years. This is illusion of the worst kind. The Summit's intentions were worst than a mirage in the desert. It lacks operational basis.
Meanwhile, theplanet reels as water from melting ice in the Arctic and Antarctic regionscontinue to add more fluid into the ocean, making it heavier to effect thetremors that dislodges plates, which then causes half of the land areas of thePacific islands disappear at the same time it induces stronger quakes and achange in weather patterns in many parts of the globe. Not a lively prospect especially since we donot operate as a globe yet but do so as the archaic leftover nation-states fromthe divisions imposed by colonizing powers of the previous century.
Mitchellwas perhaps prescient in his pronouncement. A less polite quote: "Fromout there on the Moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruffof the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, 'Look atthat, you sonnavabitch.'" Apologies to the sons amongst us who heardtheir teacher do math and said: "2 plus 2, the sum of which is 4." As my Sino tindera would say, the sum of which and sonnavabitch, same same.
If ourApollo 14 astronaut is distraught over our treatment of the planet, his use ofthe SOB word is on the charitable side. TheObama administration refuses to extract coal on Federal land and met opposition. The corporate sector is aghast at this executiveact. The Supreme Court intervened ontheir behalf.
I madea supplementary workbook for my class using the Mitchell picture on thecover. Students just added the word"earthrise" into their vocabulary. A paradigm shift is corroding the defining fealty once held on politicalstructures the Europeans named, like Spain on Señor Felipe's behalf (thus, the Philippines) during the medievaland colonial eras, and unwittingly inherited by the US military in itspost-WWII presence in the rest of the world, but now simply a fragile blue orbin the sky.
"Welive in the Universe. On the PlanetEarth", they sing. "We lookfor life in the sky so blue, down on Marianas for something new, we look at theworld we have on our hands. Oh, whatshall we do?" Then they whisper to each other at the end:"We're gonna build it."
Monastic
Forfourteen years, I was a member of a family Religious Order that collaboratedwith Jews and Moslems, seculars and non-theists, truly ecumenical beyondecclesiastical structures. Arising from Christendom that fevered like a pentecostalcongregation (our Dean was previously an Ohio revival preacher whose diction isnot foreign at Victory Chapel in Saipan) on one end, and a socially-brandedliberal unitarian (we lived in the communities we served) on the other,and comprehensive diversity in between.
Thebody's work was communal and cooperative, a global network of 2500 folks (maso menos), organized as determined service centers termed"centrum" and "nexus", with metro, regional, and areacorporate abodes called Religious Houses. Were one to compare it toanother body, one would be at a loss to find one. It was a uniqueexperiment, unrepeatable; there has never been one like it before, and therewill never be another one like it ever again.
Wehad one task: to create a broad-based human (planetary and global) communitywherever we were located, symbolically in every time zone across theglobe. Process and procedure followed were highly participatory. Weenabled the local house and the community we served to missionalize vision;communal resource was utilitarian rather than privately owned (personalproperty in two suitcases), decision-making practiced broadly until a consensuswas pronounced, and self-hood was absolutely self-sustained, self-reliant, andself-confident.
Mycharacterization of the body is somewhat like what my class hears and repeatsmid-course of daily class session: "I am one, unique, unrepeatable gift oflife into human history; there has never been one like me before and there willnever be another one like me ever again. I live my life." Theydecide. They choose.
Thisis no rah-rah slogan so individuals can believe in an idealized self. Itis a statement of fact, the uniqueness and unrepeatability resulting from theunion of one sperm (out of a minimum of 200 million) with an egg that thenjourneys into finitude uniquely on its own until its completion. Myreckoning on my journey's length, given what I know of my genetics andstatistical probability, is 86 years! I invite my first graders to thinkof their education and life as a journey!
Beinga monastic is, thereby, a given reality before it is a choice. One isuniquely on an unrepeatable journey from start to completion. It is notthat we choose, in the first instance, to be solitaries. We are born thatway. It echoes Akon and Joan Armatrading's song of "I, me andmyself". Our choice is to declare "what is", rather thanran away from it, to yen for and achieve an imagined objective or goal.
As ateacher in a classroom, I have a board with the four core curriculum titleswhere we post our objective. (I personally go by what students willretain in their minds, and what they will experience in the process). Thefour components of the Core curriculum has underneath Language Arts, the word"words", for Math, "numbers", for Science, "How",and for Social Studies, the "5Ws".
"Words"are nouns defined by adjectives and verbs with adverbs; "Numbers" aresigns (equals =, plus +, minus -, multiply x and divide ÷), "How" isprocess standardized, and the 5Ws are "what, when, where, who, andwhy".
Acrossthe room, I posted a picture of the brain of a child that has three parts: the medullaoblongata, the cerebellum, and the cerebrum; the first, processessensual experiences of sight, sound, smell, taste and touch, the second, findsthe balance on feelings, and the third, a sophisticated management of words andnumbers formally taught in academe, all three becoming the basis for the wholebody to respond in deeds.
Whilethe eight (5 senses, feelings, thoughts, and deed) seem a lot especially sincethe students are just beginning the first year of a 16-year learning journey, Iteach them to "play attention" so learning shan't deteriorate intothe memory work of formulas and forms but of challenging usage.
TheMonastic understanding clothed on the three classical vows, is that of the vowof poverty as detachment from matters unessential, the vow of chastity as beingabout one thing, and the vow of obedience as willing the Way Life Is (YHWH inJewish terms sans Zeus of Olympus) abides.
So,what do I teach? There are only eight items, two less than the decimalsystem. Being about one thing is taking the laser beam of the times(symbolized by the smartphone that is now in the hands of more 90 percent ofthe population) to have input equals output. Then I transform mylifestyle so the time is managed, space is organized, roles are defined, and astory is told.
I amnot about the pedagogy of content; I am a monastic who demonstrate methods,secularly and scientifically. I aim for a first grader the habit ofnursing their own brain to intentionally guide their own learning. Monastic, I am. Functional monastics, my students will be!
wangzhimu2031
earthrise consciousness, a gift; earthbound commitment, my choice
yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today, participate! in all, celebrate!
