Category: Environment

Here and There, Then and Now

After 42 years in Asia, I returned home to Kentucky. But it isn’t the home I left. Things I saw THEN are different NOW. Life HERE is different from life THERE—except for Big Rock!

THEN

Big Rock is a well-known landmark in Louisville. Located on Beargrass Creek which meanders through much of Jefferson County, it has been a place of fun for generations. It was certainly an attraction for my family 75 years ago and it was probably around for several million years before that.

NOW

NOW is the same as THEN! Kids still clamber up the rock, feeling a sense of accomplishment, and then jump off into the water about a yard deep. It’s a fun place to play on a hot day and parents can picnic on the grassy shores–unless they’re in the water, too!

Falls of the Ohio River

Today I bicycled across the Ohio River to Indiana where the Falls of the Ohio national park is located.

The statue is of Meriwether Lewis (R) and William Clark, the commanders of the Lewis and Clark expedition that set out in 1803 from what became Louisville to explore the American West between Kentucky and the Pacific Ocean. Thomas Jefferson, the third U.S. president, sent them out.
Riverboats coming down the Ohio from the new northeastern American colonies could only travel as far south as the falls of the Ohio River, not a dramatic waterfall but a drop of about twenty-five feet over these now exposed shoals loaded with fossil remains. Today Lock and Dam 41 enables river traffic to be routed around the falls. The concrete wall in the rear creates a channel by the island in the background which provides access to the locks. Lewis and Clark left here in 1803 and returned in 1806 after an epic journey.

Care for Creation

Laudato Si’ challenges us to “hear the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor” through ecological conversion, changes in lifestyle and society, and strong political action. What are Catholic Christians to do? Here are some suggestions:

5. JOIN with others who believe caring for our common home is a responsibility given to us by God when God asked us to care for the garden in Genesis.

Care for Creation

Laudato Si’ challenges us to “hear the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor” through ecological conversion, changes in lifestyle and society, and strong political action. What are Catholic Christians to do? Here are some suggestions:

4. DISCERN what you can do to change your own way of living to one that is more sustainable for the whole community. This includes reducing water usage, reducing use of plastics and eliminating Styrofoam, switching to LED lighting, planting trees and native plants, and by becoming an eco-consumer doing eco-investing.

Care for Creation

Laudato Si’ challenges us to “hear the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor” through ecological conversion, changes in lifestyle and society, and strong political action. What are Catholic Christians to do? Here are some suggestions: 

  1. USE YOUR HEARING AND SIGHT to respond to the cry of the poor and the cry of the earth. They are interconnected. The poor have been unjustly subjected to the results of abuses on nature brought by wealthy nations.

Care for Creation

Laudato Si’ challenges us to “hear the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor” through ecological conversion, changes in lifestyle and society, and strong political action. What are Catholic Christians to do? Here are some suggestions:

2. LEARN by reading Laudato Si’ for free at:    http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html

Care for Creation

Laudato Si’ challenges us to “hear the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor” through ecological conversion, changes in lifestyle and society, and strong political action. What are Catholic Christians to do? I offer the following suggestions:

1. REFLECT on the miracle of the natural world and your place in it and PRAY that you might be intentional in her care.