How do I begin to write about something as overwhelming as fracking?<\/p>\n
I have good reasons why I\u2019ve been silent on paper so far. Swamped with Big Topics at Midnight <\/i>and opening Big Topics Conversations. Overwhelmed whenever I remember that right now rock formations are being fractured through blasts of chemical-laden water in order to free up trapped natural gas and oil. Troubled that this is happening in gas wells where I own a .01562501 royalty interest.<\/p>\n
What am I to do with a paradox that wide?<\/p>\n
Sell it and walk away, clean? Just like I could give away all of my family money and walk away, clean?<\/p>\n
What is \u201cclean\u201d?<\/p>\n
If I sell it, the practice will still continue and I will still be who I am. I won\u2019t be absolved from responsibility. One way that money has made my thinking stupid* over the years is that part of me wants to escape from my complicity in a system I disagree with by pushing away my family financial legacy. I\u2019ve tried to do the same thing with the privilege I receive merely because my skin is white. But I am still the same me.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t get me wrong. I have sold stocks and mutual funds that aren\u2019t in alignment with my values. But something more is required here.<\/p>\n
I first heard about fracking in 2006 when I was visiting my grandfather\u2019s ranch on a pilgrimage back to my homeland of Texas (where I am now a partial owner of the \u201cmineral rights\u201d but not \u201csurface rights\u201d). The journey was one part of a larger pilgrimage into my ancestral history to Germany, North Carolina, Texas and, now, Oregon during the writing of Big Topics at Midnight. <\/i>I set out on those trips when I realized I\u2019d spent far too much of my life trying to cut out parts of myself that embarrassed me. Knowing that I need all of me to live the life I was born to live, I returned to the land of my family hoping to find clarity, healing and right action.<\/p>\n
On the ranch seven years ago, I knew nothing of the actual geological impact of this drilling practice. Nevertheless, it felt to me as if fracking was cutting out huge holes in the body of Mother Earth while spewing toxic chemicals into our farmland and drinking water. As far as I could tell, fracking waste would be added to nuclear waste, piling up for future generations to deal with.<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t make sense to me.<\/p>\n
Gas prices are currently low. If we frack now, what will happen when high prices tempt us?<\/p>\n
Is there no end to what humans will do to make money and exert control over the natural world? This is an escalating conquest that we won\u2019t win.<\/p>\n
My work is to explore and participate in the shifting of Big Topics\u00a0like money, gender, race, power, justice, generational healing and soul. These topics are at the core, like the magma at the center of the Earth. Hot, molten topics. How we are in them\u2014personally as well as in families, communities, organizations, systems, nationally, globally\u2014is the underpinning of our decision making and values. My focus is rightly there.<\/p>\n
Yet I can\u2019t ignore fracking. It is hurting our shared homeland. In addition, it is part of the flow of money that pays my bills, funded the writing and now marketing of Big Topics at Midnight, <\/i>finances my travels to open these conversations and is the source of my financial support of three organizations dear to my heart\u2014Be Present, Inc<\/a>., Wisdom & Money<\/a>,\u00a0and Community Wholeness Venture.<\/p>\n My work continues. Fracking continues. There are only so many hours in a day. I continue my spiritual practice of standing in partnership with a diversity of people right in the midst of the deep gaps that cut through our world.<\/p>\n Giving words to this hot topic is the next step on my journey.\u00a0 I’m listening for guidance about the following step.<\/p>\n