Earth Day is next week on Monday, April 22. On the first Earth Day in 1970, I was a university student and attended the outdoor gathering on my campus.
Where have we come since then, nearly 50 years ago? There is more worldwide awareness of our impact upon the natural environment, and our need to protect the Earth and not just consume it. Toxic pollutants are in most countries not dumped directly into rivers and streams the way they were when I was a boy.
But overall the health of Earth’s environment is more precarious than ever. What will we pass onto those who come after us? Let’s make Earth Day every day!
Thomas Berry was a theologian. He was also referred to as a “geologian” or Earth scholar. Here is a poem he wrote:
Look up at the sky —
The heavens so blue, the sun so radiant,
The clouds so playful, the soaring raptors,
The meadows in bloom, the woodland creatures,
The rivers singing their way to the sea,
Wolf song on the land, whale song in the sea,
Celebration everywhere, wild, riotous,
Immense as a monsoon lifting an ocean of joy
And spilling it down over the Appalachian Landscape,
Drenching us all with a deluge of delight
As we open our arms and rush toward each other,
You and I and all of us,
Moved by that vast compassionate Presence
That brings all things together in intimate Celebration,
Celebration that is the universe itself.
