South of Eden
- Dr. Tom Wagner
- Sep 14
- 5 min read
What does it mean to move from Love toward Love in a world that often seems anything but? A reflection on nature, faith, and our messy human role as co-creators.
The Blog Article Follows this Invitation!
Our SMC Event 9/21 at 12:30 has only a few tickets left. I glanced at our ticketed participants, and my only regret is that we won’t have a full weekend together! I’d love to sit with each of you and get your take on “Courageous Conversations.”
We’ll enjoy my homemade bread and jam, my wife’s award-winning egg rolls, fruit, and coffee while Lynn O’Brien's music feeds our souls. I’m thrilled to share that my daughter, Annalise Wagner, an accomplished legal scholar and exceptional human being, will be my co-host. We’ll model intergenerational dialogue to stimulate lively conversation. Get your ticket now to save your seat. [Discount code SMCFriend if cost is an issue.] See you there! Virtual tickets available.
South of Eden
Maybe the most exotic thing I’ve ever done in my life was to go on two African safaris last month. The first took place in the Delta region of Botswana. The second occurred in South Africa, near Kruger National Park. Beforehand, I figured that a good set of binoculars would come in handy for viewing animals a football field away. I didn’t count on the fact that I’d be getting about as close to them as Christopher Robin got to Pooh, Tigger, and Eeyore…except that the stuffed animals, in this case, were swapped out for real live alpha predators.
The minute our puddle-jumper came to a stop on the dirt runway in Botswana, our guide scooped us up and delivered us in a Jeep to a hyena’s den. Lizzie, my 21-year-old cub, immediately fell in love with the five curious little hyenas. Like Lizzie, they were all curiosity and cuteness. They emerged from their hidey hole to explore our Jeep. They sniffed and teethed on our tires. In Boy Scouts, I learned that you never want to encounter a cute predator’s offspring in the wild. Their mom is always nearby with protective claws and teeth, and a big appetite for everything except negotiations with two-legged creatures. Within fifteen minutes or so, the deadly carnivore-mother arrived. I caught myself studying the eyes of our guide the same way I study a flight attendant’s face during turbulence. He looked calm, and so I began doing my de-escalation praying/breathing. The mother hyena didn’t seem to give a meerkat’s ass about our open-air Jeep, or any of its human cargo. I valiantly resisted the urge to wet myself.
During both safaris, a version of that story repeated itself many times. For example, one morning, we pulled into the middle of a pride of lions, three males, three females, and three cubs. At one point, the dominant male made eye contact with me, all the while, padding my way. Not only was our guide okay with this state of affairs, apparently, so was Mufasa. He flopped down nearby and groomed one of the three little Simbas. Later in the day, we came upon a female leopard having lunch up in a tree. At one point, we sat just below her perch on a branch. She was crunch…crunch…crunching through an impala skull to feast on its brains. The unlucky impala she killed, and cached up above, was probably about the size of my daughter sitting next to me. All in a day’s work. Hakuna Matata!
Escape from the Hundred Acre Wood
One of the greatest gifts of my childhood was Mom and Dad’s decision to move out into the country. The constant access to the woods and a lake planted a seed in me that would grow into an abiding love for wild places. Until Africa, I was never aware that the places I’ve called “wild” have been mostly sanitized of alpha predators. To say that another way, until Africa, I never considered myself a potential prey animal. As a result, I’ve carried with me a romanticized view of nature. Africa provided me some reality therapy. There has been an obvious fact that I’ve been ignoring on my hikes, bird watching, and sky watching. There’s a circulatory system that runs through the Circle of Life. Just like my own circulatory system, a whole lot of nature runs on blood. It also runs on bloodshed.
Co-Creation
My own personal cosmology (i.e. view of nature) has been shaped in large measure by my Judeo-Christian tradition. Those traditions hold that everything was created from Love, and everything is returning to Love. In the meantime, everything is held in love. One way to characterize my challenge from Africa is to consider that old hymn from the turn of the Twentieth Century, “His Eyes Are on the Sparrow.” In Africa, I noticed how God’s eyes might be on that sparrow, but those Eyes won’t save it from the eagle’s talons! For that matter, what do you make of that part of nature that contains rational animals that behave so irrationally? How is our species moving from Love, toward Love, when we frequently exhibit unloving actions, and even unloving systems that create unloving living conditions?
I’m still piecing all of this together. My reflections aren’t fully cooked yet. While I’m processing all of this, I find myself returning to Joan Chittister, a Benedictine theologian. I find her to be a disciplined thinker. She wrestles with all of this. For her reflections, she draws from the same well as people like Teilhard de Chardin, Saint Paul the Evangelist, and Isaiah the prophet. I’ll summarize her point of view like this. When God created the world with everything in it, God initiated an ongoing process. Creation is not a finished thing. Made in God’s image and likeness, each human being is called to be a co-creator alongside God. According to Chitester, we are to abandon those interpretations of the Book of Genesis that suggest that nature is a thing to be “subdued.” She searches our religious traditions and finds that we are to see ourselves as part of an unfolding plan. Our cooperation with that plan, as co-creators, will eventuate into a time when the “lion lays down with the lamb,” “and swords are beaten into plowshares.” We have such a long way to go. Do you have a vision of your place in this plan?
Dialogue and Discussion Questions: Longtime SMC readers know that “the Dialogue” section of this article is set aside for a good conversation over a cup of coffee—with a friend, with a group, or just with yourself! As always, feel free to share your reaction or reflection in the “Comments” section below.
What spoke to you in this article? What created some dissonance for you?
Who do you know who takes this responsibility for co-creation seriously? How do they do that?
I’m thinking of two small-scale beef farmers who love each and every one of their animals. Both of them have said that they make sure that their animals experience only “one bad day” in their lives. Neither of these farmers is- Jewish, but their perspective reminds me of the intent of kosher laws: to humanely care for the animals we use for our food. I am a meat eater. If you also get your protein this way, how do you think about your dietary choices?
In what ways do you take care to leave this planet better than you’ve found it?
Please share with the SMC community your thoughts and/or reflections in the comments below.
During this season of Creation, this reflection challenges me to care for our common home with more intention and love.