Comments on: Discernment http://pathsoflight.us/musing/?p=462 A Friend looks at (mostly) the environment: "Let all nations hear the sound by word or writing. Spare not place, spare not tongue, nor pen...This is the word of the Lord God to you all, a charge to you all in the presence of the living God; be patterns, be examples in all countries, places, islands, nations, wherever you come; that your life and conduct may preach among all sorts of people, and to them. Then you will come to walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in every one...Spare no deceit." George Fox Fri, 03 Sep 2010 18:58:57 -0400 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Caroline Webb http://pathsoflight.us/musing/?p=462&cpage=1#comment-109490 Caroline Webb Fri, 30 Jul 2010 01:14:04 +0000 http://pathsoflight.us/musing/?p=462#comment-109490 The last paragraph says it all. How are environmentalists who love the Earth to become really discerning about how the love can be best expressed for the benefit of both humans and non-humans? How are new points of view and new hard evidence to be allowed by those who care about and love the Earth, as much as by those who are absorbed in a more anthropocentric existence? Your words hit the nail on the head. The world needs people who are willing to own that they have been wrong - to be able to do this without undue psychic complexity (ie without beating oneself up about it) and to do it with a new-found power in the very action of saying to oneself and to the world - I have been wrong and I am able to say why, and I am busying myself with learning new things so that I might be a better lover of the Earth... We are only JUST beginning to understand nature and it behooves all of us to adopt a more humble and less ardent position in relation to many issues concerning the human-Earth relationship. Thanks for a GREAT essay, Karen. The last paragraph says it all. How are environmentalists who love the Earth to become really discerning about how the love can be best expressed for the benefit of both humans and non-humans? How are new points of view and new hard evidence to be allowed by those who care about and love the Earth, as much as by those who are absorbed in a more anthropocentric existence? Your words hit the nail on the head.

The world needs people who are willing to own that they have been wrong – to be able to do this without undue psychic complexity (ie without beating oneself up about it) and to do it with a new-found power in the very action of saying to oneself and to the world – I have been wrong and I am able to say why, and I am busying myself with learning new things so that I might be a better lover of the Earth…

We are only JUST beginning to understand nature and it behooves all of us to adopt a more humble and less ardent position in relation to many issues concerning the human-Earth relationship. Thanks for a GREAT essay, Karen.

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