(While I am attending to Servite business in western Australia, I am taking a week away from writing this column. This column first appeared in the Assumption bulletin of Sept 23, 2012)
In the first chapter of the Good Book, we read that when God created humans, God gave us "dominion ... over every living thing that moves upon the earth." Sometimes I think that God was just trying to flatter us with that line-or maybe cajoling us into being responsible. Creation does not really need us to rule over it. Oh, sure we can do some beautiful things with plants and flowers (as our own Garden Club proves) and certain animals do provide for our needs; but in truth everything would work just fine without us. Of course, the animals do not exactly follow the Ten Commandments or Christian principles in settling their disputes; but, then, neither do we much of the time.
Earlier this summer I wrote a column about our national parks, and some people asked me afterward if I had enjoyed my trip. I had to say "no" because I had not been anywhere yet. Last week, I finally went some place. I flew to Spokane, rented a car, and drove to Glacier National Park in northern Montana. The weather was great, and "yes" I enjoyed the trip. But I could not help noticing along the way how nature takes care of itself, if we give it half a chance. A massive fire in 2003 destroyed vast acres of the park. Now the forests are growing back and the animals are returning. Human beings did not need to come in and fix it. In fact, the rest of creation seems to handle unplanned and unexpected change much better than we do.
On my way back to Spokane, I spent a night in Butte, Montana, and it offered me a different perspective on creation. There are some nice homes around the perimeter of Butte, but most of the city looks like your grandmother trying to survive on Social Security. Once upon a time, Butte was a prosperous mining community and one of the largest cities in the West. As the mines played out over the last fifty years, Butte has lost about seventy percent of its population. Unlike many Midwestern cities down on their luck, where empty buildings tend to get burned out, torn down, or tagged with graffiti, Butte is still mostly intact. The structures one would expect in a big city are all there, except that one sees very few people using them. This left me with an eerie sensation. I felt as if I were caught up in one of those movies where most of the population has died in a nuclear attack, or been eaten by zombies, or (from an evangelical perspective) been raptured out.
I stayed downtown at the Finlen Hotel, which was built in 1923 and was the last major building to go up in Butte. The Finlen is an impressive structure and was modeled on the Astor Hotel in New York. According to their brochure, three presidents have stayed at the Finl en; but based on the accommodations now being offered, I assume no president has stayed there in a very long time. Still, the Finlen has managed to stay in business, which is more than can be said for the three "older" hotels which stand vacant at the same downtown intersection.
Things may be looking up for Butte. The awful economy elsewhere has made Butte's abundant housing stock attractive to young families searching for affordable housing. The morning paper announced that the school board was forced to hire an additional kindergarten teacher-a sign of hope for the future. But do not go to Butte looking for a "fixer upper" with an expansive yard. Most of the older homes were built right next to the sidewalk. During Butte's heyday, nobody paid attention to lawns. The smelters spewed so much arsenic in the air that grass and flowers could not survive in the city. Now, with the smelters quiet, grass has started to grow. Once again, nature is making a comeback.
Looking at the world objectively, one could easily conclude that human beings are the most superfluous of creatures. There is ample evidence that we could destroy ourselves and make our world uninhabitable for our species and not be greatly missed. To people of faith, though, that is only part of the story. The rest of the story is in the Book of Genesis, where we are told that human beings are created in the image and likeness of God. It may have been foolish on God's part to think we could live up to our billing and act in a loving and responsible way toward one another and the rest of creation. But we were created not out of necessity but out of love. And we all know that love does foolish things. Let's just do our best to be like God.
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