Having recently moved back to the town I grew up in (Austin, TX), I’ve had ample opportunity in the past few weeks to reminisce. Austin is a very environmentally friendly town and I am enjoying exploring the eco-options for shopping and doing life around town. Yet as I reflect on my experience as a youth here, I recall that my introduction to environmentalism was a rather conflicted experience.
I attended the local science academy for Jr. High where I took classes like Environmental Science and joined the science club. Our activities included beach and river clean-ups and advocacy programs to get recycling bins in the local schools. We went river rafting, camping, and bird watching. One of my classes even created a garden on the school grounds amidst the broken glass, discarded syringes, and used condoms littering the neighborhood. Appreciating nature and learning to care for it was a vital part of my education. And we didn’t just talk about it – we lived it out.
At the time, I of course dove into environmental causes with the sort of obsessive passion only a Jr. High girl can display. In that age of big hair and towering bangs I encouraged my friends to stop their bottle a week aerosol hairspray habits. I wore a pendant that said “Save the Dolphins” and wrote (horrid) poetry for the student section of the Austin paper about keeping our oceans clean. I did my best to take 5 minute showers (I had a timer) and read everything I could about the watershed issues involving the local aquifer. My gestures didn’t amount to much, but they were the manifestation of the little I knew and of what I believed.
But those beliefs about caring for the earth that I learned at school were rarely echoed at home or in church. In fact they were often directly discouraged and ridiculed. Environmentalism was referred to as an anti-Christian value with environmentalists serving as the butt of many jokes. My parents constantly warned me against loving the creation more than the creator. In their eyes loving God and loving creation were either/or options – one couldn’t faithfully do both. I was the rebel treading dangerously close to sin by getting involved with environmental causes.
At the time I fought that message knowing that it just didn’t make sense. But as I left the science academy and the support and encouragement to care about the earth, the message of my church slowly won me over to apathy. For a long time I just stopped caring about creation – I didn’t recycle; I didn’t think about my lifestyle choices, I just didn’t care. I didn’t actively hate environmental ideas or endeavors; I just didn’t care enough to be proactive – which in all practical reality amounts to the same thing. It took years of distancing myself from such anti-environmental beliefs before I was able to truly care for creation again. It was an emotional journey to finally accept that loving creation is part of what it means to love God.
Now, nearly two decades after my Jr. High introduction to environmentalism, I have returned to Austin with new eyes. Recycling advocacy seems almost quaint these days as many local schools have student gardens and environmental clubs. I have access to eco lawn care and dry cleaning. I painted my house with eco-friendly paint and discovered a place to recycle all of my moving boxes. Once again, all small everyday gestures, but part of what it takes to commit to a lifestyle that loves God by loving creation. I am enjoying the opportunities offered by a supportive community. And twenty years have even changed the attitudes of my family and the church. Creation care is no longer a rebellious sin, but a spiritual discipline to be explored.
So my reminiscing on the past has helped me to re-establish myself here with environmental commitments already in place. I look forward to the journey ahead and am pleased to discover that, environmentally speaking, it’s good to be home.