Is our lifestyle sustainable for body and soul?

Winter is just around the corner, and I have some big time work to do in my garage. My garage can be seen as a mess or it can be seen as a thoughtful recycling center. I have a barrel for No. 2 plastic and another for No. 1 plastic. Yet another is for all other plastic. I have a large drawer just for aluminum and another for crushed tin cans. Newspapers are separated from magazines, and there is a special place just for old phone directories. Glass has a place all of its own. Then there are the barrels (notice plural) of general garbage that no one wants and so ends up in the very large area landfill dump.

For the sake of convenience, the landfill dump and the recycling center are located next to each other. They are both located (as the crow flies) about a mile from our home. There are large hills that separate us from the disposal system, but on a quiet day we can hear the heavy equipment that crushes and covers endlessly.

Saturday was my “D Day.” I had to clean out the garage to make room for our car. I visited both the dump and the recycling center. I stopped for a few minutes, looked around and asked just what we were doing. When I first started visiting the landfill dump, our stuff was being shoved into a deep ravine. The ravine is now gone. Flat has replaced downward slope and I suspect a gentle hill of some magnitude will begin to appear. Our local government assures the public that there is another ravine nearby that is ready to be filled up by the stuff being generated by a growing population.

When I arrived home, Darlene and I had a conversation. We salved our consciences by recycling some of our garbage. However, by bulk and weight, I had taken more stuff to the dump than I had taken to the recycling center. Even a fool should be able to look at our filling of ravines, project the practice into the future and conclude that the practice is not sustainable for the wellbeing of our grandchildren.

Many years ago I concluded that the Bible and Jesus from Nazareth were of one mind. They agree. Everything, but especially the land, belongs to God. Ultimately, I own nothing. According to the Bible, I am an alien to ownership. I can never be more than a tenant. I am at my best when I see myself as a steward. My first concern in handling my stewardship is not myself, but the practice of the reign of God on earth.

Our American society has a ravenous appetite to acquire things. We are encouraged to buy even more things to keep our economy healthy. The health of the nation is measured by how much stuff is bought and sold. We are being trained to be not just consumers of products, but purchasers of products. Some things we use, but the vast majority of the things we purchase are either thrown away or stored. The storage business has become enormous. It is not simply attics, basements and garages that are being used for storage. Every American community is now home to acres and acres of storage units.

Pursuing more than we need, addiction to accumulation and the outrageous disposal of those things for which we have no need are not only nonsense, but also represent a lifestyle that is unsustainable over a long period of time. Some folks believe we are caught in a destructive pattern of life that is beyond redemption. I do not believe this is true.

I am both an amateur sociologist and a trained theologian. As a sociologist, I believe social patterns can be interrupted and changed. A good example of this phenomenon is the history of immigration into the United States. Immigrants regularly upset the American fruit basket. What keeps immerging from immigration is unpredictable and creative. It is what makes the United States seem at times chaotic, but immigration is the basis of our strength, our creativity and our stability. As long as we welcome the stranger into the American family, our healthy future is assured.

I dabble in sociological understandings, but I am consumed with theological beliefs. Those beliefs center in the folk rabbi Jesus from Nazareth. I see Jesus as an intruder in the history of humankind. He is especially relevant to our present American turmoil. In his own day, he challenged the wealth/ownership system that had developed. He effectively exposed the evils of wealth and ownership. He called for people to embrace a value system that gave priority to love of God and love of neighbor.

The problem that is symbolized by the landfill dump will not be resolved by building more recycling centers. The problem will continue to exist until the standard of “more is better” is effectively challenged. The problem will be addressed when charity is valued more than ownership and love of neighbor takes priority over the love of the stuff in the storage bin.

When I was a child, our church sang a lot. I remember singing the words, “This is my Father’s world, O let me n’er forget.” Still good advice. What we are now doing is not sustainable.

The Rev. Howard Bess is a retired American Baptist minister, who lives in Palmer. His email address is hdbss@mtaonline.net.

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