Quote of the Day: Our Franciscan teacher Richard Rohr once said to a bunch of us over-earnest, graying wisdom seekers: “If you’re over fifty, and you’re still thinking it’s about ‘you’—your ideas, your dreams—you are missing all the fun. Invest your time in helping the next two generations fulfill their wild dreams.”
Commentary: If you’ve assumed, I’ve been recalling a bit of Earth Day history from fifty years ago for nostalgia’s sake, I’ve failed in my task. As the Native American protagonist says in the Canadian film Indian Horse, “I can’t know where I’m going unless I know where I’ve come from.” All of this next generation will need a strong anchorage or port of departure from which to extend this collective journey for the most compassionate ways to care for the earth and for one another. I am simply wishing them “safe passage” and “travel mercies” as they explore dimensions of “just” relationships beyond my own dreams, or perhaps yours.
Suggested Action #48: Today, walk with a younger person you know, and let her or him tell you the dreams that are emerging now that could make this a better place in which to dwell.
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Gary Paul Nabhan aka Brother Coyote is a professed member of the Ecumenical Order of Franciscans, a graduate of the Living School, a conservation biologist, orchard-keeper and story-teller.
