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Until the 1950s, my grandma lived solely on the tundra in Northwest Alaska. Her homes were a sod house, a canvas tent and a 16-square-foot repurposed lumber cabin built by my grandpa. Although my grandma had to start working for cash, she spent all her free time time taking us to fish, trap, hunt, pick greens and berries, and collect fresh water. Everything was bountiful, free, natural and nutritious, just as God provided, on lands that were just as God made them. Although I live in a lumber home heated and electrified by fossil fuels, we still get our best foods from the earth.
What’s scary about climate change is how people respond to it with blame, fear and more destruction. Yet even green energy can be destructive. Lithium ion batteries require graphite, another resource violently extracted from the earth. Mining work for graphite has begun near Woolley Lagoon (on Alaska’s Seward Peninsula), where my family has gotten fresh water since time immemorial.
My grandma was capable of living entirely off the land. I hope to live more like my grandma did – emanating faith, hope, love, trust and enough character to protect the Earth.
This message is excerpted from “Living faithfully” by Roben Itchoak in the March/April 2024 Gather magazine. Today we commemorate Anselm, Bishop of Canterbury, 1109.