This is the second of two parts. Read Part 1 here. -- Ed. My mother didn’t die when so many others did – and so lived to give birth to me. I write about this now, because it has everything to do with today, even though the cataclysm in which so many perished happened more than 75 years ago. This is how I began part 1 of this story, which tells how my mother’s family, … [Read more...]
Spirit
Teachings and practices from the world's great faith traditions and humanistic philosophy to help us stay sane and remain courageous during the Transition time.
A Lesson from the Holocaust for the Era of the Sixth Extinction
This article is the first in a two-part series. My mother didn’t die when so many others did – and that means she lived to give birth to me. I write about this now, because it has everything to do with today, even though the cataclysm in which so many perished happened more than 75 years ago. I owe my life, in part, to people who were willing to risk theirs, whose names I … [Read more...]
How Pope Francis’s climate encyclical is liberating the world
In my life there are two things that have the effect of at least somewhat isolating me from others. The first is being a writer on climate change, peak oil, and the economic crises bound up with those modern predicaments. The other is being a Christian environmentalist. In the first case, my essays, as well as my social media presence, fairly well run counter to the whole … [Read more...]
Peak oiler? Not Catholic? You should still stand with the pope on climate
I get it, you believe in peak oil. So do I, despite gas at $2.50 a gallon. But peak oil is no excuse for either you or me to just sit around waiting for the final oil crash to make the climate problem moot by bringing down industrial civilization. Even if you're the world's biggest doomer, you have to admit that the timing is too uncertain -- will the über-crash come in five … [Read more...]
We need a map out of the nightmare of consumerism
One of the most harrowing challenges of modern American life is navigating through the massive desert of our mindless, materialistic consumerism. It is within this landscape that a soul can become lost and drenched in despair. From the endless stream of vacant-eyed wraiths who glide down catwalks, to the pervasive advertising that never ceases to demean the values of … [Read more...]