BLESSING THE WATERS
If I were called in
To construct a religion
I should make use of water.
Going to church
Would entail a fording
To dry, different clothes;
My liturgy would employ
Images of sousing,
A furious devout drench,
And I should raise in the east
A glass of water
Where any-angled light
Would congregate endlessly.
Let us place that glass of water in the east as the poet Philip Larkin suggests.
[Note: I will have an actual glass of rainwater.] At the end of our service we will
bless this water and give it to the earth, a tree or a blossom, to grow and glorify all
who see it.
This poem echoes feelings that many nations and many religions throughout time
and space have embraced in their ceremonies and stories.
Old pagan rituals
The Lady of the Lake
and Excalibur
from Camelot
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~
In what is now Oregon, there is the tale of Crater Lake as told by the
Klamath Indians. It is a story of a lake that bestowed incredible prowess upon
young warriors who honored its waters. The spell was broken only when one
arrogant young warrior dared to kill a gentle creature at its shores. Since then,
according to the Klamath tale, "Certain death will come to anyone who even looks
upon this lake."
The spirits of the waters were powerful indeed.
There's the Ganges River where
millions have sought healing and
comfort
Baptism ceremonies throughout the
Christian realm
And the sacred mikvah, the
ceremonial waters of the Jewish
world
One of the very oldest goddesses was Sequana, the Celtic river goddess. Just fyi,
her sacred animal was the duck. Water was incredibly important, even at the
beginning.
~
Even very proper scientists say that all life emerged from a pool of water
many eons ago. And when these scientists search for life throughout our heavens,
they look for water. For H2O. Two molecules of hydrogen, and one of oxygen.
Such a simple combination, yet such a vital component of all life everywhere.
Yes, water is indeed the stuff of religion, the stuff of Life.
Over millennia Mother Earth has perfected a cycle of joyous rain and snow that
feeds our plants, our rivers, and us. You no doubt recall this image from your
school days:
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Water tumbles down into the rivers, lakes and aquifers. Vegetation – trees and
shrubs and flowers – protect the soil, protect the ground waters. The sun's rays
evaporate those waters into the heavens, and the glorious cycle begins again.
For millennia there were massive QUANTITIES of pure water. When we disrupt
this cycle, especially by wasting too much water, we mess it up.
And the QUALITY of the water was pure. When we put stinky stuff into the water,
we mess it up, and the stinky stuff comes back to us in the rain and lakes and
streams.
This system has perfected itself over many thousands of centuries.
And now, in what is but a blink of an eye in the timeline of life, we seem to have
really mucked it up.
~ Draughts reach across continents spreading disease and killing many millions
every year.
~ Native Americans tell us that EVERY SINGLE RIVER in California is polluted.
~ Once pure waters now devastate our fish, our wildlife and all the creatures of
earth.
And children are so very vulnerable to the diseases in filthy water, like diarrhea.
Severe diarrhea is caused ONLY by drinking extremely foul water. And every
single year over 9 million children under five years of age die from diarrhea alone
– 9 million. Yes, that is a massive number. But let me put it into perspective.
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Suppose there is a super jet with over 500 seats, with a child in each seat. And
suppose that super jet crashes, killing everyone on board. Then suppose that just
30 minutes from now there is another jumbo jet, again filled with children; and
again it crashes. And in another 30 minutes after that, there is another. And
another. Every 30 minutes, hour after hour, day after day, week after week a
jumbo jet full of children crashes … with no survivors.
THAT is how many children die from diarrhea alone.
Then, if they survive childhood diarrhea, these children face sanitation and disease
monstrosities every day of their lives, degrading challenges that no one should
have to face for even one day – all caused by lack of clean water.
Malaria
Dysentery
Anemia
Hepatitis
And a whole lot of diseases we can't
even pronounce
And this doesn't have to be so. According to a UNICEF study, there IS enough
water for everyone. It is only our human mis-use of this irreplaceable resource that
has caused so much misery.
And it is only getting worse.
But what about everything we
already do? We recycle
papers and cans and garbage
we re-use old clothes
and don't wash our cars
and even use low flow shower heads
Isn't all of that enough?
It must be enough
Well, it's not. It is not nearly enough.
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Thirty years ago that would have been enough. But we didn't listen. We just kept
on contaminating our precious waters.
You've no doubt heard of the things we have done lately.
You mean things like Fracking
Yes, Fracking consumes millions
upon millions of gallons of water,
and spews contaminated water into
our aquafer.
And Oil Spills …
like the Exxon Valdez oil spill in
Alaska
and the massive spill in the Gulf of
Mexico
~
Constant oil leaks along pipelines, both big and small, which can only
increase as the pipelines age and deteriorate;
The unrelenting warming of the
ocean waters from climate change
Clear cutting of our forests that
leaves our soils and watersheds
unprotected
Pipelines along earthquake faults,
like the proposed Jordan Cove
pipeline in Oregon
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Aging railroad cars that constantly
carry oil from Canada, endangering
thousands of streams and lakes in
the United States
~
Chemical plants,
like the ones in Erin Brockovich?
Just like those. They haven't gone away. Hexavalent chromium, arsenic and
hundreds of other chemicals seep into our water supply daily, killing and sickening
many thousands of people, young and old.
These are massive issues, and we are kidding ourselves to think there are easy
answers. There aren't. Thirty years ago there were easy answers, like car pooling
and recycling.
Keep doing those. Car pooling and recycling won't hurt, and will help a bit, but
not much.
The times call for more aggressive action from us, and I want to leave you with
TWO challenges -- steps that you can take that will make a real difference now.
They won't cost you money, and may even save you some money. And they are
important.
The first challenge tackles the issue of QUANTITY OF WATER, how much water
you and I actually use.
(1) The challenge is simply to WATCH WHAT YOU EAT. I didn't believe this
the first time I saw the figures, but it kept cropping up, each time with slightly
different figures, but always with the same message.
Basically, it really matters what you buy at the store and restaurant. It really
matters what you put on your table. Here's why:
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HOW WATER IS USED
The red slice is extremely important – our drinking water. But it is only a tiny part
of the water we use, just 0.2%.
The yellow slice is where we've been putting our attention: washing our cars,
watering our lawns, washing clothes. But it is only 4.2% of all the water we use.
Industrial use is decidedly bigger, but few of us control industries.
Here, FOOD production, is where you and I can make a real difference.
You see, some foods require a massive amount of water to produce, and some
foods require hardly any water at all.
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Gallons of Water Needed per Serving
600
600
500
400
400
300
200
200
100
5
0
Each of these bars represents about one serving.
FRUITS and VEGGIES and even GRAINS require hardly any water at all, only
about 5 – 10 gallons of water per serving. All we do is water the veggies, and eat
them.
DAIRY products require more water, about twice as much as the blue foods. More
water for processing is required here.
Meat is another issue. A quarter pound of each is shown, about one serving.
From chicken to pork to beef, putting meat on our plate demands humongous
mounts of water.
And the real loser is BEEF, at a whopping 600 gallons of water per serving – and
that is one of the lower estimates I found. With cattle, we have to grow the food
for the cattle for many years until the animal is huge, and water it all that time too.
Beef processing requires large amounts of water to keep it sanitary. Then we
eliminate the waste, the bones and organs that we just don't use. All in all, it takes
hundreds of gallons of water to produce one serving of beef.
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For purposes of comparison, look at the green dotted line. That is how much water
you use if you take a 10 minute shower every day for a month. A whole month.
Eating ONE Quarter Pounder uses up as much water as taking a ten minute shower
every single day for a whole month. Honest.
How many of you are already vegetarian?
Yeah. We are on our way!
I am not asking everyone to become a vegetarian. That's tough. What I am
suggesting is this: The next time you walk into MacDonald's, ask yourself if you
would rather eat ONE quarter pounder at MacDonald's or go without a shower for
a month. That's the trade off.
Quelling our national appetite for beef would accomplish so much.
With but a little effort, we fix this.
WE CAN MAKE A REAL DIFFERENCE.
That brings us to our Second Challenge. The first one dealt with the HOW MUCH
water we use. This one tackles the QUALITY of that water. Not surprisingly, it
addresses oil companies.
Oil companies have single handedly caused more havoc to our natural world than
any other industry on the face of the earth.
None of us wants disgusting pollution in our lakes and streams, let alone our
drinking water. But one industry – the oil industry – seems intent on inflicting
disgusting desecration on all of us.
Oil spills and reckless construction are legendary in the oil business. Its latest
wrinkle is fracking, a process that uses 2 to 8 MILLION gallons of water PER
WELL, and there are typically 20 or more wells in any given area. The numbers
are simply staggering.
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And it becomes filthy, disgusting water. After the water is pumped into the oil
laden area and it becomes too filthy for even oil companies to use, it is pumped
back into the earth, about 6,000 feet down. When we stop to realize that our
aquafer is only about 1,000 feet down, we begin to see how quickly and
completely the fracking process is poisoning our natural water supply.
Neither the legislatures nor the courts have been helpful in stopping the oil
companies. The only recourse we have is to hit them where they feel it: in their
pocketbooks. Thousands of us – world wide -- are systematically taking literally
billions of dollars of investments away from oil and putting that money into green
companies. And you can too.
This is called DIVESTING. "Divesting" means taking your money out of stocks,
bonds and mutual funds that support fossil fuel companies, companies like Shell
Oil, BP Oil. And it is really pretty easy to do.
How many of you manage your own 401(k), Roth or other retirement plan? On the
back table is a list of Resources. One of those resources has a long list of mutual
funds that are already divested from oil stocks – the Green funds. Find the funds
that strike your fancy, and transfer your funds to those stocks and mutual funds.
When I did this about a year ago, I ended up earning more than I had previously. I
cannot guarantee that you will do the same, but I really encourage you to try.
If you do NOT manage your own retirement funds it is a different story. Perhaps
your company or organization invests your funds on your behalf. Many companies
and government entities do just that. Then the goal is to join with others, and
collectively we will approach those agencies one by one and ask them to divest
their retirement funds from oil stocks.
And blessedly, this approach is really working. Some very impressive companies
and groups have divested their funds, including the national Unitarian Universalist
Association Endowment Fund.
YEAH, UNITARIANS!
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and Stanford University
and Seattle, Washington
and Portland, Oregon
and Provincetown, Massachusetts
and the Ben and Jerry's Foundation
– yum!
and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund
and Norway's sovereign fund
That's an $850 BILLION fund!
HOLY MACKEREL!
All of that money is being diverted, taken away from Big Oil and put into green
companies. When people say that oil company stock is on the decline, we like to
believe that divestment is one of the reasons why.
Divestment is one of the main tasks of Southern Oregon Climate Action Now –
SOCAN -- the organization that I represent. When I joined SOCAN several
months ago, it was working with Ashland City Council to have that Council ask
the state retirement agency to consider divesting its funds. The Ashland City
Council did pass that resolution, and has forwarded its request to the proper state
authorities. At the same time, other groups throughout Oregon are working with
other government agencies who are also asking the state agency to divest its funds,
and collectively we will make Oregon government retirement funds totally fossil
fuel free.
One person can't accomplish this alone. We work as a team.
Wait! Tell them about the oysters
and the beavers
But mostly the oysters.
You are right. I feel like I've taken on the mantle of Cassandra, the doomsday
prophetess.
And it is NOT all bad. Some very creative, and very effective, things are being
done, right now, as we speak.
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THE OYSTERS. New York Harbor is one of the filthiest, most disgusting harbors
in the world. Blessedly, one very bright young woman remembered that oysters
are a natural water filtering system all by themselves. At the urging of this young
woman, New York is planting huge colonies of oysters in the harbor, with the sole
task of filtering the water.
And it is working!
And the beavers!
THE BEAVERS are just as miraculous. Right here in Oregon we have discovered
that if we reintroduce beavers to regions that are drying up, the beavers will build
dams all by themselves, creating natural dams and waterways. This introduces
vegetation and critters of all sorts back into areas that ecologists had pretty much
given up on. It even helps salmon. All we have to do is leave the beavers alone.
Who would have thunk?
Mother Gaia can do so much if we let her. She can do even more if we help even a
little bit.
That's why there is one more thing that I ask. Join your UUSC – the Unitarian
Universalist Service Committee. They have some excellent programs working
with the international issues of water supply with the belief that "Water Is A
Human Right". They are right. And even though I am not a member of a UU
congregation, I have joined UUSC. I invite you to do the same.
There was a mostly unnoticed major milestone a few weeks ago. President Obama
had invited four reporters from rather obscure local newspapers, and each was
granted five minutes to ask him questions. You won't believe what happened.
With NO prior planning amongst them, three of the four reporters brought up the
topic of oil and gas trains going through their states. A Portland reporter was one
of the three. Each reporter only had five minutes, and the danger to their
communities and to the environment from these trains was what they chose to ask
about.
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This wasn't a topic they pulled out of the sky. It happened because real people
wrote real letters to the editor; real people went to really boring meetings to have
their voices heard; real people joined together to make things happen. And the
message got through to the President.
Be one of those real people
 Get involved.
 Make your voice heard.
 Find out about your own local water.
 Make sure the homeless have access to good water.
 Attend the SOCAN symposium that is happening in October in Medford,
and help out with it if you can.
Above all, keep the beauteous spirit of our Goddess in your actions.
Our world is going to evolve. That is what it does: it changes. Whether or not
our species will be part of its next evolution is up to us. If we want to be there, it is
time for us to step up and demonstrate our love for the world we live in. Mother
Earth will wrap her arms around us, and welcome us back into Her fold, no
questions asked.
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Let us begin our water journey with a blessing for our water, a blessing inspired by
Indians of the Shasta region and written by Thomas Doty. [Note: I will pick up the
glass of rain water.] Please rise as you are willing and able.
more than a river
sand along the bottom
no different
than desert sand
foaming in the rapids
no different
than ocean waves
mist above the falls
no different
than forest rain
roar so filling
not so different
than silence
Join me in saying: Ohm. Peace. Amen.
And please join me afterwards as we return our blessed water to Mother Earth.
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