This morning, I was reading about fires around the world. Not only is the Amazon rain forest ablaze, but there are savanna fires in Africa and fires in Siberia.
It reminded me of the opening prayer for forgiveness in a movie I haven’t watched in decades, “Silent Running,” which starred Bruce Dern. He played the role of a botanist, caring for ecosystems from Earth, that were housed in huge domes of spaceships, orbiting Saturn. The Earth, you see, was no longer able to support these ecosystems.
(trivia: Bruce Dern’s daughter, Laura Dern, played a paleo-botanist in Jurassic park.)
In case you cannot hear the prayer, here it is:
“On this first day, of a new century, we humbly beg forgiveness and dedicate these last forests, of our once-beautiful nation, in the hope that they will one day return and grace our foul Earth. Until that day, may God bless these gardens and the great men who care for them.“
