Wendell Berry on the Gulf Oil Spill…
Wendell Berry talks in his endearing, piercing way about the implications of the Gulf oil spill; the questions it raises about our consumption of resources and our very way of life. What are we to do? As Berry says, “the context is beginning to speak back to us.” What is it saying to you?
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June 16th, 2010 at 12:19 am
I definitely have, for a long time, thought that our standard of living is absurd. This guy seems pretty hopeful that that can change and I have to say, I’m not as much. I just look around me and consider the people I know and their opinion of their lives and standard of living or lack of thought about it at all and I admit, I do, as he says, lose my personal sense of hope. We are so spoiled we don’t even realize the half of what we have. Not only that, but it seems like there are so many things that would need to change communally for them to change at all. For instance, I would love to walk to the grocery store instead of driving, but with four small children, that just isn’t possible when the store is several miles away. If it were on the corner, if say we had more small markets in the suburbs and less giant chain stores, that could happen, but that would take a whole change of community structure. There are so many things like that, it just seems overwhelming to me. I’m not sure how you go about changing such a huge thing. Of course, I can hear in all that, the perfectionist in me that doesn’t want to start something because I can’t get it all perfect overnight. Small changes frustrate me and I guess I need to remember that everything has to start somewhere.
June 28th, 2010 at 7:01 am
Hey, I never replied to this! Sorry, Mandy. I have been pretty busy the last couple of weeks…I think you are right that so many things need to work together; infrastructure, government, business, consumers…it is a really daunting issue. We can look at this kind of thing and throw up our hands…
But I’ve also heard that the big changes often don’t come from the top…they come from the bottom; from people who just do what they can, as they can…so I don’t know…I get discouraged too. But God is at work, so that gives me hope.
I’m reminded of that great song by Ben Harper; “With My Own Two Hands.” We just do what we can do, and leave the rest to God to handle…