​Will an Ecological Civilization be Fun?

Ecological Civilization, the Sunrise Movement, and the Green New Deal
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Sunrise Movement Webpage

Green New Deal Webpage

Ecocivers and Sunrisers
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Principles of the Sunrise Movement

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1. We are a movement to stop climate change and create millions of good-paying jobs in the process. We unite to make climate change an urgent priority across America, end the corrupting influence of fossil fuel executives on our politics, and elect leaders who stand up for the health and wellbeing of all people.
   
2. We grow our power through talking to our communities. We talk to our neighbors, families, religious leaders, classmates, and teachers, in order to spread our word. Our strength and work is rooted in our local communities, and we are always growing in number.
   
3. We are Americans from all walks of life. We are of many colors and creeds, from the plains, mountains, and coasts. A wealthy few want to divide us, but we value each other in our differences and we are united in a shared fight to make real the promise of a society that works for all of us.
   
4. We are nonviolent in word and deed. Remaining nonviolent allows us to win the hearts of the public and welcomes the most people to participate. We need maximum participation in order to achieve our goals.
   
5. We tell our stories and we honor each other's stories. We all have something to lose to climate change, and something to gain in coming together. We tell our individual stories to connect with each other and understand the many different ways this crisis impacts us.
   
6. We ask for help and we give what we can. We all have something to offer to the movement. Some of us give time through volunteering anywhere from 1 to 50 hours per week. Some of us give money. Some of us donate housing or meeting space. We invite our community into the movement by asking for the help we need.
   
7. We take initiative. Any group of 3 people can take action in the name of Sunrise. We ask for advice — not permission — from each other to make this happen. To make decisions, we ask ourselves, “does this bring us closer to our goal?” If yes, we simply do the work that is exciting and makes sense.
   
8. We embrace experimentation and we learn together. We welcome imperfection, share innovations, and learn through honest mistakes followed by honest conversations that help us move forward together. If we see something we don’t like, we contribute with something we do like, modeling an alternative.
   
9. We take care of ourselves, each other, and our shared home. We maintain our health of body, mind, spirit, and environment to the best of our ability so that we can maintain a strong movement together. We respect that for each of us this looks different.
   
10. We stand with other movements for change. Stopping climate change requires winning and holding power at every level of government. This is a huge job and we can’t do it alone. When it makes sense, we work with other movements who share our values and are also working to win political power.
    
11. We shine bright. There are hard and sad days, to be sure. This isn’t easy work. But we strive to bring a spirit of positivity and hope to everything we do. Changing the world is a fulfilling and joyful process, and we let that show.
    

Ecocivers and Sunrisers

 
​Dear Sunrisers,
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Just like you, and inspired by you, we ecocivers  are hoping for, and working toward, a different kind of world.  Some of us are in the US, some in China, some in Norway, and some in Brazil.  Actually, we are from all over the world.  Many of us are not as young as you, but we know that doesn't matter to you.  

We think of a Sunrise World as a global network: a community of communities of communities, each of which is creative, compassionate, participatory, culturally and religiously diverse, humane to animals, and ecologically wise - with no one left behind.  

It is a world where people know that they are small but included in a larger web of life, and where they know that the hills and rivers, the trees and stars, are family, too.  It is a world where each human being is respected for, and treated with, dignity, as a subject and not an object.  A world of clean air, clean water, mutual respect, and no arm raised against another except in greeting.  A world where people live within the limits of the earth to absorb pollution and supply resources, making space for other creatures, plants and animals, so that they can flourish, too.  

We think of these communities as the fundamental units of what we call Ecological Civilizations.  That's why we call ourselves ecocivers or, as they say in China, eco-persons.  Some people speak of us as open and relational or process theologians, too.  One of our most famous contributors is a man named John Cobb, but there are really many others.

Those of us who advocate Ecological Civilizations like your name: Sunrise Movement.  It has a freshness to it. 

We like it because we know that we will not succeed in persuading large numbers of people to be committed to the ideal unless we include, within our descriptions of such civilizations, a freshness factor, a joy factor. 

Ecological civilizations need to include merrymaking, pleasure, sexuality, imagination, and playfulness, wonder, and a sense of mystery.  They need to sound fun. 

Fun itself, understood deeply, is no trivial matter.  For us it is a metaphor for the kind of zest that is essential to ecological civilization: zest for life. 

Zest for life may well be the primary underpinning of a genuinely “ecological” civilization.  We will be drawn toward a new form of civilization, not out of fear alone, but out of a love of life.  Music and the arts play a special role in eliciting this love.  And so, at its best, can religions of the sacramental kind: those that find God in the pulsations and embodiedness of life itself, as enjoyed in satisfying forms of ritual and community. 

Indeed, as we see things, even the mystery at the heart of the universe -- even God -- may be understood as One who has fallen in love with life, inviting us to do the same.  If God is Love, then surely this Love includes a love of life, merrymaking much included.  God and joy God and freshness, are two sides of a single coin.

We write this letter to you, hoping that we might support you and  that you might support us, too.  We, too, stand with other movements of change.  Keep up the good work.

Jay McDaniel 

Living with Zest for Life
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You Feel the Greatness of Being Alive

"You feel your own life — your heart, your mind, your body, your sexuality, the people and things you are connected to — and you spontaneously fill with the exclamation: "God, it feels great to be alive!" That's delight."
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* Ronald Rolheiser in The Holy Longing, cited in Spiritiuality and Practice

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Zest for Life is the source of our Passion

​The zest for life, which is the source of all passion and all insight, even divine, does not come to us from ourselves.... It is God who has to give us the impulse of wanting him.

*  Pierre Teilhard de Chardin quoted in Spirit of Fire by Ursula King, cited in Spiritiuality and Practice

You know life is a Gift

​Living well is an art that can be developed: a love of life and ability to take great pleasure from small offerings and assurance that the world owes you nothing and that every gift is exactly that, a gift.

*  Maya Angelou in Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now, cited in Spiritiuality and Practice

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Your heart is Open, Clear, and Strong 

Many native cultures believe that the heart is the bridge between Father Sky and Mother Earth. For these traditions, the four-chambered heart, the source for sustaining emotional and spiritual health, is described as being full, open, clear, and strong. These traditions feel that it is important to check the condition of the four-chambered heart daily, asking: "Am I full-hearted, open-hearted, clear-hearted, and strong-hearted?"

*  Angeles Arrien in The Four-Fold Way

​Introducing the Idea
​ of Ecological Civilization

without mentioning fun or delight
unless implied by the word "flourishing"

Institute for Ecological Civilization

​The Worry

"The present trajectory of life on this planet is unsustainable, and the underlying causes of our environmental crisis are inseparable from our social and economic systems. The massive inequality between the rich and the poor is not separate from our systems of unlimited growth, the depletion of natural resources, the extinction of species, or global warming. Social and environmental movements require an orientation that is neither too narrow and short-term, nor too abstract and long-term to offer concrete guidance. Formulating the requirements for the flourishing of life in all its forms ― an ecological civilization ― will provide the roadmap that leaders need and will ground a hope that stimulates the necessary reforms." (Ecociv.org)

The Hope

It is a vision for a better future, one in which the systems of society, economics and politics, systems of production, consumption and agriculture, are designed for the flourishing of life in all its forms; a vision for the common good.  (Wm. Andrew Schwartz)

The Game Plan
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"The Institute for Ecological Civilization works internationally to support systemic approaches to long-term sustainability by developing collaborations among government, business, and religious leaders and among scholars, activists, and policy makers. We build effective partnerships across social sectors through consultations, think-tank gatherings, and policy engagement."  (Ecociv.og)

​Will an Ecological Civilization be Fun?

A Concluding Reflection by Jay McDaniel

​​When I use the phrase ecological civilization with some people, they do not hear their own concerns or interests   Some people tell me that it is too abstract and global for them, lacking resonance with the local and particular.  "It has nothing to do with family life or care for the local community or interpersonal relations."   Others simply say that it makes them think of environmentalism writ-large, but without appeals for social justice.  "It's all about taking care of the planet but not about taking care of people.  It neglects the displaced, the marginalized, the forsaken."

Beloved Community with Ecology Added

I disagree, but I know that they need alternative language.  In some settings I prefer Martin Luther King, Jr.'s phrase "beloved community" to "ecological civilization," because King's phrase has emotional warmth.  People ask me what an ecological civilization is, and I say "it's beloved community with ecology added."   If they give me a little more time, I add: 
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 "And ecology is more than something 'added.'   In an ecological civilization, ecology is the larger web of life -- the hills and rivers, trees and stars --  and this web of life is not simply an issue among issues, but a context for all issues.  Imagine beloved community in which the hills and rivers, trees and stars, are our neighbors, along with the poor and  powerless.  We care for our kindred humans, especially the poor and powerless; and we care for our other neighbors, too, seeking ways that we can all flourish.  That's ecological civilization." ​

​It sounds an awful lot like a combination of Martin Luther King, Jr. and indigenous religious traditions, and it is.  It's also a bit like a socially engaged Buddhism or, for that matter, a creation-centered prophetic Judaism, Christianity, or Islam.  It's not exactly new, it's just not "modern" in the Western sense that so sharply separates "humanity" from "nature."  As they say in China, it is constructively postmodern.

​In any case, I'm an evangelist for the phrase ecological civilization, thus understood.  But I have to admit that I myself sometimes find that the phrase "ecological civilization" falls flat.   I know these civilizations are important and that I ought to be working toward them.  But sometimes the descriptions of them focus so much on worldview and public policy that they don't inspire me at some deep level.  The same applies when I hear phrases such as "the common good." and "a relational worldview."  And when I hear too much talk about "systems" of productiion, consumption, and agriculture as if everything is, or could be, machine-like.  I miss something.  Other people I admire do as well.  We're not  just looking for a different kind of world or even a different way of thinking.  We're looking for a more alive way of being in the world.  We're looking for beloved community that includes a love of life.

A Role for Fun?

I'll put it this way: Will an ecological civilization be fun?  Will there be any joy in it?  Any spontaneity?  Any playfulness?  Any zest?
Will it involve more than righteousness?

Don't get me wrong.  I'm not against righteousness, and I'm fond of survival, too -- for everybody, including future generations of people and other living beings.   I know that ecological civilizations are necessary in light of global climate change and the wide range of calamities that face humanity: environmental destruction, political dysfunction, gaps between rich and poor, violence and war, the spiritual malaise of consumerism.  I’ve read Pope Francis’ Laudato Si, and  I'm on board.  I've also read John Cobb, Andrew Schwartz, Phillip Clayton and others.  I’ve been to China as well, and listened to Zhihe Wang and others talk about its special importance for Chinese!  I get it.  We may be in big trouble if we don't build such civilizations.  I myself have published many essays in Open Horizons on the nature and importance of ecological civilizations.  See, for example, Andrew Schwartz: The Radical Vision of Ecological Civilization.  Or John Cobb's Five Foundations for an Ecological Civilization.

Still I ask, will the civilizations they call for -- we call for -- be fun?

Wisdom and Compassion

Let me get something out of the way right away.  I know that these civilizations will combine wisdom and compassion, righteousness and kindness.  They will be good.  

The citizens of an ecologicacal civilization will live with respect and care for the community of life, knowing that they are small but included in a larger web of life.  They will not think in terms of a duality between “humanity” and “nature” but will instead see themselves as inside something more than them that includes the hills and rivers, trees and stars. They will see the world itself, not simply as a collection of objects to be understood or owned, but as a communion of subjects that belong to a single, interconnected whole: a cosmic family of sorts.  Some might even believe that this larger whole is itself a self or soul and address it as “God” or “Amma” or “Abba.”

They will have a shared ethic as well. They will care for each other and also care for other creatures and their habitants, living within the limits of the earth to absorb pollution and supply resources.   They will reside in green cities and green villages that partner with one another in symbiotic relationships.  Their economics will be ecological, measuring economic well-being in terms that take the earth into account.  Their agriculture will renew the soil rather than depleting it, and their manufacturing will be local as much as possible.  Andrew Schwartz says that this is all possible and I sure hope he's right.   Its citizens will have good values, too: justice, kindness, hospitality to others, reverence for life, and a sense of connection.  These values will be imparted at home, in society, and in school – not so much by didactic preaching as by the examples of their mentors.  The goodness of an ecological ciilization will include education for wisdom and compassion.

Still I ask, again, will their civilization be fun? 

Twelve Forms of Fun

You might already be saying "Yes" and quickly add that all of what I said above implies fun.  I be you are right.  Justice, kindness, hospitality, reverence for life, and a sense of connection are all enjoyable, all fun.   Serious thinkers with furrowed brows – if they are philosophers they may be influenced by Immanuel Kant -- may talk as if we ought to hold these values, as if enjoyment is irrelevant.  And perhaps we are indeed duty-bound to hold such values.  I'm on board here, too.  I want people to be kind to others even if they don't feel like it, and I want the same for myself.  Still, it can indeed be pleasurable to enjoy just relations with other people and the earth, to revere the whole of life, to extend hospitality to strangers.  In the language of Alfred North Whitehead in Process and Reality, it can be satisfying to be good.

In any case by “fun” I mean a little more than ethically noble traits just mentioned.  I have in mind:

1. Being Present in the Present Moment
2. Imagination
3. Playfulness
4. Love (including sexual love)
5. Questing
6. Enthusiasm
7. Wonder
8. A Sense of Mystery
9. Openness
10. Passion for Beauty
11. Yearning
12. Zest for Life

  
We might call them forms of aliveness.  These forms of alivenesss are beautiful in their own right, and thus have an aesthetic quality. but it demeans them to speak of them as aesthetic values alone.  They are part of the spice of life, apart from which life be good but not happy.  In Process and Reality Whitehead says that at every moment of  our lives we are seeking, not only meaning and not only love, but satisfying forms of subjecive aliveness.  These are among the twelve "satisfying forms of aliveness" of which humans can partake.

The Spiritual Alphabet

I borrow the examples above from the "spiritual alphabet" developed by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat of Spirituality and Practice.  If the word "spirituality" is not your word, just think of them as twelve forms of emotional well-being or twelve forms of emotional wisdom.  Let "spirituality" and "emotional well-being" be synonymous.  

So here is my point.  All too often in descriptions of ecological civilizations, in talk about the common good, in discussions of needs for systemic changes, and even in discussions of needs for vision, I miss the twelve forms of spirituality or emotional well-being identified above.  I hear vision and ethics, but not spirituality or emotional aliveness.

So what's the Problem?

There are several problems with this.  One is that the very idea of "ecological civilization" is not -- dare I say it -- marketable if people do not hear in it a promise of emotional well-being.  It will appeal to fear and obligation, but not to the possibility of joy.   The second it that the idea, articulated in ways that lack the spiritual or emotional side, is not truly ecological.  The ecology of life on our planet is all about, at the very least, sexuality and play and, if Jane Goodall is right, wonder as well.  Other animals have needs for these forms of aliveness, and we do, too.  The third is that any semblance of ecological civilization that emerges in local settings, in any part of the world, will need to offer powerful tastes of the twelve forms of vitality just named, plus others, or it will not be sustainable.  It will not give people the sustenance they need truly to flourish in their ecological civilizations.

Zest as the Encompassing Value

How, then, might we include these twelve under a single rubric that is easy to articulate and communicates our meaning.  One possibility is to build upon what the Brussats say about the twelfth trait, which I call zest for life and they call "the practice of zeal."  One thing to to be noted is that they link zest with others in the spiritual alphabet, suggesting strong connections between the ethical and the aesthetic, the compassionate and the joyful.

​The spiritual practice of zeal means being fully aroused by life. We tap into the divine energy that pulsates within us and around us. We are ready for anything that comes our way, and every moment is a golden gateway to new possibilities.

This spiritual practice includes a wholehearted delight in the senses and a passionate love for who we are and what we have been given. We are encouraged in its pursuit by our companions on the path and the countless teachers who stretch our souls. Our zeal moves us to live compassionately and to serve others. It shows up in our prayers, rituals, family life, and community activities.

Zeal is the last practice in our alphabet and appropriately it incorporates many of those that have come before it. Zeal means living abundantly — and we are more likely to do so when can pay attention, live in the present, have gratitude, and experience wonder. Zeal is an energetic and committed response to opportunities and challenges that come our way. How much more likely that is to be when we have regular practices of devotion, when we are committed to justice, when we have a faith relationship with Spirit, and when we see life as a quest.
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​Zeal is the essence of the meaningful life. As a wise teacher said long ago, the last shall be first.

-- Mary Ann and Frederic Brussat, Spirituality and Practice: ​https://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/practices/alphabet/view/39/zeal

In the spirit of the Brussats, let zeal or zest for life be the umbrella within which we appreciate the twelve forms of fun.  My simple suggestion, then, is that, in imagining the future we rightly hope for -- an ecological civilization -- we rightly make space for zest. 
​Fear is not enough.  Those of us who advocate ecological civilizations will not succeed in persuading large numbers of people to be committed to the ideal unless we include, within our descriptions of such civilizations, a joy factor.  Ecological civilizations need to include merrymaking, pleasure, sexuality, imagination, and playfulness, wonder, and a sense of mystery.   Its spirituality is rooted in a faith in life, itself "a golden gateway to new possibilities."