farewells and the beatitudes for ecologists/conservationists

we had dinner with my parents, my sister Grace, my sister Amy, and my brother-in-law Ben last night. Amy and Ben are moving to Groton, Connecticut today (Ben, a scientist working for Pfizer, was transferred there this summer), so the get-together was a pretty emotional affair, with much laughter, tears, and prayers. and by candlelight, to boot, since the thunderstorm knocked out the power (interestingly, the power returned the moment we said a final "amen" after praying blessings over Ben and Amy; that was pretty cool). I'm gonna miss them both a heap.

standing around on the lawn after dinner, we were shooting the breeze about various and sundry topics, and my dad mentioned how much he's been enjoying developing a friendship with Carl Safina, a distinguinshed ecologist, author, and president and co-founder of the Blue Ocean Institute. they met at a conference for evangelical leaders and leading scientists to discuss the importance of caring for creation (which, by the way, was no small concession for many scientists to agree to the use of the word "creation" in reference to the earth). so this father's day, my dad wrote a version of/variation on the beatitudes (a famous section from Jesus' "Sermon on the Mount" in the gospels) for ecologists/conservationists and sent it to Carl, who posted it on his blog. for those of you with a love for creation and concern for its stewardship (or for the merely curious), here's a link to it for you to enjoy: http://carlsafina.wordpress.com/2007/06/18/the-beatitudes-for-ecologistsenvironmentalists/

on a related note, during my workouts recently, I've been enjoying my dad's sermon series on creation care, which you can hear or download (or read written notes) from http://www.annarborvineyard.org/media/sermon_music.cfm (you'll need to scroll to near the bottom of the page). alternatively, you can search on iTunes for the ann arbor vineyard sermon podcasts and get them there (it's a three part series).