Laudato Si Sunday Reflection: Seeing rightly, living rightly

Today's reflection is brought to you by
Luke 6:39-45.

You challenge us,
O Christ,
to see rightly.

Our blind spots
to your will in our world
come from our own prejudices.

It is easier
to find fault with others
than to address our own inadequacies.

Known by the fruit we bear,
we must ask ourselves:
where does our treasure lie?

You tell us
that our words and actions
arise from the abundance
of our hearts.

Help us,
O Christ
to let our hearts rest
in the beauty,
goodness and truth
that is you
so that we may increase
your beauty,
goodness and truth
in our world.

Show us how to see rightly
and live rightly.

+Amen

 * * * * * * *

This week's rereading of paragraphs 27-31 of Pope Francis' encyclical letter, Laudato Si: On Care for our Common Home (the entire encyclical can be accessed by clicking here) reminded me of all the water that I take for granted. The Pope and his encyclical writer friends preface their comments on water use by pointing out that "... the habit of wasting and discarding has reached unprecedented levels. The exploitation of the planet has already exceeded acceptable limits and we have still not solved the problem of poverty." (paragraph 27).

Water is one of those things we waste and discard without thinking. It isn't just important, it's essential to life of all kinds -- "terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems" need to be everyone's concern: "Water supplies used to be relatively constant, but now in many places demand exceeds the sustainable supply, with dramatic consequences.... Water poverty especially affects Africa where large sectors of the population have no access to safe drinking water or experience droughts which impede agricultural production." (paragraph 28).

Of course, it's always the poor -- those who lack security, wealth, and political power -- that are most affected, as noted in paragraph 29. In the developing world, they often don't have access to safe water, or have to walk long distances to access it. But even here in a "developed" country like Canada, we still have 60 drinking water advisories on First Nations reserves, though I am happy to note that's down from 132 advisories since I last looked at the website, and 3 of 4 of the advisories in my own Alberta backyard have been resolved. Inadequate water treatment, or pollution of water sources through industrial activity are an issue faced by our marginalized brothers and sisters all over the world. Too often humans are desecrating the fresh water God gives us, which flows and flows until it reaches the oceans, polluting them as well.

To add insult to injury, the poor face inadequate fresh water supplies in some places because large corporations are privatizing and bottling water, selling it at higher prices per litre/gallon than gasoline. Paragraph 30 states that "access to safe drinkable water is a basic and universal human right, since it is essential to human survival and, as such, is a condition for the exercise of other human rights." And yet we in North America continue to use water and buy bottled water as if it is an unlimited resource. Yesterday on my walk with the dog, I picked up two empty plastic bottles, grrrr. (Plastic is one of my pet peeves these days!)

Last summer, Lee and I visited the Athabasca Glacier from which our North Saskatchewan river takes its waters, and this time, there was a good-sized stream flowing off the glacer long before we reached it. Our city depends on water from the Athabasca Icefields. What will happen when they're gone? Global climate change means that some parts of the world are already facing acute water shortages, but still we forget that we can't create glaciers, or rainstorms, or a single water molecule the way God can.

Paragraph 31 points out the possibility of water shortages within a few decades, but our brothers and sisters in Australia, California, South Africa and so many other places know what it is to live with water scarcity. They have already been forced to implement measures to conserve and protect water sources. Fresh water is anything but infinite, and we should all be doing the same.

St. Francis sang the praises of Sister Water, "so useful, humble, precious and pure" in Il Cantico del Sole (Canticle of the Sun), as if she was a person standing right beside him. We would do well to treat water with that kind of love and respect.

So today, I'd like to invite my readers to get themselves a glass, go to the kitchen faucet, and fill it, and reflect on whether we are seeing water rightly -- as an extremely valuable resource -- and using water rightly. Is our water clean and clear? Take a sip and savour. Consider: how much does it cost? How do we take it for granted? How can we use less/pollute it less? Do we use phosphate-free dish soap and laundry soap? Do we remember to carry our own water bottles so that water sources aren't comodified for our convenience? Can we cut down on less critical water use such as lawn watering, sidewalk spraying, and car washing for the sake of the environment? How can we support our brothers and sisters who are affected by water shortages and drinking water advisories?

Do we treat Sister Water with the respect she deserves? Or is there room for improvement? Lord, that we may see.

#64 of 100 Simple Suggestions... Drink more tap water

Depending on your size, your body is made up of somewhere between 55 and 78% water, says Wikipedia. If that's the case, this suggestion makes a lot of sense. Drinking water is probably the simplest thing we can do to maintain good health, because we need water to remove toxins from our bodily systems. Being just 2% dehydrated can impair our physical and mental function; it only takes 15% dehydration for a person to die of thirst.

And now for a brief commercial interlude:

The Horn of Africa is a place where the necessity of water is a critical issue at the moment. A few weeks ago, the only thing on the news was how drought and resulting famine have brought the region to its knees in pleas for help for our starving and suffering brothers and sisters there. But as with so many of these crushingly devastating stories, it seems that bad-news-fatigue has set in, journalists have turned elsewhere, and we haven't been hearing much about Africa lately, or about how we can be involved. So before I go any further, I'm going to put in a little plug for the best organization I know of that is working in the region. Development and Peace is an arm of Caritas International, which has workers on the ground in crisis spots all over the world. As I understand it, CI's overhead seems to be pretty low because it employs people in each region to work for their community's welfare rather than sending in "outsiders" to deliver aid, so of all the agencies that are working to alleviate the suffering in Africa, I choose to support Caritas International through Development and Peace. It works for me. I hope everyone finds a way to help that works for them!

Now back to our program.

My husband and I have raised our kids to be water drinkers from their early days. When I was small, fruit juices were for special occasions only, and that carried over into the life of my own family. I suspect that's part of the reason that our girls haven't yet had any fillings or other issues with their teeth. Water is the simplest and possibly healthiest way to satisfy thirst, though we know it's not as pure as it used to be. But these days, everything else we can drink has additives that aren't necessarily healthy either, or preservatives for a long shelf life.

(Small digression (it's a day for them) -- My sister just sent me a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon. Calvin is holding a bottle of soda pop, saying, "In the commercials, this soda greatly increases one's sex appeal." Hobbes looks on as Calvin chugs it down, then emits a large "BUR-UR-URP!!" Hobbes says, "Evidently, a little license on Madison Avenue's part," as Calvin mutters, "Phoo! Right up my nose.")

In most places in North America, we are fortunate to have good drinking water, often filtered or treated through systems paid for by our municipalities or federal projects. It's only been since a company for selling Evian water was formed in 1829 that bottled water has become marketing's version of "The Emperor's New Clothes," a status symbol of sorts. Remember the uproar a few years ago when it was discovered that a particular brand of bottled water was actually straight out of Calgary's taps? The drink of the elite was the same as that of commoners!! Of course, it costs more for a litre of bottled water than a litre of gasoline... and in many parts of the world, bottled water has become a justice issue as large companies have privatized water sources and forced people to pay for their right to drink water. In the last few years, Development and Peace has developed an anti-bottled water campaign designed to make people aware of the follies of bottled water. Here's one of their little ads:

And if you want to take D&P's pledge to make your life a bottled-water free zone, you can do that here. There's also more info on the Development and Peace website about their campaign. I don't know about you, but I'm interested in keeping a billion plastic bottles out of our waste stream, especially when I consider that it takes three bottles worth of water just to make one of those darn plastic bottles! And let's not forget the carcinogenic toxins that leach out of that plastic into the water it contains!

Bottled water is an ecologically unfriendly fad that has mostly had its day, but water is still important to life. So to do something good for ourselves, our brothers and sisters in the developing world, and the planet, let's avoid the use of bottled water by carrying our own water bottles with us or by drinking from our taps, and take advantage of the true pause that refreshes!

P.S. Looking for more Simple Suggestions? Try here.