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Nov 24, 2019
"Sense of place is the sixth sense, an internal compass and map made by memory and spiritual perception together." --Rebecca Solnit
Between Worlds
What is it like to be a living member of a dying community? Climate change is making this an increasingly common reality. Isle de Jean Charles, a slip of land off the coast of Louisiana is one such place. This island is home to a hundred or so people, members, mostly, of a Native American tribe called the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw--the BCC for short. For eight generations, the people of Isle de Jean Charles thrived, eating the bounty of the land and the sea: shrimp, crawfish, fish, and oysters, as well as plants they wild-harvested and grew in gardens. The tribe was so self-sufficient that when the oil and gas companies began prospecting nearby, they were surprised to discover people. But global warming is causing their land to disappear from under their feet. Anya Groner visited this magical place and shares her journey into the mystery of trying to stay grounded as a people while facing the inevitable loss of a homeland.
BE THE CHANGE
Consider what parts of your physical surroundings are central to your self of who you are. Bring this to mind next time you meet someone without this groundedness, a person living on the street, a newly arrived foreigner, or a an older person recently re-located to assisted living. How might you bring them into the human circle of their surroundings.
