on questions and chain saws

Every human transaction comes bearing a lesson. Every acquisition brings with it a tale. Every purchase or gift, every exchange or glance, is a leading edge of some desire. Large or small. Fleeting or enduring. Frivolous or profound. Our lives, our passions, are displayed in our actions and our things.

So it is that Charlie asks me about my chain saw acquisition. (The saw was a welcome gift from Sid.)

After urging safety precautions, and sharing a power point presentation on safety tips, Charlie challenges me with questions. Not to dissuade or disenchant me, I am certain. But rather to encourage, strengthen and teach.

How will using this technology, he asks, affect my relationship with my wood, my trees, my neighbors, my sense of self?

How will this chain-saw bind me to those who use it for a living, help me see what they see, feel what they feel? How will this little chain saw change me, teach me, surprise me?

What will this technology contribute to my well-being and the well-being of others?

Will this technology reduce my footprint? help me be carbon neutral? enhance the place I live?

Truth be told, I don't know. I just thought having and using a chain saw would be fun (it has raised some eyebrows and gotten people's attention), and help me cut logs for my stove that are otherwise too big for me to manage.

But I appreciate Charlie's thoughtful urgings. For indeed, as human transactions are windows on our desires, so our use of technology reveals the nature of our values.

To see what we believe, to see what we truly value, we need simply to watch what we do. Increasingly, though, we are discovering, as individuals and as society, that the habit of our behaviors is lagging behind the change in our values. What we do and what we value are increasingly mis-aligned.

We now know that we cannot live in a disposable society, that the concept of waste itself is unnatural, that our manufacturing and consumption habits are degrading the world, that the condition of the earth that we are handing off to our children is perilous, and that it is now time, indeed past time, that we do something about it.

So what does my chain saw have to do with this? Charlie's questioning reminds me that everything we do, every breath we take, every move we make impacts the world. We cannot try to live on this earth leaving no trace. Everything leaves a trace - an ant's foraging for food, a bacterium's processing of matter, a whale's breaching, a leaf's falling. Genesis 2 tells us we are bidden to work the world, as well as to protect it. The commandment to observe Shabbat is coupled with a call to work six days a week.

We cannot leave the world untouched. What we can do is be mindful of the kind of traces we leave, be aware of the intentional and unintentional wake of our actions, and act in accord with our beliefs.

That is the gift of Charlie's questions. I should carry them around in my pocket, put them on my keychain, as a constant reminder that prods me to ask: what is the impact of what I am doing?

Intentional living. Mindful living. Not a bad way to pass through one's days.