The Great Work and errands

Thomas Berry wrote a book called The Great Work in 1999; basically, he says that the great work of our time will be nature and our environment. I started it yesterday and found a great paragraph to share:

"The Great Work before us, the task of moving modern industrial civilization from its present devastating influence on the Earth to a more benign mode of presence, is not a role that we have chosen. It is a role given to us, beyond any consultation with ourselves. We did not choose. We were chosen by some power beyond ourselves for this historical task. We do not choose the moment of our birth, who our parents will be, our particular culture or the historical moment when we will be born. We do not choose the status of spiritual insight or political or economic conditions that will be the context of our lives. We are, as it were, thrown into existence with a challenge and a role that is beyond any personal choice. The nobility of our lives, however, depends upon the manner in which we come to understand and fulfill our assigned role."

My friend Adam Benson once said, "If it wasn't so scary and foreboding, they wouldn't be called 'dreams'; they'd be called 'errands.'" My errand, as of the day we visited Acadia National Park and talked to a park ranger about ozone depletion and air quality, is to devote my life, in one way or another, to The Great Work. Today I write about mercury and methylmercury cycling and bioavailability in Great Bay to inform the public.