Thursday, April 21, 6:00 pm potluck picnic | 7:30 pm dialogue | Dialogue leaders: Kristen Rogers Iverson and Ed Iverson
Mark & Elizabeth England's home at 1194 South 500 East in Salt Lake City.
We will initially meet at the giant sycamore tree on the northwest corner of the Liberty Park tennis courts. Plan to sit on the grass, or bring something to sit on. We will share food with each other at 6:00 at the tree, at 7:30 we'll begin the dialogue and finish the evening at the England home.
Discussion:
On Friday, April 22nd, another earth day will come and go. Will it matter? Should it? Bring your brains and hearts and explore with us.
We live on an incredible planet, diverse, beautiful, abundant—and in trouble. It is easy to be overwhelmed over the state of the environment and of the beings, human and nonhuman, on the earth. Humans, air, animals, plants, water, bacteria, rock...we are all intertwined. So in one sense the smallest actions we take to heal the earth do create change in the great web of life. In another sense, the problems of climate change, pollutions of all kinds, destructive agriculture and industry, ecosystems in peril, and more seem large and intractable. No one of us has all the answers. But we can council together to learn from each other, and through our learning shape and evolve our responses to the challenges the planet faces. And we can remember together the good things around us and discuss ways to increase the good. We can find hope together and a determination to care for the earth in sickness, in health, for richer or poorer, till death do us part.
Please join us to share thoughts, experiences, feelings, and relationships with nature and the earth, and discuss ideas for action.
We live on an incredible planet, diverse, beautiful, abundant—and in trouble. It is easy to be overwhelmed over the state of the environment and of the beings, human and nonhuman, on the earth. Humans, air, animals, plants, water, bacteria, rock...we are all intertwined. So in one sense the smallest actions we take to heal the earth do create change in the great web of life. In another sense, the problems of climate change, pollutions of all kinds, destructive agriculture and industry, ecosystems in peril, and more seem large and intractable. No one of us has all the answers. But we can council together to learn from each other, and through our learning shape and evolve our responses to the challenges the planet faces. And we can remember together the good things around us and discuss ways to increase the good. We can find hope together and a determination to care for the earth in sickness, in health, for richer or poorer, till death do us part.
Please join us to share thoughts, experiences, feelings, and relationships with nature and the earth, and discuss ideas for action.
Ed Iversen loves rocks, trees, waves, mountains...pretty much everything in nature. He is a mechanical engineer—not the pocket protector kind, but a creative, collaborative innovator (this is Kristen telling it like it is) who has used his engineering and problem solving skills to help people in developing countries invent robots, and, as vice president for R&D at Motion Control, create prosthetic limbs to help people do things they couldn't otherwise do. He is passionate about the power of councils, which he has worked with in several capacities. He helps out at a second grade class twice a week and enthusiastically pursues a dizzying array of diverse projects.
Kristen Rogers Iversen is a writer who wrote a fairly influential article about Mormons and the environment for Earth Day way back in 1990. An award winning but mostly unpublished fiction writer, she has a mild obsession with juniper trees (enough to spend years researching and writing a book) and is currently investigating the Divine Feminine and Nature. She's a therapeutic musician bringing music care to the ill and dying, and is on the board of Gandhi Alliance for Peace. In her checkered past, she has been on a city council, planning commission, various boards, editor and manager at the Utah State Historical Society, and a bunch of other things.
Nothing makes Ed and Kristen happier than bushwacking through oak brush. (Unless it's getting back to the car after one of these bushwacking “saunters.”)
To explore:
- The Story of Stuff
Watch “The Story of Stuff” video if you haven't seen it, then explore solutions in other videos—like “The Story of Change”and in their podcasts. Also see their resources on how to be an agent for change. - Call to Earth
See beautiful images of the earth from space and hear perspectives of astronauts on the need to protect the earth. This video was made for delegates at the climate change talks in December 2015. - Top 22 Benefits of Trees
Since we're involving a tree in our discussion, you might want to look at some beautiful ways that trees help us. (We also might want to return the favor!) - Peacemusic.net
Some excellent writings on stewardship by Kristen
Read Joyce Kilmer's classic poem Trees http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poem/1947. Kilmer died in WWI. One reason this became inspirational to many soldiers is that they had to stare daily at a treeless, muddy, blasted landscape littered with human remains, barbed wire and other wreckage.
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