I watched a Ted talk by Satish Kumar, in which he contrasted tourists and pilgrims. He said that tourists always complain, but pilgrims always celebrate. As a race we’ve lived like tourists on the earth, but Kumar’s challenge is to become pilgrims. Having recently been a tourist in every sense of the word, I like what he says. I like the idea of being on a journey of growth rather than tramping and traipsing, pointing and snapping, then going back to where I started.
I also like Satish Kumar’s triad of soil, soul and society.
He’s the editor in chief of Resurgence and Ecologist magazine, and there’s an interesting article on their website at the moment. The article talks about the positive force that faith (and faiths) can be in ecology. In particular, I liked the author’s closing comment, about an appreciation of creation (and I guess that would work either literally or metaphorically) giving a positive motivation for action. He ends, “Because, if we do not celebrate, why should we want to bother at all?” Here’s a link to the article … http://www.resurgence.org/magazine/article3879.html
Alex Mabbs 