"I teach organic gardening and permaculture with at risk youth in public housing in San Francisco and every day we're in the garden I'll say something like, "Today we're going to pick some lettuce to eat," and a kid will say, "We ain't gonna eat some shit that grows in the dirt! " I don't know whether to laugh or cry!
There's such a deep disconnect to understanding where our food comes from, where life comes from. It's taken me weeks and weeks to encourage them to put their hands in the soil without gloves, to feel the earth. Human beings actually have a role to play in the natural world that we need to fulfill. We have awareness and the ability to use tools, to do amazing things that the earth really needs us to do, to clean up the mess we've made and restore the balance.
The earth will survive without us one way or another no matter how badly we mess up, ultimately the bacteria will sort it all out. But I don't particularly want the world to go back to it's bacterial roots and have to start all over. I believe that the earth is calling to us and that we are here to serve the planet as a whole by our ability to appreciate, to give gratitude and praise, to become ecstatic with wonder for the earth."
— Starhawk
No comments:
Post a Comment