How to be a good ruler of the earth

I brought you to a fertile land so that you could eat its fruits and produce, but you came and made my land unclean; you made it a hateful place. Jeremiah 2:7

My friends and family probably all know that I’m a bit of an eco-warrior. And for those who didn’t know consider this your warning. Cardboard in the general waste makes me twitchy, I’m an avid follower of George Monbiot’s blog and never, ever get me started on the topic of farming.

But I understand that in this globally connected age there are so many worthy causes vying for our attention that the environment isn’t always the first thing on our minds. There are also so many conflicting views on any one issue that it can be almost impossible to know what to believe. Take climate change. Most scientists agree that it’s happening, but what about those who don’t? And even among those who do no one can seem to agree on how bad it’s going to be or what we should do about it. But this post isn’t about arguing for or against climate change, it’s about our attitude to the environment.

It always makes me sad when people who genuinely want to dedicate their time or money to a good cause disregard the environment and how we treat it because, they reason, people are more important that plants. We all know that a person is more important than a plant, but what this attitude really shows is that we think of the natural world as separate from our society, as something that we can live without. How often do we consider that without plants our lives would fall apart?

Vandana Shiva recently wrote an article exploring why our attitude towards our natural environment needs to change. Shiva suggests that if we treated the land and its ecosystems with respect and love, rather than as property that we have the right to use how we like, then many of the problems that we face wouldn’t exist. Species loss, soil and water pollution, land grabbing - all of which have a huge negative effects on people by the way - are caused by someone acting on the idea that they have the right to get as much out of the land as they like and to hell with the consequences.

If land is understood to have more than a monetary value, and treated as more than a buy-and-sell commodity, then maybe some of the people who need food aid could still be making their own living by farming. Instead they are bought out or exploited by global corporations with more money and power than sense.

If the land and its produce were treated as if they were valuable then perhaps food wouldn’t be wasted on such a vast scale. And maybe the soil wouldn’t be degraded by agrochemicals and its fertility would be preserved.

In a way this attitude has some roots in the Bible. God blessed them and said: “have many children and grow in number. Fill the earth and be its master. Rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds in the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis 1:28

But it depends on how you interpret this. I take it to mean that, whether we like it or not, every one of us (you, me, everybody) is a master of the earth. That's a pretty big deal. The question you have to ask yourself now is: what sort of master are you?

There are the kinds of rulers who treat their subjects however they like, who use their power for their own gain, to increase their own comfort, even if it means running the kingdom into the ground. There are the kinds of rulers who take no responsibility, no interest in their kingdom and let it be attacked and destroyed, so long as they are alright. These two views are, sadly, widely held.

Or there are the kinds of rulers who think of their subjects before themselves. Who protect them and ensure their safety however they can. They go out of their way to understand how the kingdom works so that they can rule it even better. That’s the kind of masters we ought to be. We have the responsibility to treat, not only every person, but also every animal, plant, river, forest, ocean, resource, etc etc, as if they are important. Because they are. And we need to understand their importance and how to best look after them.

This is not very hard to do. We can be good masters in every area of our lives. Instead of playing Candy Crush we can spend five minutes researching where some of our food is grown, we can choose not to buy from clothes shops that we know don’t source their clothes ethically, we can pay attention to the plants and animals on our own doorstep.

This particularly applies to those of us who answer first and foremost to the Big Boss, God. After all the Earth belongs to the Lord and everything in it – the world and all its people. Psalm 24:1

Fin.

I know that I come across as a total hippy in this post but I'd like to reassure you all that I still wear shoes, that I have not become a vegetarian and that I'm not judging anyone for buying from MacDonalds or Primark since I still buy stuff from those places when money or hunger or sunglasses get the better of me. But I'm not condoning them either and I wish it was easier (and that we knew enough) to make the right decisions.

As always, your thoughts and ideas are very welcome :)

Why was Jesus white?

It’s a question I have often pondered. In a Middle-Eastern country, wouldn’t a guy with white skin, fair Loriel hair and glistening blue eyes have stuck out like a sore thumb?

The thing is, the Bible tells us that Jesus looked totally ordinary, that he had ‘no beauty that we might desire him’. And as well as this, he often slipped away into the crowd when he was tired or in a tight corner, suggesting that he wasn’t instantly recognisable. He was an average Joe, of the Standard Jewish Carpenter Model. You wouldn’t have known he was the Son of God just by looking at him.

And so my friends, I decided to research this topic to discover for myself what ordinary people in Galilee, like Jesus, might have looked like, as well as working out why the Son of God is portrayed as he is and how exactly this weird state of affairs came about. Here are my discoveries.

How about we start with a nice easy question: would Jesus have had long hair?

Er no. I have it on good authority from Jack Wellman that Jews in Jesus’ time never wore their hair long. And it would have got in the way when Jesus was carpentering, which he did for most of his life since he didn’t start teaching publicly until he was 30.

OK question 2. What was his face like?

It might have been a bit like this. Richard Neave (a medical artist) and his team used examples of Galilean Semites’ skulls to recreate the facial shape of Jesus in this image, and they used drawings found at archaeological sites to determine that he would have had dark eyes and a beard. It’s also likely that Hebrews in Jesus’ day had olive-coloured skin.

What was the rest of him like?

Carpenters didn’t have power tools back then (again, Jack Wellman said so). They worked with huge bits of trees and stone, so it would have been an extremely labour intensive job. Jesus, therefore, was not the slender elfin figure he is often portrayed as; he would have been pretty muscley and hulking. But apart from the time when he flips out in the temple I can’t think of a single example of Jesus showing any sort of display of strength, and the fact that he had great strength but didn’t use it for anything other than his work tells us a bit about his character too. Jesus was self-controlled and gentle.

Neave and his team found that Galilean Semites stood at an average height of 5 ft. 1. So, interestingly, I would be half a foot taller than Jesus. Also, they reckoned that he would have looked older than his years from working hard and outside all his life.

That's what I've found out about his appearance and at this point I’m sure a lot of you smart cookies could probably guess, at least in part, why Jesus is portrayed as white. I mean, Jesus is often shown as reflecting the appearance of the part of the world he is portrayed in, he’s been African, Arab, Hispanic, etc.

However, his Westernness can seem like an overwhelming image in today’s global culture and this is because of Christianity’s roots in Europe. And, the power of art. Particularly during the Renaissance (a cultural movement which started in the 14^th century) European artists were inspired to paint the son of God, and probably in a way which reflected their own society. It’s likely that they associated light with righteousness and darkness with sin and evil. Thus white Jesus became the face of God.

Perhaps what we should be asking now is: why does this image persist? Anyone, with a few minutes thought, can work out that the usual interpretation is not accurate. Yet even works as beautiful and Biblically accurate as ‘the Passion of the Christ’ get it wrong.

I can only put in down to lazyness and lack of imagination. And probably the influence of Hollywood in the case of films and TV.

I know perfectly well that at the end of the day it doesn’t matter what Jesus looked like; he’s still made the ultimate sacrifice for you and me in the hope that we can know him and love him. But I hope that the next interpretation of Jesus Christ (whether it’s on the TV, in the cinema or in a children’s book) will be a bit more accurate. Not only because Jesus’ appearance tells us something about his life and personality, but also because art and stories are not believable or relatable if they are based on such fundamental errors.

And the Christian faith is the best, most complex, layered, challenging and dangerous story ever told. I want to know every detail, and I'd quite like it to be the truth as well.

Fin.

If you'd like to follow up any of my sources here they are ---> 

Richard Neave and the gang using forensics

Jack Wellman talking about the colour of Jesus

Jack Wellman talking about what Jesus looked like

Jesus' portrayal in the Renaissance and now

Yeah, I basically just found them by doing Google searches so it's hardly academic standard. But there's some interesting reading material if you're interested.

Oh and if anyone finds the picture at the beginning of this article disrespectful, I'd like to apologise; I thought it was funny though.

Mermaid Song

Somehow I forgot to finish my post last week, but never fear I am working on it! It will be done in the next few days.
   In the mean time here's a poem that I wrote for my mermaid story, I don't know how easy it is to understand without reading the story so here's a quick explanation: Calyso, Luan and Dandé are the three most commonly recognised deities in the civilised ocean. This poem describes a little bit of each of their personalities and associations but I don't want to give too much away here. The rest of it is up to your imagination.
   The poem has a tune so in my head the rhythm makes sense, however I don't know what it's like to read with fresh eyes so if there's any rubbishy bits or bits that don't work please let me know.

In other news, I have finished my Jabberwocky illustrations. You can see all seven in order here. Wow, can't believe I actually finished something! Very grateful to my pals on deviantArt (Flying-Glove and Oly in particular) for all their encouragement and advise.

Mermaid Song

Before I set sail on the merciless sea

A mermaid swam up and she whispered to me

A crown of red coral she wore on her head

She beckoned me close and here's what she said.

Calypso has shown me a thousand gold fishes

And giant octopi with eyes large as dishes

In houses where naught's left of hopes, dreams or wishes

A city abandoned by all but the dead.

Before I set sail on the infinite sea

A mermaid swam up and she whispered to me

Like a wave on the beach she didn't stay long

She beckoned me close and this was her song.

Luan, the sweet one, has shown me her kin

The bright in the sky ones and those with grey fin

All through the green forests she taught me to swim

And showed me the places I ought to belong.

Before I set sail on the fathomless sea

A mermaid swam up and she whispered to me

I'd follow wherever she told me to go

She beckoned me close and spoke soft and slow.

Dandé took my hand and we swam so deep

We came to the place where the oldest things creep

Where people spoke strangely and didn't need sleep

Part of me still dwells there so far below.

My next post will explore why Jesus was white. Dw it will be pretty chilled, just some research into what he would have looked like, which might surprise you (it surprised me!). Have a good week :)