Eric’s Sunday Sermon; On Hallowed Ground

There are two things that we must do on a regular basis. First or all we must walk in nature. Without this connection, we simply lose our grounding on earth. I am trying to figure out how often Christ prayed in the wilderness compared to “temples”. Hands down from Gesthamane to the mount he was a nature freak. Right on I say! When I was preaching to youths we sat and stood and lounged under a huge Norfolk Pine. Sorry to say we got a little dirty in our Sunday best. Now the second is unto it. We must help those less fortunate. End of story on both. Without these connections we lose our humanity. We must count gardening and farming – and maybe even cooking with love among the connections.

So on either occasion I have fed two birds with one hand. The homeless that live in my rural canyons where I hike to get some real dirt under my feet and track. Well we bring blankets and water. It is so cool because the blankets are very cheap at our local Amvets store – helps them help them. The Bodega loves to give me four gallons for 2 bucks.

But last afternoon I walked/hiked down my closest canyon. And I saw it, all of it. It had been a month since I went down this trail. I have been hiking this canyon since 2010. And I just love it.

(Backround. We have in our city two real problems lately with regard to homeless. Hepatitis and Tuberculosis. TB is not spoken because it is too scary for the public. And truly because the “no vaccination people” are politically strong. No vaccine for TB – well any contact and you are screwed. The Hep has killed 100 people and counting. So the city was awesome in response. Those Porta Potties that have hand washing built in – a bunch of them. Then a few million bucks on those tent things that can keep warm and cleaning and food stuffs. They are nowhere near full, 100’s of open beds. So many of these folks came out to the canyons in our county. Refugees in a microcosm. Just a rebellion against the “Man”. No rules.)

The influx of newbies overwhelmed my canyon. Even some of the previous tenants moved further out from the big city. No that is not in any census. It is my own census knowing folks from old Jesus to teenager Laura Lee. They are just overwhelmed from the services here and the canyon housing problem.

These new folks have no sense of the canyon. They do not get the synergism between Sheriff Deputies and folks who have lived in my canyon for 10 years. They do not get the cooperation between us “Friends of Quarry Canyon” and them. My boy and I were going to go down to our strange picnic area – an old fallen down Eucalyptus tree this weekend but not now.

The influx of heretofore city street dwellers has destroyed our canyon. They cannot or will not or know not how to live with nature rather than city streets. In the city they have places to defecate and can throw their garbage anywhere and it will be cleaned up. City people. Our little canyon simply cannot withstand the ecological impact of fifty more people who do not get the symbiotic balance. The balance not only ecological but also social.

Two fires and mounds of garbage. A smell of crap in some areas. It is unsustainable. Old Joe told me his buddy GI Joe (no relations except brothers in life) got stabbed and they put him in a shopping cart to the road and called 911 and then scattered as a knife wound looks for perps. It is so sad. So the influx of refugees by choice make the residents move out.

So now where do we leave the blankets and water? Friends of the canyon cannot remove this huge new problem with garbage – Hep and TB? The county is out spraying disinfectant by need but it also hurts our canyon.

So for the sake of our residents I will suit up, boot up and show up at our government meetings. Can you imagine I want them to roust them all. This sounds horrible. But our “normal” residents will wait. Then they will come back after the transients flee back to the city. Isn’t that just horrible? We must use a scorched earth policy to return our canyon to a proper homeostasis. Senator Thomas the Doubter agreed as I met him yesterday in front of the Bodega. Maybe he has seen it all in the canyon for the last 15 years, a representative of the people he is. Such a sad and mean consequence of the overwhelming city refugees.

They have been given proper city safe zones but they flee into a land that they seemingly cannot assimilate or adopt local custom to be sustainable.

No! we make no comparisons on a political basis. We make a comparison to nature. My wonderful Berekely graduate daughter has a degree in “Society and the Environment” and I will ask for her input. But I just cannot expose others to the risk of serious illness by cleaning the canyon. Or even walking through it. There is even a bike and horse trail therein. I tracked hard but found no tracks that survived or later were laid down after our last rain.

This is an aside. My state has done a remarkable job in outlawing disposable grocery bags. In just 6 months the difference is wonderful and worthy. The problem that we address here is poo. They used those bags to crap into and then carry out. Unintended consequences.

Hazmat? And the stream/creek that runs through it goes to very well used parks.

So for some our recent all excited public NFL players taking a knee is crazy. I just stop and remember that I kneel in church. I kneel before my God. And I take a knee and sift dirt and smell and look for signs of nature when I track. (yesterday I tracked a horse and large dog for over half a mile) That God sent here as a Mother of Nature is our lifeblood. My reverence for this earth has filled my heart with love and eyes with crying eyes in admiration and homage. And yet I know I must place Man above nature and children of God.

But here the fifty destroyed what was for thirty. I cannot fix it. So yesterday I dropped to my knees and prayed for the return of Hawk, Eagle and Falcon to our canyon. And then sadly came home to tell my son that the canyon has been taken.

If our sense of priorities is compromised so that we sit idly by when bad happens and then we get all excited about a raise in wages or our home being worth 3 times the mortgage. And we fail to get excited by either the blessings on another or hardship on another. Numb is not good. Apathy is the number one killer of souls.

I think that maybe today we should all set our sights on caring, then let the chips fall as they may.