Earth, the Whistleblower on Cain and Multi-Earthers

(This blog entry continues the Cain and Abel story from the previous entry.)

Like many a murderer, when Cain was confronted about the one he’d killed, he denied knowing where the dead person was. Ironically, the very ground which Cain tilled became the whistleblower on his actions. YHWH appealed to Cain, “Listen; your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground! And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it will no longer yield to you its strength; you will be a fugitive and a wanderer on Earth.” 

These were heavy words for Cain to hear, a greater punishment, he said, than he could bear. The soil, foundational to the life choices he’d made, would not yield at full strength for him.

But the consequences of his murder went much further.

• His relationship with YHWH would be less immediate and personal.
• He would be less settled on the land than he desired to be.
• He felt threatened by others — especially herders, hunters, and gatherers — fearful that they would want revenge. 

YHWH, not wanting to see reprisal for Abel’s murder, put a mark on Cain to send a clear signal that violence by herders and hunters against agriculturalists could not make things right – not for Abel, not for anyone. In this way, YHWH rejected the notion that one act of violence could be made right by committing another.

Despite this clear rejection of redemptive violence by YHWH, Multi Earthers continue to espouse it to this day. Military reprisals and war continue to be chosen as a primary way to end conflicts and bring peace. Cain, having received his divine mark, went away from the presence of YHWH and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

I’d like to see your comments on two questions:

1. What is your experience of how Multi Earth ways repeatedly kill One Earthers and their practices?
2. In your experience how is Earth now whistleblowing Multi Earth’s denial of responsibility for murder of One practices?

The Multi Earth Worldview Asks, "Am I My Brother's Keeper?"

Here I go with my own redux of the ancient story of Cain and Abel. As John Steinbeck did in East of Eden, I too see the eloquence of this story in piercing the Multi Earth worldview and how it’s honesty can disarm the grip with which Multi Earth tentacles encircle us. You can read the original version in Genesis 4:1-16.

Abel and Cain were brothers who lived two sharply distinguished worldviews: Abel was a nomadic herder; his brother Cain was a farmer. Though these worldviews may not seem so different to city dwellers today, in the history of our species the move from nomadic herding, hunting, and gathering to settled and surplus farming was a major shift in paradigm.

In the story, Abel and Cain each brought an offering to YHWH, their deity, from their respective lifework. Abel brought some premium cuts of meat from his herd and Cain brought some of his produce. YHWH liked Abel’s offering, but not Cain’s — a clear approval of the nomadic, herding worldview and disapproval of the agricultural worldview.

Cain was not happy. He became angry and depressed. YHWH asked him why, assuring him he could be accepted if he did right, but warning him to be on his guard because evil desired to master him.

At this point Cain invited Abel to go out into the field. There, in the fields that Cain farmed, he killed his herder brother.

YHWH again approached Cain and asked where Abel was. Cain replied, “I do not know,” and added the words for which he’s best known, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” 

What happens next? Stay tuned for the next entry in this blog!

"You Say It Yahweh and I'll Say It Mine"

I am about to retell the ancient, mythic Cain and Abel story, rather than assume that all of us know it. Knowing the story is essential to understanding Steinbeck’s East of Eden, because the entire novel is a contemporary rendition of it. Similarly, I connect with it as ancient wisdom that helps interpret Multi Earth’s baffling grip on us. But, before I retell the story, I want to say why the word “God” is often troublesome for me. 

Years ago I was reading Kudzu, a comic strip by Pulitzer Prize winning Doug Marlotte. The strip was about a Southern preacher, Rev. Will B. Dunn. He was in the pulpit talking about names for God. After giving many names, he finally came to Yahweh. But he wasn’t certain how to pronounce it. So after trying several ways, he summed it all up by saying, “You say it Yahweh and I’ll say it mine.”

When I refer to the deity prominent in the scriptures of Jews and Christians, including the Cain and Abel story, I often use the four consonants YHWH, the way the Hebrew bible writes the name. I dislike how the word “God” has become associated with countless activities and ideas alien, even opposite, to how I experience God. Rather than try to redeem the word or assume readers know what I mean and don’t mean by it, I will mostly use YHWH. You can pronounce it “Yahweh.” Even though we can not be certain of which vowels actually belong with the four consonants, “Yahweh” is most common. 

“God” is used throughout Multi Earth speech; YHWH does not fit with it. YHWH connects most especially with Creation, Edenic, and One Earth ways. YHWH’s revelatory moments happen most especially in nature and wilderness, rather than industrial or urban centers. They can, of course, happen anywhere YHWH chooses. I apologize to any readers for whom using a word from another language may be off-putting. I invite readers simply to say “YHWH” quietly and hear how breathy it is. As such, it reminds me that “breath” is an excellent name for the mystery of the divine. 

Let me know in a comment what names for the Sacred, for the Divine Presence, or God, work best for you.

And, the First Book in the One Earth Project Is ...

Last Friday, July 27, I completed the demanding submission proposal guidelines of a particular publisher. I took the completed proposal with a copy of my manuscript to the post office and mailed it off in one of those Priority Mail envelopes. It’s the first book in the One Earth Project. Wonder what will happen?

The working title of the book is The Frogs Are Drinking Up Their Pond: Five Big, Earth-Destroying Practices That We Can Change. The title plays off the Sioux proverb: The frog does not drink up its own pond. I like playing off that Indigenous proverb because Indigenous Peoples who follow their sacred Indigenous ways have never been Earth destroyers. I also like that it tells us to learn from the animals. Most of the time we humans are telling the animals what to do. But when it comes to living on our planet sustainably and in appreciation of its abundance, the animals are our teachers. So far we’ve been F students.

The subtitle telegraphs more of the content. The five Earth-destroying practices that we humans are engaged in each have a full chapter. The five are (1) making the economy the primary world religion, (2) elevating corporations and their leaders to governing status in the world, (3) shrinking humans to be consumer and worker cogs in the system, (4) cracking democracy and submitting it to undemocratic corporate rule, and (5) increasing the human population to seven billion without addressing how a single species now overwhelms all others and the planet. 

Though these five practices have gone completely out of control, we can change them. That’s the point of the One Earth Project’s first book. Two others are underway. Both will emphasize what we can do. The second book will be on the consciousness we need to mature into personally and collectively to live according to One Earth ways. The third one will define more specifically the practices we can undertake to release us from our captivity to Multi Earth ways into the abundant fullness of One Earth living.

I’m looking forward to a promotional video that filmmaker, Michael Johnson, promises will be on ahead somewhere in the mix of our conversations with publishers of bound books and eBooks.

Meanwhile, leave your comments on this blog and be part of the One Earth Project community that gathers here. Your ideas for One Earth living will be noticed. Maybe they’ll even get into one of the next books or a video — all with attribution, of course.

Oh … and let’s do what we can to keep the water level in the pond as high as possible.

Steinbeck Makes Us Aware of Our Multi Earth Ways

Just thinking about his book title, East of Eden, it strikes me that Steinbeck grasped the contrast between the worldview that is Eden and the one that is not. The one that is outside of Eden. Each worldview has stories to tell and Steinbeck took on the task of telling a story of life when we live in the worldview of non-Eden — or, in the parlance of this blog, when we live in the world as Multi Earthers. He recognized that we, like Cain, live in non-Eden. That may not surprise us given that most of have learned the Eden story as something ancient anyway. But this blog takes a different view. On up the road I’ll say how, I believe, we can live in Eden today.

As is true for us all in general, my life lives out of a complex of stories I’ve identified with. Some I’m conscious of, some I’m not. The stories I’m least conscious of likely impact me all the more for my lack of awareness of them. For example, being born in the U.S., I had been shaped by the Multi Earth story for many years before becoming conscious of it. That story continues to shape Multi Earth living so successfully because many Multi Earthers remain unconscious of the plot being played out through their lifestyle choices. But Steinbeck was deeply aware of it and recognized that the story of Cain told briefly the macro-story we are living. His novel expresses the depth of meaning he saw in both the biblical story and the contemporary expression of it in the U.S.

What comments can you add to how John Steinbeck shows Multi Earth ways that ain’t pretty? But also how he pushes and prods the edges of human capacities to believe we could live a completely different, life-giving paradigm?

Enlisting John Steinbeck in the Cause of the One Earth Project

As promised in the previous blog entry, we’re now heading into a bend in the road toward a greater understanding of why Multi Earth living mesmerizes us and holds onto us even when our best rational judgment says, “Stop now. Cast aside Multi Earth ways and leap into One Earth’s commonsense!” It’s time to meet up with myth — especially myth’s great ability to describe the truth and power of the paradigm in which we live. To help us see how myth works, I bring John Steinbeck into this blog.

When novelist Steinbeck concluded East of Eden in 1952, he considered it his magnum opus, his greatest work. Within a month it was a bestseller. By 1955, it had been adapted for a movie starring James Dean. The story has had staying power in popular culture. ABC produced a miniseries in 1981, and an all new movie produced by Universal Studies will bring the story anew to audiences in 2012.

From the first time that I heard of Steinbeck’s book, I loved the title. Because I was steeped in biblical stories from the moment I left the womb, I recognized that the title came from the story of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4. The story follows immediately upon the story of Eden and the eviction of Eve and Adam from the garden. But why, I wondered, did Steinbeck choose it? I’ve subsequently learned that Steinbeck drew his inspiration from this biblical story and felt deeply challenged by it. Growing up in Salinas, California, and the rich agricultural fields of the Salinas Valley, Cain, the farmer, resonated with him.

East of Eden unfolds mostly in the Salinas Valley, dealing with themes of jealousy, love, depravity, capacities for self-destruction and greatness, and most of all, guilt and freedom. All have parallels in the Cain and Abel scenario. While he was writing, Steinbeck tried a number of titles for his work, but none satisfied him. Then, when he again read Genesis 4:16, which says, “Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord, and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden,” he was delighted at how well the last three words nailed the description of life in his book. He had his title.

Though Steinbeck never called the paradigm he described in East of Eden the Multi Earth paradigm, and never used One Earth to name the paradigm that he hoped we humans would choose, his story describes precisely such a choice.

"I Know We're in a Mess; What Can I Do to Make a Real Difference?"

Some of you who read this One Earth Project blog will be impatient for meaningful actions. “I know we’re in a terrible mess,” you may well say, “just tell me what I can do.” That impatience is in me too.

So here’s what I urge as our starting point. The first thing to do is to go deep with the question: “How am I a Multi Earther?” To do that with any traction and fun, you must know your own ecological footprint. If you know it, proceed. If you don’t, go to the most scientific calculator available on the web and do it now.

Unless our doing aligns us with One Earth living, we will expend our energy and time on a goal too small. Every election cycle we hear Democrats, Republicans, conservatives, and liberals all acting with fervor. But despite their fervor for winning, both the winners and losers continue to advance the goals of Multi Earth living. We need to reframe our actions at the level of a One Earth consciousness and paradigm. Unless what we do embraces our one planet’s embedded wisdom, we will not get to where we now need to go. 

To telegraph the direction of this blog, we’re heading for entrees that delve deeper into why shaking Multi Earth living is devilishly hard. Understanding that better increases our percentages for choosing actions that truly make a difference instead of spinning our wheels. Shortly, this blog is heading into a bend on the power of myth to hold us in Multi Earth ways. Beyond the bend we’ll travel into five Earth-destroying patterns that we can change:

1. Multi Earth economics functions as religion, receiving tremendous devotion.
2. Corporations, more than governments, rule the world.
3. You know the frustrations of not being treated like a human being in the Multi Earth way of doing things? It’s not just personal. It’s purposeful.
4. Despite all the praise for democracy, there can never be robust, full participation style democracy under a Multi Earth economy.
5. Our human species has tripled since 1940 to 7,000,000,000. In addition, we are the most aggressive species on the planet. Despite our intelligence, the Multi Earth paradigm seems impotent to address this life-destroying imbalance.

Stay tuned.