Kelly Shinn and Liz Shinn on a special Sunday!
We asked Kelly Shinn to share some thoughts about stewardship as we begin a series of stewardship talks at St. Andrew. Here are her remarks, given a couple of weeks ago -
Good morning and thank you for the warm welcome back! I was asked to share some thoughts on stewardship, and specifically some of the choices I make regarding stewardship of the earth. I wrote this five minute talk about five different ways before I stopped. And realized. I just wasn’t going to fit everything I have to say into five minutes. What I ended up deciding to share with you is a poem that I wrote when I was asked to share my thoughts on sustainability and spirituality at the National Lutheran Volunteer Corps Orientation a couple years ago. I have reworked the poem for this occasion, so it is a mixture of my practices in DC and Colorado. Again, this is a snippet of my own thoughts and experiences with regard to stewardship of earth and I hope it is a helpful contribution to your larger conversation and dialogue about stewardship here at St. Andrew.
One. Stewardship. You call it stewardship. I call it sustainability. Others may call it simplicity. Somewhere after the beginning letter ‘s’ of these words comes responsibility. Responsibility to tend to and share resources in a fair and equitable way, ensuring that everyone benefits. And when I say everyone benefits, I do not mean only those in power, only those with money, only those with a vote, only those who are visible in our society. I am talking about these people, but not only these people. When I say everyone benefits, I am talking about expanding resources to every person, plant, and animal. I am talking about the least of these. I am talking about every. one. every. creature. Every decision I make will be my best effort to consider the overt and also covert impact of my decision on every. one. everyone who is not me. and me, too. THAT is how I try to be a steward.
Two: Simplicity. I recycle. (SHRUG?) I recycle glass, cartons, paperboard, plastic bags, newspaper, paper bags, plastic containers, bottles, cardboard. (PAUSE). I should clarify that. I recycle glass containers without the lids, soy milk cartons without the spouts, paperboard that rips brown and not white, plastic bags in the few grocery stores that offer to reuse them, all my newspaper (well, the newspaper that we don’t use to feed our worms), paper bags that have ripped beyond use, plastic containers that are numbers one and two and that have a top that is smaller than the bottom like a bottle, and cardboard that is not waxed and after I remove any tape. Ah, simplicity.
Three: Sustainability. I also…use canvas bags. Avoid air conditioning. Bike to work. Turn off lights when I’m not using them. Try to buy locally. Shower, well, less than every day let’s say. Air dry my clothes. Use non-toxic cleaners. Stopped shaving my legs and arms. Have a share in Community Supported Agriculture. I frequent farmer’s markets in the area. Buy used shoes and clothes or ensure the majority are made in the USA. I took a permaculture class. Live in shared housing. Harvest my own herbs to treat ailments. Worked in a garden with people who are homeless or in transition to housing. I try to separate my needs from my wants. Try to say no to some things that make my schedule busy. Try to eat lower on the food chain. I use the diva cup. Use compact fluorescent light bulbs. And last, worms eat my garbage. Ah, sustainability.
Four. Privilege. I live in a country that hands out canvas bags to advertise. I have air conditioning in places where I spend the majority of my days. I was given a bike. I benefit monetarily when I turn off lights, take fewer showers, harvest my own herbs and food, and air dry my clothes. I can afford to be a member of a CSA and to attend classes on permaculture and herbology. I have a flex work schedule that allows me to attend the farmers markets held only once a week. I drive up demand and therefore prices at the local thrift stores that I buy from.I have options in my community to buy local and organic food. Christa or Mike, my housemates, water the tomatoes when I forget. I applied and was accepted into two private colleges that trained me to start thinking the way that I do.
Five: Community. I am rooted. I sink my tired feet into the sugary shelter of soft sand. I sit in silence and listen to the branches whisper secrets to the wind. I gather blueberries, thimbleberries, wild raspberries, Oregon graperoot and morel mushrooms from the forest around me–I savor their elegance and charm. I lay as a salamander on a hundred-thousand-year-old boulder, soaking up the stream of sunlit balance sent to me from my sister sun. I ski through the silence of a cold winter night, the snowy ground around me lit up by the sacredness of moon. I bow in deep respect to honor east, south, west, north, knowing that what comes with them are wind, water, earth, fire -the sustenance of being. I step slowly at first, and then all at once into the steaming bowl of sulfury scented hot springs. I tumble in the grass, I wiggle with the worms, I spring into glacier lakes, I dance in the humidity, I chant into stillness, I breathe deeply at the peak. I, am in community AND….
Seven. Abundance. …and there is more. And there is more. I am one and we are many and there is more… than enough. How then, good people, will we steward?
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