Since my last blog entry, I guess we could say that a few things have happened. Some of them continue to dominate our daily life and will continue to do so for generations to come. Given that every crisis is an opportunity for improvement, I’d like to ask what we can learn from recent events. How might we behave differently in the future?
The Curse of Covid
Whatever opinions we hold about this virus, one fact cannot be factually disputed, namely that it occurred as a direct result of human selfishness and irresponsibility. A blatant disregard for our essential interconnectedness with the whole of the planet. Our treatment and consumption of millions of animals per year causes unimaginable suffering to sentient beings as well as wrecking the environment via climate change.
The mass of animals raised for slaughter on earth now outweighs wildlife by a factor of 15-to-1. For example, for every person on the planet, there are approximately three chickens. Meat and dairy specifically account for around 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO).
Why do we need to eat meat? The answer is: we don’t. Social conditioning, underpinned by effective marketing and together with a lack of information, leads many of us to believe that we need to consume many kinds of meat – and fish too. Yet now we know otherwise. For those who believe that they can’t live without the taste of slaughtered animals, there is an alternative for pretty much everything.
Given that the climate impact of plant-based foods is typically up to 50 times smaller than that of animal products, it follows that switching from a largely meat-based diet to a vegetarian or vegan diet would reduce green house gas emissions significantly and help to reverse climate change.
When I stopped buying meat a few years ago, I was surprised by how much less I spent on food. I recommend spending some of the savings on buying organic produce too. Not so much because it is far better for your mental and physical health, but because it is so much better for the environment. Organic farming practices reduce pollution, conserve water, reduce soil erosion, increase soil fertility, and use less energy. Farming without synthetic pesticides is also better for nearby birds, frogs and other animals as well as people who live close to farms.
Politics
The political landscape since my last blog post has changed for the better and for the worse. I am so delighted for the US people that they have jettisoned the divisive, racist caricature of a politician and the worst president in my lifetime. Sadly, his twin brother is still at large in the UK, lying, dividing and grooming his endless narcissism. As the UK erroneously believes that it will be better off as an island of service industries, the only thing the British can currently be proud of is that they have taken part more swiftly than any other European nation in the largest drug-testing experiment in the history of the world. I had much higher hopes for the opposition under Keir Starmer, but it seems as if he is not a leader after all. He offers no alternative vision to inspire the inhabitants of the sinking isle. Further afield, I remain heartbroken for the plight of my fellow human beings in Syria, Yemen, Brazil and India – to name just a few countries – and I am hoping for political solution to come soon. Let us do everything we can to support this.
God and the church
The charismatic church in particular has struggled during the pandemic. Although awash with many gifted prophets (apparently), none of them saw Corona coming. In fact, many of them were busy buying and renovating large, disused warehouses – large “barns” prepared for bringing in the enormous harvest of souls promised by their prophets back in 1993. Yet we don’t need a prophet to tell us not to buy a large building. The Bible is good enough for that. The New Testament teaches that the church is not a building, but Spirit-filled Jesus-worshippers who gather in one another’s homes. And there has still not been any honesty from the leaders of such congregations, explaining why the promised revival never came, let alone apologising for the irresponsible untruths and ensuing delusion. On the contrary. In a sermon I heard just two weeks ago, one of these leaders was again telling his poor sheep that a massive harvest of souls was coming at the end of the Corona period and that the church needed to get ready. He longed for another so-called outpouring of the Holy Spirit too, since the current younger generation has never experienced people falling over, laughing out loud and in their drunkenness signing more large cheques to pay for the new barns that they won’t be needing. Still, at least we can all now see what “charismatic renewal” means: establishing a superior sect that steals Christians from well-established churches > lunatic gatherings in the name of the Holy Spirit > exciting prophecies about national revival > a massive increase in offerings > ignoring the facts, managing social projects and propagating spiritual boredom. And once the generation who has experienced this renewal has either left the church, died, is demented or living in the sect’s obedience and amnesia, the whole cycle starts anew.
What really matters
On a more hopeful note, the virus has taught many of us to focus on what matters most: family, relationships, health, the environment and looking for positive ways out into a better future.
When I was meditating the other day, I was reminded of a scene from Winnie-the-Pooh in which Piglet asks Pooh, “Supposing a tree fell down, Pooh, when were underneath it?”
“Supposing it didn’t,” said Pooh after careful thought.
Piglet was comforted by this.
In some of my upcoming blog articles, I’m going to share with you some of the comforting things that I have enjoyed during the last twelve challenging months in the hope that we might learn from our mistakes and make the world a better place for the generations of people, animals and plants to come.
“A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” Albert Einstein