Reflecting on Creation

There is something about the time between Christmas and New Years that always leads me into a place of reflection - and in particular, to reflect on the paradoxes of creation, and my place in it. In a site that tends towards the intellectual, the analytical and the secular, I ask your pardon to be able to blog today on a non-secular and unabashably personal topic.

What do I mean by Creation? Today, I mean the entirety of creation - plants, animals, planet, people, history, solar system, etc. but also that fundamental act of creation - creating a child, creating a gift, creating a friendship, creating a business, creating a green economy, creating appropriate responses to climate change, creating a name for oneself in the world.



I find this time of year rather odd in this respect: that as everything (at least in England) grows cold and dark and rainy (especially where I am) and the plants and animals start to hibernate, the dominant Christian culture celebrates the birth of a poor and vulnerable baby (in a far away land with very different seasons). That the birth of a New Year comes in a time of darkness. That most of society seems to be busy with parties and seeing people, but my inclination is always to withdraw, and engage in my own mini hibernation, before the rush of new work arrives with the new year (though usually January is pretty quiet for me, which is good).

But of course, why wouldn't birth happen in darkness? That is what I reminded myself as my experience at Copenhagen drew to a close. I was on the last train that took the last members of civil society away from the Bella Center at 2am after civil society organizations had all been kicked out of the Center, in preparation for heavy security to enable the heads of state to enter. It felt like I was watching a miniature death. Yet the atmosphere in the train was nearly euphoric - we were together, we had protested as much as we could, and now we were going to party (well, I was going to sleep). And I wondered if perhaps, away from the craziness of the international negotiations, something was being born, something precious and worthy and filled with light. Maybe it was being born in that train ride.

Sustainable development - I can't say the phrase really draws me in. It's a bit on the blase side of things for my taste. but what's behind it - the valuing of people and planet. A world where anything, including justice, is possible. A world that values profit differently. A world that takes account of climate constraints - and values ecological integrity (and thus future generations' abiltiy to survive) over supposed financial growth. A world where we may not have the right to live however we want, but where everyone will have the right to live. A world filled with a great deal of love. The phrase I use for this is an old one, spoken by a preacher, and a prophet: Beloved Community.

The beloved community will not happen by chance. It must be created. And its creator is looking back at you in the mirror. If you choose to take up the challenge, even in the darkness when you barely know the way forward.