How Do We Live Blue ?

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First UU Church of Berks
September 18, 2011
Rev. Sandra Fees
How Do We Live Blue?
Yoga practitioner C. Scott Ryan says, “Water is our element.” Across cultures,
water is both literally and symbolically our element. Life arose from water. The
opening words of the Hebrew Scriptures identify water as a source of life. “In
the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a
formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God
swept over the face of the waters.” (Genesis 1:1-2) According to Mircea Eliade,
an historian of religion, water “serves as the abode of … sacred powers.”
The Babylonian myth, the Enuma Elish, upon which the Biblical account is
based, is more ancient still and alludes to our origins in water. It begins:
When skies above were not yet named
Nor earth below pronounced by name,
Apsu, the first one, their begetter
And maker Tiamat, who bore them all,
Had mixed their waters together,
But had not formed pastures, nor discovered reed-beds;
When yet no gods were manifest,
Nor names pronounced, nor destinies decreed,
Then gods were born within them.
(“Enuma Elish,” www.stenudd.com/myth/enumaelish/)
Among Hinduism’s numerous accounts of creation is one suggestive of
primordial waters. It recounts that, “Darkness was hidden by darkness in the
beginning. With no distinguishing sign, all this was water. The life force was
covered with emptiness. That One arose with the power of heat.”
Science too points to watery beginnings. According to one broadly accepted
contemporary theory, the basic building blocks of life came from a primordial
soup of organic molecules. Those molecules evolved out of the oceans millions
of years later.
It isn’t surprising that many of our collective histories – the explanations of the
origins of life – involve water. Ancient people understood well that their fates
were linked to water. Settling by rivers, streams, and lakes, people from earliest
times recognized the benefits and joys of living in proximity to and harmony with
water as well as the dangers. They respected the power of water and honored it
as a source of survival and spiritual nourishment. Like our ancestors before us,
we too imagine ourselves as having been born of the waters of mother earth,
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either figuratively or literally. We too know that our fates are linked to water. As
C. Scott Ryan writes,
We are born within a sea of amniotic fluid, the primordial soup of creation,
and the sea flows through our veins and bathes every cell and cellular
component in nutritious juice. Water makes up approximately 60% of our
bodies, and 74.35% of this terrestrial sphere is covered with water. Water
cleanses us, renews us, baptizes us, and lubricates us. It supplies cohesion
to our bodies and a viscosity to our mind. The brain is continuously bathed
within the soft glow of cerebro-spinal fluid, and the tears we shed cleanse our
hearts and our eyes. (“There is a River Beneath the Skin,” Parabola)
For better and for worse, life depends on water. Humans depend on water. We
need it for drinking, grazing animals, manufacturing, agriculture, energy,
bathing, recreation, travel, and for its sheer aesthetic beauty. We also need it for
religious ritual. The world’s religions and cultures use water in religious rituals
to cleanse, baptize, and transform.
For Unitarian Universalists, gathering the waters in today’s ceremony is the
symbolic gathering of the spiritual community. Child dedication ceremonies
incorporate water as a symbol of growth, connecting the child to the source of
life. We are also bringing water into the practice of sharing joys and sorrows. It
can be hard to reconcile the transformative, spiritual, healing power of water
with the current water crisis. While traveling in India earlier this year, I
experienced the collision of these realities.
One early evening I visited a local Hindu temple with a colleague. Inside we met
a young Hindu man who had never met Americans. He spoke with us about
Hinduism’s adherence to the philosophy of unity.
He said, “We are all human. We all share one religion. Jesus and Shiva are the
same.” We nodded our agreement. The three of us then meditated for a while.
Eventually he said, “Here, you must have holy water.” We cupped our hands
obediently, as he scooped water from a shallow bowl.
I had a dilemma at that point. Do I drink the water? Where did it come from? Was
it bottled, filtered, untainted? There were flecks of some spice or herb in it. What
was that? I had been in India over a week already. I had been careful to drink
only bottled water and eat only cooked or peeled foods. Sanitation problems
were visible everywhere on the streets of Delhi. Even in a three star hotel, water
from the tap was undrinkable, and I used bottled water to brush my teeth.
Now, in a temple, offered “holy water,” I had no idea whether it was safe to
drink. In that moment, I did the only thing I felt I could do: I sipped the few drops
from my hand. It certainly didn’t taste like what I would imagine holy water might
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taste like. It had a kind of bitter, mildly unpleasant flavor. All I could hope was
that whatever was the source of that flavor would also cleanse the water.
Later over dinner we recounted our experience to our fellow travelers, a small
group of Unitarian Universalists. They seemed quite surprised that the two
ministers in the group both acted so rashly, taking what seemed to them to be an
unnecessary risk. I probably need to make one small confession. I did have a
prescription for Cipro with me – a fall back plan, if you will. As it turned out, we
were both fine. We joked later with relief that it really was holy water.
I was keenly aware that I had taken a chance that made me uncomfortable but
which seemed inescapable. I was struck by the choice that faced me: to offend
the gods which, in UU language, means the hospitality of that young man, or risk
consuming unclean water. For many people throughout the world the stakes are
much higher, the choices fewer or nonexistent, and the risks of consuming
unclean water are pervasive. And there are no medications like Cipro available if
infection does occur.
The lack of access to clean water is a 21st century dilemma. It is a crisis of body
and spirit. What many of us here today take for granted on a daily basis – that we
can turn on the tap and have access to clean water - can’t be taken for granted
by large numbers of people worldwide. Developing nations are suffering the
most serious consequences.
Even in this country where the availability of clean water is mostly taken for
granted, our consciousness is being raised. Locally, recent flooding has
impacted sewage systems, and the hydrofracking of Marcellus Shale by the gas
industry is generating new problems associated with water.
On a global scale, the impact is staggering and heart-breaking. Nearly one
billion people or one in eight individuals lack access to safe water. Millions of
women and children spend several hours each day collecting water from
distant, often polluted sources. In just one day, more than 200 million hours of
women’s time is consumed for the most basic of human needs – collecting water
for domestic use. Lack of sanitation is the world’s biggest cause of infection. 2.5
billion people do not have access to a toilet. 3.5 million people die each year
from water-related disease, 84 percent of them are children (www.water.org).
While water is a renewable resource, it is also a finite one. That is turning water
into a highly sought after commodity. Donald Siegel, Earth Sciences Professor
at Syracuse University, where I was a graduate student, predicts “water will
become the new oil.” He warns that the next Middle East war will be waged over
water. Stress and conflict are already emerging in the developing world due to
the spiraling effect of lack of availability of water and deteriorating quality.
(“Clean Water: A 21st Century Dilemma,” Jim Reilly, Syracuse University Arts and
Sciences, Fall 2010)
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The global community is being forced to confront the problems associated with
water. How can we better care for this planet and all living beings? How can we
conserve a limited supply? How can we live blue?
There are no quick fixes, no easy answers. Scientists, leaders from the profit
and not-for-profit sectors, and individuals are seeking answers to these
questions. Religious people must also have a voice in the process. A crisis of
body and spirit requires a solution of body and spirit. An ethic of earth
stewardship, concern for human rights, and preservation of tribal cultures must
be built into the process. We see the destruction of tribal peoples and whole
ways of life by the building of dams, for example.
Some solutions are arising from what seem to me to be unlikely sources, such as
Coca Cola. I want to thank member Dave Alcorn for bringing to my attention a
recent program on water by the Chemical Heritage Foundation. Speakers and
panelists, including Paul Bowen of Coca Cola, discussed not only the challenges
but some of the innovative technologies currently in development and the
company’s commitments.
Coca Cola, as many of you may know, is a major consumer of water. For this
reason, I have tended to see the soft drink industry as part of the problem,
rather than as a partner in solutions. Yet the company’s success is contingent
on the availability of water, which means it has an enormous stake in solving the
water crisis. Their pledge is to be water neutral, and they are currently
partnering with the World Wildlife Fund. The company freely admits they have a
long way to go to. (“Water Sustainability: One Company’s Response,” Paul T.
Bowen, www.chemheritage.org/visit/ events/joseph-priestley-society/2011-05-
12-jps-symposium.aspx
We all have a long way to go. By 2020 the world’s population will have reached 8
billion. The demands of megacities in addition to current needs will only have
increased. We’re going to need to work together. The coming years will call on
us to get more creative with water and with each other. We need to reduce
freshwater use and increase its recycling – from a collective systems
perspective, as well as individually. It will take technology and innovation rooted
in an ethic of care for this planet. That’s where we come in. That’s where our
voices and our values need to be heard and felt.
Life arose from water. The spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. Our
lives began in water. Water is our element. What we do to water is what we do to
our own bodies and spirits. May we learn to heal the water of the earth and
ourselves.
Blessed be. Amen.