Unitarian Universalist Church at Washington Crossing

When I was living in Maine, there was a nearby author of murder mysteries by the name of Jan van de Wetering. His wife occasionally visited the Unitarian Universalist Church I served. Van de Wetering wrote a book, “The Empty Mirror,” about his days as a novice in a Zen Monastery in Japan. I remember a story about the head monk talking with him about driving a motor scooter that he had just bought.

“Koan study,” said the monk, “leads to understanding that all things are connected. All beings are bound to each other by strong invisible threads. Anyone who has realized this truth will be careful, will try to be aware of what he is doing.     You aren’t.”

Van de Wetering responded by politely asking, “No?”

“No,” the head monk said, and looked at him discontentedly. The monk continued, “I saw you turn a corner the other day and you didn’t hold our your hand (out indicating that you were going to turn). Because of your carelessness a truck driver, who happened to be driving behind you, got into trouble and had to drive his truck on the sidewalk where a lady pushing a pram hit a director of a large trading company. The man, who was in a bad mood already, fired an employee that day who might have stayed on. That employee got drunk that night and killed a young man who could have become a Zen master.”

In disbelief, van de Wetering said, “Come off it,”

The monk continued: “Perhaps it will be better if you hold our your hand in the future when you turn a corner,”

All things are connected. About a 100 years ago, John Muir, an icon of the environmental movement, observed, “When we try to pick out anything by itself,     we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.”  Go out and pick up a stick off the forest floor, but remember it really is connected to everything else in that forest. So, when we pollute the air, the earth or the water it affects everything else in our environment. Change one thing in your life, and everything will change - to some degree. All beings are interconnected by strong and yet invisible threads.

Very recently, I adopted a one-year-old yellow lab, named Lucy. Lucy’s entry into our lives and our home has changed everything .Of course, the first to notice the changes she wrought were Elvis and Iris our two cats. They noticed the change immediately, were so upset that they ran down into the basement and would not come up for days. As for me, suddenly, I am getting much more exercise, and my reading now includes “The Dog Whisperer,” a book concerning training dogs, or I should say training humans

When you realize the universal truth that all things are connected and that all beings are interconnected in the web of life, you will be careful and will try to be aware of what you are doing. Unfortunately, we are not. careful, that is, we really are not careful. Many chide Governor Corzine for not being careful and wearing a seat belt, or the officer for driving him too fast. Yet how many of us forget, at times, and do similar things?   All things are connected and the small things we do to the air, the water and the earth have a major impact on the well being of our environment.

Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhause presented a fascinating paper on global warming politics in a post-environmental world. Its title is “The Death of Environmentalism.” They charge that most environmentalists think of the environment as a “thing.” But, when you think of our environment as a thing there are powerful and unfortunate implications. The environment is not some thing separate from us. The environment is part of us, or more accurately, we are part of the environment. The only way for us to help prevent global warming from destroying much or all of humanity and countless other forms of life is to realize we really truly are all part of one living breathing interconnected organism referred to as the environment

Global warming will not just hurt some thing called the environment. Global warming may very likely kill many, many million people because of the resulting flooding, famine and the fighting of ever increasing wars. We human beings must understand in a radically new way that all things are interconnected. Invisible threads, like a giant living web of life, intricately tie all things together.

Those who realize this truth will be careful and will try to be aware of what they are doing. Tragically, we are not there yet. We do not deeply hold in our minds, bodies, hearts and souls the importance of a fundamental Unitarian Universalist value. All things are interconnected.

We make the mistake of thinking that the flooding of low-lying island nations is taking place somewhere else. Even our own gulf coast seems like a distant place. We make the mistake of thinking that the refugee crisis is taking place somewhere else. We pretend, here in the United States, that we are doing okay in spite of the signs of global warming .

We even joke about global warming being a nice thing during the winter here in our area. Yet, let us not forget that all things and all beings are connected. The flooding has also affected our area, if not this year, then in recent years. Refugees fleeing other lands are or will be arriving in the United States just as many of our parents, grandparents or great grandparents did during other times of unrest

In the article “The Death of Environmentalism” Shellenberger and Nordhause point out, “Today’s fleet-wide fuel efficiency average (for automobiles) is the same as it was in 1980,” They call this the proof of a “quarter century of failure, not due to one or two tactical errors … but due to  the fundamental way we understand the crisis that we are in.”

They write, and I agree, that our country and the world, lack basic and important core principles about the interconnected web of life, the web of which we are a part, an intimately interconnected part. We prefer a technological solution to the mess we have gotten ourselves into. There is no short-term technological solution to the crisis. Yet, we always seem to seek it as a solution to all our problems.

We desperately need to be reminded that we really are or once again can be a can-do people. We must recall that if we as a people put our hearts, minds and backs to a task we are capable of accomplishing truly great things.

Remember the courage and the hope generated by Martin Luther. King Jr.’s famous ” Have A Dream” speech?  He articulated a strong and positive vision that also contained a constructive critique of the situation at the time. This is the fundamental point. You have heard me say repeatedly today that we are connected to every thing in the world. Americans and all citizens of the world -we all need to understand deep within - that fighting global warming or climate change is essential to life as we know it.

Decreasing our use of oil and coal will change everything. It will create millions of new jobs in the area of energy conservation and in the industry of obtaining energy from renewable sources. From the wisdom of the Tao Te Ching, we learn that “Failure is an opportunity.” That is a good thing, since the reality is that much is failing in the world today. That means that we have wonderful opportunities before us.

We need to look at our core values and our basic principles. It is only our basic principles that can activate us toward taking positive actions to save our living breathing pulsating environment. The two fundamental Unitarian Universalist Principles, the two upon which all the rest are dependent, are the first and the seventh. The first speaks to the inherent worth and dignity of every person, and I would add the inherent worth and dignity of all that is. The seventh, that we are part of  an interconnected web of existence.

Improve or destroy one part of it and you improve or destroy all the other parts. We need to become aware that these fundamental principles become part of everything we do.