My little Gnudren,
We have had “good” weather of late. And, significant numbers of voiceless people in other parts of the world are having their crops, their livelihood and chances of survival destroyed because of the increased intense heat. The Earth is groaning.
The Blest Apostle writes (in Romans 8:22): The whole created universe in all its parts groans as if in the pangs of childbirth [Revised English Bible]. Apparently Creation is waiting with eager expectation for God’s children to be revealed. (Rom 8:19). Will they treat it any better? Hopefully, if they get the upper hand, they will treat it as God would treat the mind-bogglingly beautiful and incomprehensible marvellous planet on which we live. And the good earth will stop groaning, the trees of the field and the rivers will clap their hands!
Well actually he’s thinking at the moment before he writes – not a process to which Gnu subscribes
According to the psalmist (Psalm 19), Creation’s eloquent silent voice utters knowledge day after day. We are muting it day by day with the extinction of species and destruction of ecosystems. It is difficult to see how Creation will stop groaning in our time space continuum on its present trajectory. Perhaps its voice will be snuffed out by us humans.
Now let’s try to cheer ourselves up.
Some Christians think that God is like Slartibartfast in Douglas Adams The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Even after the earth has been demolished by the Vogons to make an intergalactic by-pass, Slartibarfast is able to show Arthur Dent (or is it Ford Prefect?) all the wonderful fiords of Scandinavia, pristine and intact. Despite being destroyed the originals continue to exist in some ginormous intergalactic warehouse. So, you see planet Earth is an ‘off the shelf’ item and God can easily replace it if we bust it. So, who cares about environmental issues. A waste of time. Just enjoy the good weather and keep out people [unless they are Ukrainians] who are trying to get in to our country because their livelihoods have been messed up by our greed; and, of course, go to church.
And now let’s talk about Cowboys and Indians. In the late 1950s Children’s Hour featured a high percentage of Westerns – the Cowboy and Indians genre – where the Indians were always assumed to be the baddies [1]; unless he was Tonto, the Indian who unlike the rest of his clan was a help to the Lone Ranger. Gnu watched them on a neighbours black and white TV. Of course, many Westerns focused on the fightings between the “Cowboys” and attempted to be moralistic. But the image of a wagon train in a circle shooting at the uncivilised Indians surrounding them sticks in many a mind. But these “uncivilised” people talked about having a great respect for nature and looking after it, and the need to coexist in harmony without damaging the earth. Such uncivilised tribes are still found South America and other parts of the world. Because of their obstinacy they are being displaced, their lands forcibly repossessed for the sake of necessary economic growth. They live in La-La Land and still talk of the earth being their mother and father, and the trees and animals their brothers, and the need to be kind to inanimate objects.
To save burbling on for ever, and jumping 3 stages in the ‘Blargument’, Old Gnu suggests that you read this article by John Cassidy: Can We Have Prosperity Without Growth? It will only take you 5 minutes – 10 minutes if you are dyslexic. You may disagree with its conclusions but it’s a possibility we must consider. Why? Because us civilised people may have inadvertently created something akin to George’s Marvellous Medicine [Roald Dahl], a panacea to our problems without thinking of the possible consequences if things go wrong.
Incidentally, George’s Marvellous Medicine is well worth reading.
It’s quite as good as the Psalms for offering relief by damning your enemies.
And finally, Old Gnu is daily challenged by his sins, which are many and grievous, when he reads the Bible. If you are unfamiliar with it, it usually looks like this:
But lately the leaflet below really challenged him when it fell out of a theological journal he reads from time to time [The Railway Modeller].
Now Old Gnu has cheered us all up, it’s time to have a nice cup of Fair Trade coffee, Sumatran Blend.
Footnote:
[1] In 1955, the TV series Brave Eagle put a new twist on the Western – to the Native American’s viewpoint of settlement of the American West. Unlike other long running Westerns, it bit the dust after one season. Brave Eagle was a prophetic brave attempt.
Vetus Pater Gnu
Musicorum et Theologia
Turris LA
XX Mense Augusta MMXXII
[Image: A large pink, speckled galaxy resembling a wheel with with a small, inner oval, with dusty blue in between on the right, with two smaller spiral galaxies about the same size to the left against a black background. Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI 2022]