So after weeks and weeks of oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico, we have a pause. We have cautious optimism. There are still things that could go wrong, but we have progress and hope that the worst is behind us.
However.
Has anyone else been looking at what they use everyday? I don't own a car, but I take the bus which uses petroleum products. Plastics come from petroleum products. Does that include the plastic in the pens I use daily? The disposable drink cups at coffee shops and fast food joints? The many disposable containers that bring food into my home, from produce bags to peanut butter jars? What about all that shrink wrap on everything from books and CDs to new furniture? What about all the plastic on this computer I'm using right this minute? Are these seemingly innocuous things part of our "addiction to oil?" (I'm actually asking. I don't know what other sources produce plastics. Are there other sources? I know, I know, I live in the age of Google, I should be able to find this out. My first attempt, though, confirmed the "plastics from petroleum" thing, but then got technical rather quickly. I'm totally a fine arts/liberal arts guy. Technical stuff loses me very quickly.)
A few weeks back, there was a rather silly video with kittens "acting" out the attitudes of oil executives. It wasn't all that profound, but it's final statement haunts me: "Because you're not mad enough to stop driving your car."
I spent about 15 seconds feeling smug about not owning a car, but then started looking at everything I have and use and dispose of daily that are made of plastic. I've tried to think about how I would go about not using plastic. Talk about a lifestyle change! Is it possible to get any foodstuff into our homes without using plastics? Short of hunting and foraging for our every need and storing leftovers in containers made of stoneware or metal, it appears impractical to try. The ubiquitous convenience of oil and it's byproducts so saturate our lives we practically need new lives to do without it.
And that's the thing. Convenience. It's easier to complain about BP and it's carelessness while sipping on our plastic straws from our plastic cups than it is to give up the lifestyle of consuming BP's product. All these plastics are convenient. To try to live around and without plastics would be hugely disruptive to any life in these United States.
In thinking about all these things, a slight theological leap occurred within my pea brain. Over the centuries since Jesus walked the earth, there have been attempts to blame someone for killing Christ, most famously the antisemitism that wants to blame the Jews---and not just the Jews of 2,000 years ago, but contemporary Jews as well. Of course not everyone believes that and there are arguments that lay the execution of Jesus at the feet of the Romans. But either way, or some third or fourth way, we are left with the fact that someone went about preaching the Reign of God and healing and feeding and raising the dead and other crazy things and some powerful people found all this rather disruptive to their way of life. And rather than let their lives be disrupted with Good News, they chose to kill the central disruptive figure. And while this makes people angry, that someone would unwittingly kill the Messiah, I have to say: few are angry enough to follow Jesus in feeding and healing people. We're just going to keep on going our way, never realizing that we can keep Jesus alive, piously condemning someone else for killing Christ.
We're basically a lazy species. We so easily give into routine, inertia, and pointing out who is to blame, who is at fault, who is responsible. It's just plain inconvenient to change our ways. Call it human nature, call it sinful nature, but the truth of the matter is that the ones responsible for killing Christ and the ones responsible for the risks taken on Deepwater Horizon are the same people.
As Pogo Possum famously said: We have met the enemy and he is us.
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Well said.
ReplyDeleteWe try to reduce the amount of plastic-- and even paper-- we use. Little things like never using paper or plastic plates and cups except for parties with children or large groups. We try to buy things that are well made and not disposable as much as possible.
I would happily pay a little extra to have an alternative to styrofoam takeout dishes for extra food at restaurants, but there generally are no alternatives. Well, we could throw the extra food away (many do) but that seems just as irresponsible.
There's plenty of blame to go around for sure, but in the end, despite whether we are addicted to oil, the fact is that BP got greedy and careless (although society has helped create that situation), and the federal government has acted abysmally (ditto). Neither is especially surprising in today's world, sadly.
That said, I think your larger comparisons are dead on. It's always easier to blame someone else. But the reality is that if the Jewish leaders hadn't demanded Christ's death and the Roman rulers hadn't felt threatened enough to carry it out, someone else would have killed him. Including, I have no doubt, most of us.
And who actually stood up for Jesus? Mary had no power, but I don't see that anyone else did. John, alone of the disciples, even seems to have been willing to be seen publicly after the arrest.
And yet, he forgave them all, and came back and gave them his spirit, and *authorized and commanded them to go in his place to love and heal the world* (my paraphrase, but I believe it's a valid one).
So my question is, what are we doing to carry out his commission? I wasted a lot of my life, some in my own hedonism, some caught up in fervent, but dead, religion, thinking I was serving God. Now I'm finding myself taking chances, praying for the sick, laying hands on people, loving them as their Daddy does. Sometimes I see healing. Sometimes people get saved, or revived, or set free, or whatever it is they need. Sometimes not so much. I think the church couldn't deal with the not so muches, and decided to play it safe a long time ago. Jesus didn't play it safe. I'm learning not to.
And along the way, I try to be less of a consumer. He gave us a glorious world to live in and manage. I cringe at some of what we're giving him back.
And lest anyone wonder, I'm not pointing fingers at anybody, demanding they do as I do. Just observing, admitting my failures, trying to walk with God, and challenging others to do that as well. We all have to "work out our own salvation before the Lord". There's no cookie cutter way to do it that applies to everyone-- despite what a lot of "religious" people seem to think.
Well said.
ReplyDeleteWe try to reduce the amount of plastic-- and even paper-- we use. Little things like never using paper or plastic plates and cups except for parties with children or large groups. We try to buy things that are well made and not disposable as much as possible.
I would happily pay a little extra to have an alternative to styrofoam takeout dishes for extra food at restaurants, but there generally are no alternatives. Well, we could throw the extra food away (many do) but that seems just as irresponsible.
There's plenty of blame to go around for sure, but in the end, despite whether we are addicted to oil, the fact is that BP got greedy and careless (although society has helped create that situation), and the federal government has acted abysmally (ditto). Neither is especially surprising in today's world, sadly.
That said, I think your larger comparisons are dead on. It's always easier to blame someone else. But the reality is that if the Jewish leaders hadn't demanded Christ's death and the Roman rulers hadn't felt threatened enough to carry it out, someone else would have killed him. Including, I have no doubt, most of us.
And who actually stood up for Jesus? Mary had no power, but I don't see that anyone else did. John, alone of the disciples, even seems to have been willing to be seen publicly after the arrest.
And yet, he forgave them all, and came back and gave them his spirit, and *authorized and commanded them to go in his place to love and heal the world* (my paraphrase, but I believe it's a valid one).
So my question is, what are we doing to carry out his commission? I wasted a lot of my life, some in my own hedonism, some caught up in fervent, but dead, religion, thinking I was serving God. Now I'm finding myself taking chances, praying for the sick, laying hands on people, loving them as their Daddy does. Sometimes I see healing. Sometimes people get saved, or revived, or set free, or whatever it is they need. Sometimes not so much. I think the church couldn't deal with the not so muches, and decided to play it safe a long time ago. Jesus didn't play it safe. I'm learning not to.
And along the way, I try to be less of a consumer. He gave us a glorious world to live in and manage. I cringe at some of what we're giving him back.
And lest anyone wonder, I'm not pointing fingers at anybody, demanding they do as I do. Just observing, admitting my failures, trying to walk with God, and challenging others to do that as well. We all have to "work out our own salvation before the Lord". There's no cookie cutter way to do it that applies to everyone-- despite what a lot of "religious" people seem to think.
As, always, lovely post, Neil. Yes, I believe all plastic is petro-based. And we do try to limit its use as well in our home. And don't put it in the microwave for cryin out loud. There's no such thing as "non leaching" plastic. Another scary thing is petroleum-based preservatives in body care products and cosmetics: parabens. A lot of companies are eliminating them, but unless you read every shampoo label, they're in everything. So, yes, we're slathering our largest (permeable) organ with petrochemicals. That's a nice Sunday morning how-do-you-do.
ReplyDeleteResident tree hugger-
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