Outdoor Presidents

Outdoor Presidents

I've spent a few blessed days here in Yosemite.  Every day I thank John Muir for inviting President Teddy Roosevelt here in 1903 on a three day camping trip.  The sign marking their campsite near Bridal Veil Falls say, "Here they camped and talked forest good."  Roosevelt was changed by that experience, and he went on to protect Yosemite and many more national parks and wilderness areas.

I remember in 1998 when another President, and Vice President, Bill Clinton and Al Gore, also spent significant time outdoors, when they came to Monterey for a big ocean conference.  There they learned from our John Muir-esque locals about the need for ocean protection, and Clinton and Gore, like Roosevelt, went on to extend more federal protection to wide open spaces, in this case the wet ones.

I was heartened last week to see so many scientists elected to Congress, including Joe Cunningham, an ocean scientist from South Carolina, and the new Nevada senator, Jacky Rosen, a software engineer who proudly affirmed in her campaign how her solar energy company had cut her synagogue's energy bill by 70%.

We at the Blue Theology Mission Station strongly believe that science and religion deeply inform each other and are not mutually exclusive.  We encourage our visiting groups of youth and adults to get involved in conservation efforts locally and nationally.   Thanks be to God to John, Teddy, Bill, Al, Joe, Jacky and all other science-based nature protectors. 

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BlueTheology.com. I post these Wednesday devotionals here and on Facebook.

Octopalooza

Octopalooza

Pregnant?  Always a good idea to hang out with other moms to be.   And maybe find some nice warm water seeping into the deep dark cold depths!   

10,000 feet below the ocean surface off Big Sur, here are a few of 1000 octopus mothers in a maternity support group, all brooding over their babies, literally turning themselves inside out (tentacles exposed, fertilized eggs underneath) to feed and shelter their youngsters.

Check out https://nautiluslive.org/album/2018/10/28/octopalooza-davidson-seamount for more pics.  Note that these highly educated scientists call this surprise discovery “Octapalooza.”

I am back from my retreat in Italy about St. Clare and St. Francis and writing again every Wednesday about Blue Theology, ocean stewardship and ocean spirituality.   What better welcome back home than meeting some octopus moms doing the unexpected in my neighborhood, the deep dark cold waters off Big Sur?  Most octopus give birth alone, but scientists found 1000 of them all together, huddling “expectantly” over the warmer waters of deep sea thermal seeps. 

Like standing with your legs apart over a heating vent – ahhh!.  

Thanks all you US tax payers for supporting this government funded science, courtesy of NOAA and the privately funded Nautilus Ocean Trust. 

You think prenatal care is hard to find in our health care system?  This octopus maternity garden, the Davidson Sea Mount, an extinct volcano the size of Mt. Shasta deep in the ocean, is currently protected as part of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.  But our administration plans to open it up to oil exploration.  Hard to have babies when they are drilling for oil all around you. 

I’m posting this early in the morning after Election Day.  Like a pregnant mom, I’m not sure what the future holds.  I too am brooding about the future of my (American) family.  Will my larger human family be able to find safety and warmth and new life?  Will we make choices based on knowledge and hope, or on fear?

Our Blue Theology Mission Station in Pacific Grove welcomes youth and adult groups to learn more about ocean families and human families, what God calls us to do to protect and preserve Her wet creation.  Be in touch for a visit.  Hold us in your prayers. Bluetheology.com.  You can also read these posts on Facebook at my page or Blue Theology Mission Station.

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I will be writing about my Francis and Clare retreat at my other site, www.thebackroadcafe.com.  As Francis would say, “Peace and all good.”

Beyond the Plush Toy

Beyond the Plush Toy

I’m 67 years old and I still have a stuffed animal on my bed, this cool red soft Monterey Bay Aquarium plush octopus. 

As a guide at the Aquarium, every week I see little kids lovingly holding plush toy sea otters, penguins, orcas, bought that day or brought in as a fellow visitor.   I bet they hold these toys as they go to sleep.  Do stuffed animals help us connect more deeply to God’s diverse creation?

The Aquarium teaches us guides to encourage folks to relate to “iconic animals.”
“charismatic animals,” otters, penguins, white sharks, orcas, octopus, animals we seem to have a special deep connection with, we can love, respect, fear, wonder about, work to conserve.

I’ve been studying St. Francis and will be on retreat in Assisi later this month.  He surely loved animals, preached to the birds, negotiated with a wolf, hosted the first live animal nativity scene.   We call him the saint of ecology, and he remarkably called all living beings his brothers and sisters. 

But I know for sure he did not own a single plush toy stuffed animal. 

The fabulous Franciscan Richard Rohr offers an online class about Francis (I highly recommend) called “Beyond the Bird Bath.”  Francis calls us to live a life of faith that’s more than a warm fuzzy soft of birdbath faith.  The first Francis birdbath only first appeared in the gardens of privileged Connecticut homes and the pages of Architectural Digest in the 1950’s.  We love this guy, let’s sculpt him and keep him in our garden with the birds.

Francis’ ministry and his community are as much about poverty, freedom from things and trust in God, as about ecology.  His message was simplicity.  Not plush toys or birdbaths.   

The most iconic and charismatic creature I know – that would be Jesus.  Also Francis, Clare.  They did not live plush lives.

I love my plush octopus, but I know that God calls me to be real and to honor all creation in its realness.  Octopus actually aren’t soft and cuddly, otters, penguins are not soft plush toys, but struggling wild creatures, sharp teeth, sharp claws.   They work hard just to stay alive and get enough to eat.  My plush octopus makes me happy.  But it also teaches me about real animals, that all animals hunger every day and need homes. Francis reminds me that real life is on the edge, a little hungry, more rough than soft.

I’ll keep my plush octopus, but I will try, like Jesus and Francis, to be wild and real. And to trust in God.

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I’ve been writing for the past few weeks about Francis as I prepare to go on retreat in Assisi for two weeks to study him and his colleague Clare.  I’ll be back writing my weekly blogs in November. Please check out bluetheology.com to consider a visit to our Pacific Grove ministry connecting faith issues and ocean concerns.  Love God, and love animals, both the live ones and the plush ones.