Cultures and Vultures

 California Condor

After watching the movie Avatar I had a dream.     There was a
captive sick black owl - except owls aren't ever black.   As I
got close the face slowly turned into that of a scarred, featherless human face,
much like a vulture's head would look. 
This dream seemed to tell me that we humans need to use our heads if we
want to connect to other beings in life giving ways - that care for our lives
and the lives of others.

We use our heads by integrating all that
evolution has brought us - our inner lives of emotions and thoughts, and our
understanding of the exteriors world around us. 
A framework for integrating this is known as integral theory, and in the
case of ecology, integral ecology.  Integral
ecology helps affirm the awareness of interconnection, of seeing and accepting
what is through relationships.  For ecology
without relationships, the interior lives, is only partial ecology.  Integral ecology helps us considers the inner
lives of humans and nonhumans alike, and in so doing find ways to care for them
in a complex reality that is rich in intersubjective relationships and
objective understanding.

In this sermon, delivered to the
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Gainesville in honor of National Bird Day
2010,  I reflect on how to use our heads
and hearts by following the flight of the condor.

Cultures and Vultures Part One

Cultures and Vultures Part Two