Interdependent Web of All Existence©
April 21, 2002
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Midland
Jane Thickstun, Celebrant Reading

This reading is an excerpt from "Chief Seattle’s Message" found in the book, Thinking Like a Mountain, by John Seed, Joanna Macy and others. Chief Sealth, or Seattle as he is now known, delivered a speech in his native tongue to his tribal assembly in the Pacific Northwest in 1854. Notes on the speech were jotted down by a Dr. Henry Smith, who emphasized that his own English was inadequate to render the beauty of Sealth’s imagery and thought. The version we now have was recreated from Dr. Smith’s jottings by film scriptwriter Ted Perry in 1970. It contains several historical distortions and anachronisms, as well as the use of the generic male which may or may not have been found in the original. While it can’t be taken as a historical document, it represents the flavor of Stealth’s original message, and a viewpoint that we may finally be ready to hear today.

If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them?

Every part of this earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every clearing, and humming insect is holy in the memory and experience of my people. The sap which courses through the trees carries the memories of the red man.

The white people’s dead forget the country of their birth when they go to walk among the stars. Our dead never forget this beautiful earth, for it is the mother of the red man. We are part of the earth and it is part of us.

The perfumed flowers are our sisters; the deer, the horse, the great eagle, these are our brothers. The rocky crests, the juices of the meadows, the body heat of the pony, and human beings–all belong to the same family.

So when the Great Chief in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land, he asks much of us.

The Great Chief sends word he will reserve us a place so that we can live comfortably to ourselves. He will be our father and we will be his children.

So we will consider your offer to buy our land. But it will not be easy. For this land is sacred to us.

The shining water that moves in the streams and rivers is not just water but the blood of our ancestors. If we sell you our land, you must remember that it is sacred, and you must teach your children that it is sacred and that each ghostly reflection in the clear water of the lakes tells of events and memories in the life of my people. The water’s murmur is the voice of my father’s father.

The rivers are our brothers, they quench our thirst. The rivers carry our canoes, and feed our children. If we sell you our land, you must remember, and teach your children, that the rivers are our brothers–and yours, and you must henceforth give the rivers the kindness you would give any brother or sister.

. . . So we will consider your offer to buy the land. If we decide to accept, I will make one condition: The white people must treat the beasts of this land as their brothers and sisters.

What is humanity without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, people would die from a great loneliness of spirit. For whatever happens to the beasts soon happens to the people. All things are connected.

You must teach your children that the ground beneath their feet is the ashes of our grandfathers. So that they will respect the land, tell your children that the earth is rich with the lives of our kin. Teach your children what we have taught our children, that the earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons and daughters of the earth. If men spit upon the ground, they spit upon themselves.

This we know. The earth does not belong to us; we belong to the earth. This we know. All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. All things are connected.

Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons and daughters of the earth. We do not weave the web of life, we are merely a strand in it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.

Sermon

Well, we’re up to the seventh and final principle. It is a fitting celebration of Earth Day to talk about respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part. For those of you who are new, I have been doing a series this year on the seven principles of the Unitarian Universalist Association. These principles are a statement of what we as a body have decided to affirm and promote. They are not in any way to be taken as a creedal statement, a test for membership, or even a comprehensive description of what Unitarian Universalists believe. To review, as Unitarian Universalists, we covenant to affirm and promote:

1. The inherent worth and dignity of every person.
2. Justice, equity and compassion in human relations.
3. Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations.
4. A free and responsible search for truth and meaning
5. The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large.
6. The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all.
7. Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

This statement of principles grew out of earlier versions. This latest version was developed in the early 1980s. As Kenneth Collier, author of Our Seven Principles, says, "Unitarian Universalists went through a study process for four years that culminated at the 1984 General Assembly with the proposal of a new statement of Unitarian Universalist Principles and in 1985 with the adoption of that statement. The process amounted to a dialogue between local congregations and the Unitarian Universalist Association Commission. The 1984 proposal contained versions of each of the first six Principles, but it did not directly mention interdependence. . . . Many of us thought that there was something missing, and some of us were prepared to vote against the proposal unless it were changed.

"As the debate wore on and patience grew thin, the Reverend Paul L’Herrou stood up and proposed this seventh Principle. Some wordcrafting ensued, but because almost everyone agreed with it in substance, the final draft passed with few, if any, dissenting votes." (p. 102)

The seventh principle was an afterthought, in a way, added at GA and not part of the original package the commission had offered. Yet it has become in many ways one of our most important principles. It uses the language from Chief Seattle’s message that we heard in the reading. Together with the first principle – the inherent worth and dignity of each person – it forms what amounts to the theological content of Unitarian Universalism. Theological content? you might ask. Yes– it is true we have no creed, and we affirm our freedom of belief as strongly as we affirm anything, or more strongly. But that doesn’t mean we believe nothing, or anything. It doesn’t mean we can believe "whatever we want" as people commonly say of us. It doesn’t mean we have to be what is called "hyphenated UU’s"-- for instance a UU-Buddhist, or a UU-Christian, or a UU-pagan– in order to be grounded theologically. A belief in the inherent worth and dignity of each person (our first principle), no matter how it is worded, has been central to liberal religion for a long time. It is what has distinguished liberal religion, and is the common ground that brought our two liberal denominations together in a merger. It is the heritage from our past; it is our beacon. The belief in an interdependent web of all existence is a newer paradigm. It compliments our first principle and extends it. It comes out of a more recent and growing understanding of reality as relational – individuals do not exist in isolation, and independence is an illusion. This principle is the future of Unitarian Universalism. Not only do I believe that; I hear it echoed among my colleagues.

David Bumbaugh, professor at Meadville/Lombard, proposes that "the seventh principle can provide us with a theological base for the century that we have now entered." It represents, he says, "our peculiar contribution to the religious agenda. Nor is it an insignificant contribution. Hidden in this apparently uncomplicated, uncontroversial, innocuous statement is a radical theological position. The seventh principle calls us to reverence before the world, not some future world, but this miraculous world of our every-day experience. It challenges us to understand the world as reflexive and relational rather than hierarchical. It bespeaks a world in which neither god nor humanity is at the center; in which the center is the void, the ever fecund matrix out of which being emerges . . . It calls us to trust the process, the creating, evolving, renewing, redeeming process which brings us into being, which sustains us in being, and which transforms our being. It offers a vision of a world in which the holy, the sacred is incarnated in every moment, in every aspect of being." (UUMA Selected Essays 2001, p. 94-95)

Another who proposes that this is our peculiar contribution is Rev. Dick Gilbert, just retiring from the Rochester UU Church. He says, "I think it is virtually unique in the religious world to celebrate our integral connection with an earth over which we are not lords, but in which we hold citizenship." He continues, "The web is, I think, a happy metaphor. It recognizes in the words of Sierra Club founder John Muir, "When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe." The web is a thing of beauty, it recognizes that life is a delicate blessing - tough only in that we all contribute to its strength. The web sustains us and we help sustain the web - in the words of Chief Seattle, "What we do to the web we do to ourselves."" (sermon of April 20, 1997)

As both Bumbaugh and Gilbert point out, the seventh principle is radical because it changes the way we see our place in the universe. It is a shift in our perspective on the level of a Copernican revolution. Copernicus was the one who stunned everyone by saying the sun doesn’t revolve around us, around the earth, we revolve around the sun! It took a long time for people to accept that displacement of ourselves from the center of the universe. Our religious heritage, whether Christian, theist or humanist, has held humanity to be separate from and lording over the natural world. The seventh principle takes us further from the center, takes us our of our special position and makes us equal citizens to all the rest of the universe.

David Abram, a visionary author, writes that "European philosophy has consistently occupied itself with the question of human specialness. Ever since Aristotle, philosophers have been concerned to demonstrate, in the most convincing manner possible, that human beings are significantly different from all other forms of life. It was not enough to demonstrate that human beings were unique, for each species is evidently unique in its way; rather, it was necessary to show that the human form was uniquely unique, that our noble gifts set us definitely apart from, and above, the rest of the animate world. Such demonstrations were, we may suspect, needed to justify the increasing manipulation and exploitation of nonhuman nature by, and for, (civilized) humankind. The necessity for such philosophical justification became especially urgent in the wake of the scientific revolution, when our capacity to manipulate other organisms increased a hundredfold. Descartes’s radical separation of the immaterial human mind from the wholly mechanical world of nature did much to fill this need. . . ." (The Spell of the Sensuous, p. 77) Abram goes on to show how Darwin’s theories put into question the claim of human specialness, and the focus shifted to language as that which sets us apart and above. He then challenges the claim of specialness even in our capacity for language, concluding that "at the most primordial level of sensuous, bodily experience, we find ourselves in an expressive, gesturing landscape, in a world that speaks." (p. 81)

Sometimes I hear the seventh principle talked about as if it were primarily about our interdependence within the human community. On the other hand, in the children’s version of the principles, it is reduced to, or twisted into, a statement about environmental stewardship. It reads, "We believe that we should care for our planet earth." I think both of these views miss the point altogether. What makes the principle powerful is the image of the web, the fact that it includes all existence, and the interdependence of all.

As UU minister Ricky Hoyt says, "Interdependent means that the separate strands are neither dependent, where individuals rely on a source of power outside themselves, nor independent, where individuals are self-sustaining. Interdependent implies a two-way relationship where each individual has needs that others fill, as well as resources that fill the need of others." Hoyt also points out that "the web includes all existence. That doesn't mean just people or just the earth, "all existence" means every existing thing. That means every person, every tree, every non-living thing on earth, every planet, every star, every speck of interstellar dust, every form of life and non-life everywhere existing in the entire universe. If it exists it is interdependently connected to everything else that exists." (The Web, 2001 sermon)

The concept of the interdependent web of all existence has been around for some time, but has really taken hold since the rise of the science of ecology. Scholar Rosemary Radford Ruether writes, "One of the most basic ‘lessons’ of ecology for ethics and spirituality is the interrelation of all things. Both earth science and astrophysics give us extraordinary and powerfully compelling messages about our kinship, not only with all living things on earth, but even with distant stars and galaxies. A profound spirituality would arise if we would attempt to experience this kinship and make it present in our consciousness. Such meditation would parallel the ancient contemplative philosophies, which saw in the human soul a fragment of the universe, and which saw the body as a microcosm.

"Astrophysics tells us that all the elements that make up both our own human bodies and those of all things on earth were generated in the alchemy of exploding stars and came to us from the galaxies as stardust. Earth science tells us that all the elements that make up our present bodies have been circulated billions of times through other biotic and abiotic beings throughout the 4.5 billion years of earth’s evolution." . . . Recognition of this profound kinship must bridge the arrogant barriers that humans have erected to wall themselves off, not only from other sentient animals, but also from simpler animals, plants and the abiotic matrix of life in rocks and soils, air, and water." (Gaia and God, p. 48)

Ruether goes on to describe in some detail the interdependence in the carbon cycle, "which sustains organic life processes," the coevolution of air, water and soil, through the cycles of evaporation and precipitation, and food chains. She also talks about the cycle of production, consumption, and decomposition, which "prevents waste from accumulating." She says, "In nature death is not an enemy, but a friend of the life process." (p. 53) And "the more diversified the plant and animal life, the more various and hence sustainable the interdependency." (p.53)

"The diversity of nature has evolved through patterns of interdependency. Plants have evolved a variety of protective devices, such as unpleasant tastes, thorns, and nettles, to discourage eating by herbivores. Different colors of fur camouflage animals in different environments. All of the plants and animals in a biotic community, including those animals that eat high off the food chain, depend ultimately on the humble fungi and bacteria, who break down dead plants and animal bodies and recycle the nutrients into the soil, allowing for the renewal of food production from its primary producers, the plants. No one type of being is ‘king of the forest.’" (p. 56)

Not only ecology, but even physics has put forth a view of the interconnectedness of all. The discoveries at the micro level have put into question even the notion of matter and energy as separate. Fritjof Capra, author of The Tao of Physics, promotes the idea that the identity of an individual is indistinguishable from the identity of the whole interrelated cosmos. (Nash, The Rights of Nature, p. 151)

To affirm this seventh principle leads to a humble recognition that we are not the center and opens us up to the awe and wonder that is the essence of a religious point of view. In the non-inclusive words of Albert Schweitzer: "Let a man once begin to think about the mystery of his life and the links which connect him with the life that fills the world, and he cannot but bring to bear upon his own life and all other life that comes within his reach the principle of reverence for life ..."

At the same time, affirming this principle leads to a recognition of the magnitude of our influence as part of an interdependent web. "The Unitarian novelist Herman Melville wrote, ‘We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us. . . . And among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects. On a daily basis, we affect the web of all existence, just as we are affected by it." (quoted by Barbara Merritt in With Purpose and Principle, Edward Frost, ed., p. 100)

We are at the same time extremely significant and extremely insignificant. We are no longer at the top of the heap, separate and special, but on the other hand, our actions and choices matter more than ever. As a part of an interdependent web of all existence, we have an effect on the whole greater than we ever imagined, and we are also more dependent than we have ever wanted to admit. The worldview expressed in our seventh principle presents an awesome responsibility, at the same time that it liberates us from our role as overseers.

Let me leave you with the words of the poet, Denise Levertov:

"But we have only begun to love the earth. We have only begun to imagine the fullness of life
How could we tire of hope? -- So much is in bud.
How can desire fail? We have only begun
to imagine justice and mercy,
only begun to envision how it might be
to live as siblings with beast and flower, not as oppressors.
Surely our river cannot already be hastening
into the sea of nonbeing?
Surely it cannot drag, in the silt, all that is innocent?
Not yet, not yet -
There is too much broken that must be mended,
Too much hurt that we have done to each other
that cannot yet be forgiven.
We have only begun to know
the power that is in us if we would join
our solitudes in the communion of struggle.
So much is unfolding that must complete its gesture,
so much in bud."

The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Midland is recognized by the Unitarian Universalist Association as a Welcoming Congregation. We welcome, affirm, promote and celebrate the full participation of all persons in all of our activities without regard to age, gender, sexual orientation, race or any other such category of exclusion.

Please feel free to contact us with any feedback, corrections or questions at jaham@delta.edu