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Thomas Berry
| Thomas Berry, C.P. (November 9, 1914 – June 1, 2009) was a Catholic priest of the Passionist order, cultural historian and ecotheologian (although cosmologist and geologian — or “Earth scholar” — were his preferred descriptors). Among advocates of deep ecology and "ecospirituality" he is famous for proposing that a deep understanding of the history and functioning of the evolving universe is a necessary inspiration and guide for our own effective functioning as individuals and as a species. Among his many works are: The Great Work and The Universe Story. |
| "The Great Work now, as we move into a new millennium, is to carry out the transition from a period of human devastation of the Earth to a period when humans would be present to the planet in a mutually beneficial manner." |
| "The historical mission of our times is to re-invent the human—at the species level, with critical reflection, within the community of life-systems, in a time-developmental context, by means of story and shared dream experience." |
| "...In reality there is a single integral community of the Earth that includes all its component members whether human or other than human." |
| "The deepest cause of the present devastation is found in a mode of consciousness that has established a radical discontinuity between the human and other modes of being and the bestowal of all rights on the humans. " |
| "All human activities, professions, programs, and institutions must henceforth be judged primarily by the extent to which they inhibit, ignore, or foster a mutually enhancing human/Earth relationship." |
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"...For peoples, generally, their story of the universe and the human role within the universe is their primary source of intelligibility and value. Only through this story of how the Universe came to be in the beginning and how it came to be as it is does a person come to appreciate the meaning of life or to derive the psychic energy needed to deal effectively with those crisis moments that occur in the life of the individual and in the life of the society. Such a story communicates the most sacred of mysteries. Our story not only interprets the past, it also guides and inspires our shaping of the future." |
| "The time has come to lower our voices, to cease imposing our mechanistic patterns on the biological processes of the earth, to resist the impulse to control, to command, to force, to oppress, and to begin quite humbly to follow the guidance of the larger community on which all life depends." |
| "Listen to these words carefully. The universe is a communion of subjects, not a collection of objects. And listen to this: The human is derivative. The planet is primary." |
| "It's all a question of story. We are in trouble just now because we do not have a good story. We are in between stories. The old story, the account of how we fit into it, is no longer effective. Yet we have not learned the new story." |
| "The natural world is the larger sacred community to which we belong. To be alienated from this community is to become destitute in all that makes us human. To damage this community is to diminish our own existence." |
Connie Barlow
Michael Dowd
Ursula Goodenough
William Lloyd Garrison
William Lloyd Garrison (December 12, 1805 – May 24, 1879) was a prominent American abolitionist, journalist, and social reformer, editor of the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator, one of the founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society, a prominent voice for the women's suffrage movement, and a self-professed human rights person. Having the insight that “All men are created equal,” Garrison was able to extend that concept to include “All men (with white skin or black skin) are created equal” and then to “All men (and women) are created equal.” If Garrison were alive today, we can assume he would read the Universe
Story, understand its significance to interdependent life on Planet
Earth, and further extend “All men are created equal” to “All are created equally
and interdependent” with the right to be here and to be respected. Garrison would quickly understand that for
individual human consciousness to contribute to an evolving collective
consciousness of the Planet, humans must also serve as the advocates of their
silent cousins - because human life is dependent totally on other life. Garrison would then
be as vociferous about “living sustainability” and protecting the rights of all beings as
he was originally about the “abolition of slavery.” |
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Original William Lloyd Garrison Quotes |
Today’s Hypothetical William Lloyd Garrison Quotes |
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| “That which is not just is not law.” | “That which is not sustainable is not (should not be) legal” | |||||||||
“Wherever there is a living being, I see Universe-al rights inherent in that being, whether the being is human or non-human.” |
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"Enslave the liberty of but one human being and the liberties of the world are put in peril” |
“Disrespect but one atom, but one molecule, but one cell, but one being and the evolution of the Planet is put in peril” |
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| "With reasonable men, I will reason; with humane men I will plead; but to tyrants I will give no quarter, nor waste arguments where they will certainly be lost.” | "With reasonable people, I will reason; with people of conscience I will plead; but to self-centered consumers and tyrants I will extend no sympathy, nor waste arguments where they will not be heard." |
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"I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice on the subject of Ecomorality: The Ethics of Sustainability. I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! Tell a man whose house is on fire, to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hand of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; -- but urge me not to use moderation in demanding that humans learn to live in right relations with all of Planet Earth. I am in earnest -- I will not equivocate -- I will not excuse -- I will not retreat a single inch -- AND I WILL BE HEARD.” |
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| "Are right and wrong, sustainable and unsustainable, convertible terms, dependent upon popular opinion?” | ||||||||||
"Little boldness is needed to assail the opinions and practices of notoriously wicked men; but to rebuke great and good men for their conduct, and to impeach their discernment, is the highest effort of moral courage.” |
"Little boldness is needed to assail the opinions and practices of notoriously wicked men; but to rebuke good people for their unconscious conduct, and to impeach their resistance to change, is the highest effort of moral courage.” |
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"The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal and hasten the resurrection of the dead.” |
"The apathy of people is enough to make our sacred Planet weep and will in due course hasten the extinction of evolving consciousness.” |
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" We may be personally defeated, but our principles never.” |
“We, the advocates of a sustainability, may be personally defeated, but our principles never - for they are based in the Laws of the Universe.” |
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"Since the creation of the world there has been no tyrant like Intemperance, and no slaves so cruelly treated as his.” |
"Since the creation of the Universe, there has been no tyrant like the self-centered human consumer, and nothing so disrespected as that which he presumes to “own”. |
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| "Our rights are equal, and whoever tramples on them is either a ruffian or a tyrant, unwilling that justice should reign in the world.” | "Our rights to mature to our fullest are equal, and whoever tramples on them is either a ruffian or a tyrant, unwilling that the evolution of consciousness should prevail on this Planet.” | |||||||||
" The success of any great moral enterprise does not depend upon numbers.” |
" The success of any great moral enterprise does not depend upon numbers, but on the Truth that the Universe displays.” |
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Thom Hartmann
Richard Heinberg
David Korten
Manfred Max-Neef
Bill McKibben
Parker Palmer
| Original | Adapted |
| ...[is] the life I am living the same as the life that wants to live in me? | [am I, are we living] the life that Planet Earth wants to live within it? |
Zalman Schachter-Shalomi
"…Across the country, people are casting off the negative images and expectations that sentence older adults to the junkheap as social outcasts. In its place, they are hoisting the banner of what gerontologists call 'successful aging,' an activity-oriented approach that promises increased physical vigor, continued intellectual growth, and meaningful work during the elder years.” pg 5.
"[The new aging model] ...envisions the elder as an agent of evolution, attracted as much by the future of humanity’s expanded brain-mind potential as by the wisdom of the past." pg 6.
"[Elders]...will function as wisdom keepers, inspiring us to live by higher values that will help convert our throw away lifestyle into a more sustainable Earth-cherishing one. They also will serve as evolutionary pathfinders offering hope and guidance to all those searching for models of a fulfilled human potential….” pg 7.
"[Elders] ...are wisdom keepers who have an ongoing responsibility for maintaining society’s well-being and safeguarding the health of our ailing planet Earth. They are pioneers in consciousness who practice contemplative arts from our spiritual traditions to open up greater intelligence for their late-life vocations. Using tools for inner growth, such as meditation, journal writing, and life review, elders come to terms with their mortality, harvest the wisdom of their years, and transmit a legacy to future generations. Serving as mentors, they pass on the distilled essence of their life experience to others. The joy of passing on wisdom to younger people not only seeds the future, but crowns an elder’s life with worth and nobility…" pg 12.
"[Concerning the new picture of aging]... extended longevity calls for extended consciousness." pg 50.
William Stafford
Sometime when the river is ice ask me mistakes I have made.Ask me whether what I have done is my life...