Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, Aug 25, 2009

"Who will gainsay that the parks contain the highest potentialities
of national pride, national contentment, and national health? A
visit inspires love of country; begets contentment; engenders pride
of possession; contains the antidote for national restlessness....
He is a better citizen with a keener appreciation of the privilege of
living here who has toured the national parks."

- Stephen T. Mather, NPS Director, 1917-1929. The National
Park Service was established on this date, 1916


Actually, I think that the first National Park (then, mythologically, National was Global) was established by God in Whatever BT (Before Time”). God called it “Eden”.

I don’t want to force this event of the establishment of the NPS into a moral tale, so I’ll try my best not to. But I think we should pay attention to it, with reference to the Inner Life within which our core values are formed. I don’t have to tell you what seems to form our American and much of the World’s core values these days. Suffice it to say (yes, a little cynically) , the List starts with Greed, slides to Militarism, and ends with Lying at the Highest Levels. In between are other horrors too shameful to be named.

I think that a good “spiritual goal” would be for each of us to establish a National Park within our Inner Landscape. Wild, unpolluted, reverent of all inhabitants; a place which nurtures healthy pride in ourselves and others, contentment with simplicity, health on all levels, love of a land maintained in compassion, possession as a trust, the calming of a restless spirit, the deep appreciation of the various “homes” we inhabit.

Be it our Heart, our Land, our World - having trashed all of them sorely, it’s time to heal them. This would be a work worthy of our “potentialities”.

Ranger Brian+