The Supper of the Lamb

 

    Robert Farrar Capon's The Super of the Lamb is a veritable quote-mine. I could (and am about to) write a whole blog post on just a few golden eggs nestled in the excerpts we read for this class. Let us begin. Capon writes that 'I despise recipes that promise results without work' (pg. 7). Impactful! But how? And how does it connect to ecology? I want to answer these questions, but first I need to ramble about how it connects to my personal life, especially as a student. 

    Recipes that promise results without work. Study methods that promise results without work. Indeed! How could it not connect? I learn best when I toil. The process of learning is one whereby my brain is actually physically changed by the things and ideas I encounter. If do not do the work, I do not undergo the change. If I do not undergo the change, I am not transformed by my experiences. The results are only a part of what matters when we undertake any task. What matters beyond results is who we become as we are challenged to be more, to do more, and to give more. 

    Ecology and easy recipes? Laws are a recipe without work. Or, rather, they can be. Our society has a legislative obsession, does it not? Will passing rules and regulations really save the environment? They certainly might help, and I would not want to diminish significant accomplishments at this level which helps us do better as a society. However, if our sense of identity is not transformed into one which does not need to abuse the world around us, will we ever escape the whack-a-mole, reaction-oriented approach to environmental problems? Capon says that 'man's real work is to look at the things of the world and to love them for what they are' (pg. 19). Is it an act of love to obsessively transform the things of the world into products and consumables? I don't mean to criticize approaching the world with the aim of altering it in such ways that allow us to survive and thrive. I mean to ask whether we need yet another small improvement on the iPhone, again, this year, after last year's hardly noticeable improvements. Is the higher resolution camera worth the slave labor and environmental destruction? Why do we so abhor the things of the world and our fellow men that we must change them into totally alien forms and enslave them for our ease? Surely, this is not who we want to be, or who we claim to be? 

    What is the remedy? Simplicity. Capon says that 'one real thing is closer to God than all the diagrams in the world' (pg. 21). I don't advocate eliminating technology. I wouldn't wish to return to a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to temporarily appease my conscience, knowing full well that what we call progress is often inevitable and cannot simply be undone. What we need is a simpler life, but not a less full life. Phones are great; can't we make do with the 'flip' variety? Land lines? Do we need to have objects that, with the right apps, can be as addicting as cigarettes? Gamified social media and gambling apps, O, how I could not live without you! As with all things, it's not the thing but the use of it that makes it problematic. If humanity cannot begin to cultivate a serious commitment to self-limiting, the natural consequences of over consumption will bear themselves out to our detriment and that of the world. There is no such thing as a citizen who is not capable of reasonably moderating their behaviors, for such a one is and must be a subject; if not a subject to a political power, they must be a subject to desires, products, and services. Is this who we are? Simplicity is not a rejection of the material world, but it is a sober-minded reflection on what is needful. Only the individual can decide what is sufficient for their life, but there is no such thing as an individual choice which does not have implications for the collective. We must choose self-moderation as individuals with a mind to our sense of us. This is about who I am as much as who we are. 

    All this being said, I realize I am writing an exhortation directed at myself. What does living an ecologically sound life mean to me? It means that I live a life of appropriate, moderate simplicity with a mind to how my actions affect my fellow humans, creatures, and the ecosystems which are a precondition for our existence. To abstract my decisions out of that web and to reduce things into products, services, and experiences to be bought and sold is to divorce myself from reality as it truly is. That is to say, when I reduce my lived experience to a purely instrumental exchange with the 'natural' world, I leave the real world for an idol of my own making. The real world is a relational web constituted of individually and collectively valuable fellow-beings, and systems which give rise to the conditions necessary for life. To offend the least member of this community is to reject the community as a whole. 

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