"Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' Vanity asks the question, 'Is it popular? But, conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?' And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because one's conscience tells one that it is right."
—Martin Luther King, Jr.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Sacred Walking
"...A kind of Hippocratic Oath exists among nature photographers: First, do no harm. Although I try to be careful and respectful when making photographs, I am always uneasy about the impact of being on a hillside with my equipment, especially following wet weather. Making photographs of this kind, especially macro shots, causes soil movement and that can lead to erosion: setting an undesirable chain of events in motion. One must be very thoughtful and attentive to what one does in the field. If the act of preserving an image of a beautiful flower causes its demise, it is not worth doing.
One of the most attractive things about natural history and nature photography is not only having the privilege of photographing beautiful objects and landscapes, but it provides one the opportunity to be alone in sacred places with them. It allows one to feel connected with them, and a sense of belonging stems from that association. Not only are we one human family; we are one biological family sharing space and time with all beings. Some Indian tribes endemic to North America—Turtle Island—used to refer to this as walking in a sacred manner. That is what I try to do, but I am not always successful, despite the best of intentions.
Belonging to a family entails responsibility, just as belonging to a community involves accountability to it. Knowledge about interdependence and connectivity requires that one share that knowledge and act responsibly upon it. It would be considered irresponsible and immoral to exploit one’s own family for private gain. Everything that we do circles back to us, and that is what is understood by the phrase, “we reap as we sow”. That poorly paraphrased biblical gem is also an ecological truth: all things are connected and interdependent. What goes around comes around, without exception.
Everything we do reverberates through the entire system because it is closed and interconnected; it is a world of finite dimensions. Even the cosmos, vast and unfathomable as it is, is also finite—as far as anyone knows. Another way of phrasing it is cause and effect. Global warming and over population are examples of this phenomenon. All impacts are cumulative. While individual impacts may seem small and insignificant; combined, they are great and global. Thus, it needs to be understood that impact does not remain local. Everything moves through the ecological system. Local effects do not remain localized for long; they reverberate throughout the entire ecology, and with widespread consequences. That is why we must be thoughtful and ethical in all that we do..."
Ecological Seeing:
Walking In A Sacred Manner
By Charles Sullivan
One of the most attractive things about natural history and nature photography is not only having the privilege of photographing beautiful objects and landscapes, but it provides one the opportunity to be alone in sacred places with them. It allows one to feel connected with them, and a sense of belonging stems from that association. Not only are we one human family; we are one biological family sharing space and time with all beings. Some Indian tribes endemic to North America—Turtle Island—used to refer to this as walking in a sacred manner. That is what I try to do, but I am not always successful, despite the best of intentions.
Belonging to a family entails responsibility, just as belonging to a community involves accountability to it. Knowledge about interdependence and connectivity requires that one share that knowledge and act responsibly upon it. It would be considered irresponsible and immoral to exploit one’s own family for private gain. Everything that we do circles back to us, and that is what is understood by the phrase, “we reap as we sow”. That poorly paraphrased biblical gem is also an ecological truth: all things are connected and interdependent. What goes around comes around, without exception.
Everything we do reverberates through the entire system because it is closed and interconnected; it is a world of finite dimensions. Even the cosmos, vast and unfathomable as it is, is also finite—as far as anyone knows. Another way of phrasing it is cause and effect. Global warming and over population are examples of this phenomenon. All impacts are cumulative. While individual impacts may seem small and insignificant; combined, they are great and global. Thus, it needs to be understood that impact does not remain local. Everything moves through the ecological system. Local effects do not remain localized for long; they reverberate throughout the entire ecology, and with widespread consequences. That is why we must be thoughtful and ethical in all that we do..."
Ecological Seeing:
Walking In A Sacred Manner
By Charles Sullivan
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