Take Care

I should be working on a paper right now, but I am going to avoid productivity for a little while longer. I have enjoyed my break from school this week! It has been nice sleeping in as late as I want and only feeling obliged to get out of bed so I can watch Gilmore Girls reruns at 10:00 a.m. in my pajamas. However, the week is almost over. I am trying to live in the moment and not get sad knowing that I just have a few more days of liberty.

There is only about a month and a half left in the semester. I can’t believe I have almost completed my first year of seminary! It will be nice being home for few months this summer. I have a pretty big list of books I want to read, and I am looking forward to seeing the new Harry Potter and Twilight movies (nerd alert). Speaking of Twilight, my friend Katie sent me the link for the new trailer for Eclipse. It still looks like Kristen Stewart couldn’t act her way out of a paper bag. She only has two facial expressions that indicate she is experiencing any state of heightened emotion: furrowing her brows and blinking her eyes profusely.

I did some more reading on food production last night. I had a friend recommend the movie Food Inc. and suggest that I check out the website. So, I went to the website for Food Inc. and ended up coming across another site that had a video on factory farming. I only was able to watch about half of it before I started crying.

On some of today's factory farms, animals are crammed by the thousands into filthy windowless sheds, wire cages, gestation crates, and other confinement systems. These animals will never raise their families, root in the soil, build nests, or do anything that is natural to them. They won't even feel the sun on their backs, breathe fresh air, or feel the touch of a human hand. The factory farming system of modern agriculture strives to maximize output while minimizing costs. Cows, calves, pigs, chickens, and other animals are kept in small cages, in jam-packed sheds, or on filthy feedlots, often with so little space that they can't even turn around or lie down comfortably.

I think this just shows what the consumerist mindset has done to our reverence of life. This mindset has not only infiltrated they ways in which we treat the earth and its creatures, but how we treat each other. It is no wonder we hurt each other and use each other only for individual gain.

All creation is God’s and we are responsible for the ways in which we use it. Water, air, soil, and animal life are to be valued because they are also God’s creation. They are just one of the ways in which God provides for us. I think when we lose sight of this, or begin to take it for granted, we lose sight of one of the fuctions of our call to be the Imago Dei. After all, God puts man in the garden of Eden and charges him to work it and take care of it. And it is through the creation story that we are allowed to see God's vantage point and the goodness of creation. This should evoke responsible action in us for the care of the earth, its creatures, and each other.

Well, I better try to get some more pages written for this paper. I hope I find some inspiration for four more pages! :)