The grace we say clears our hearts and guides the children and welcomes the guest, all at the same time. Again we eat in silence in the Buddhist tradition, contemplating each bite, remembering that we too are edible. After supper we gather in a circle to speak from our hearts about the work we did during the day and the work to be done in restoration. Some forest ecologists recommend that prescribed burns be set in many areas of northern California. Fire is part of healing the forest.
Fire is also a powerful teacher.
During the past eighty years, fire has been suppressed by massive efforts of the U.S. Forest Service and the California Department of Forestry in an effort to save harvestable timber and to prevent fires from burning through historically burned- over forested lands, including many areas that now have farms, suburban developments, and even large cities. These are more than questions of semantics, a philosophy student in the circle reminds us. Indeed, a philosopher who has considered these questions at some length suggests what he calls the principle of noninterference as a primary moral duty in his ethic of respect for nature. By putting aside our human interests and personal preferences for a landscape we acknowledge the ability of nature to sustain its own proper order. Those questions were not resolved in conversation around the campfire that evening, but the conversation illustrated to me the importance of deep questioning in exploring the problems of developing greener lifestyles.