A Jewish lawyer said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Luke 10:29. Jesus said, “A Samaritan. A person considered inferior.” Today, Jesus would answer the question, “A green bulrush. A plant considered inferior.” He would spin the State Farm ad line, and say, “Like a good green neighbor, treat the 1.7 million species in the data base, Encyclopedia of Life, as you would like to be treated.”

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The United States and the G8 rich nations refuse to commit to carbon targets to halt a global temperature rise of 2 degrees Celsius. If the temperature rises 2 degrees the Greenland ice cap would melt, the ocean would rise several feet, and the Maldives nation in the Indian Ocean, consisting of islands barely above sea level, would be flooded out of existence.

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In a most politically incorrect satire on the status of the Emperor and the High Priest, Jesus said that children are the “greatest in Heaven’s domain.” Matt. 18:4.

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The president of Indiana University while I was in graduate school was Herman B Wells. He was, it seemed, a jolly fellow, whose belly jiggled when he laughed like a bowl full of jelly. His middle initial, not having a period, reminded me of my grandpa. Lacking a middle name given by parents, grandpa choose “A” instead, representing, I assume, high quality.

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A Yupik Eskimo elder named Chester didn’t know what money was when he was ten years old. He grew up hunting fish, seals, reindeer, and walruses, and that suited him fine. “People would do things together….one hand, one heart, one thought, one mind.” Chester lives in Savoonga, a small community of 700 on a fly-speck Alaskan island close to Siberia.

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Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” If he were walking among us today, he would say, “Blessed are the bonobo peacemakers,” as I discuss in chapter 5 of my book, Green Kingdom Come!

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Excerpts from Lincolnland Legends Scholarship Essay, by Larissa Hong, senior at Normal (IL) Community High School

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Those standing first in society, Jesus said, will be squashed dead last.  Learn from snakes on their bellies, not priests up on their altars.  Wild mustard weed seeds, not 1,000 year old cedar trees, point to heaven.  In a two-garment society, if someone takes your robe, let them take your underwear.  Children nobodies, not scholars, are the greatest.  Jesus laughs.

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On Earth Day weekend I visited my home area of Ft. Wayne, Indiana.

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