Grounded in Context

 by Rev. Eric Beene

Eco-activism can easily become abstracted. The problems of changing climates and planetary destruction become separated from the places where we encounter the needs of the world, and they lead us to worry in ways that can literally overwhelm us. Photography is also a process of abstraction. When we snap a photo, we literally put a frame around an object or a scene or even a person, and then we remove it from its context and carry it away into a much bigger world. But I wonder if photography can be a tool for grounding our activism again, too.

Although photography is a process of abstraction, the act of zooming our lens in on an object or set of objects and pressing the button or tapping the screen happens in a context. The context is not only visual. It is also filled with the emotions we feel when we are confronted with what we see in that place, as well as the spirit that stirred us to go to that place and take out our camera. As we frame and capture images, we also capture those feelings and that spirit’s leading, and if we are willing to pay attention to them, they can be a source of great power for us. In a 1958 article in Commonweal called, “Poetry and Contemplation:  A Reappraisal,” Thomas Merton said, “Aesthetic intuition is not merely the act of a faculty, it is also a heightening and intensification of our personal identity and being by the perception of our connatural affinity with ‘Being’ in the beauty contemplated.” By noticing and acting on the feelings and leadings inside us as we frame a photo, we exercise our creative power. That creative power is aligned with the power of the Creator whose work we are abstracting and carrying home. And then, in looking at our photographs later, and in sharing them with others, we bring them to new contexts in which we can discover additional details, with new feelings, different values, and longings we didn’t know we had. Through our photography, with all of its context, abstraction, and re-contextualization, we can ground ourselves over and over again in our “connatural affinity with ‘Being.’” 

We can let our impulse toward activism on behalf of the environment follow a similar path. We can take those issues that are abstracted and overwhelming and put them back in touch with the feelings and the spirit which were the context into which our activism was born. Our desire to preserve and protect the places where we live and where we encounter the needs of the world thus can become an expression of our affinity with the Being in whom we live and move and have our own being.

 All of the photos below were taken within an hour’s drive of my home in Sonoma County, California. I have paired them with sentences of scripture to show how I perceive my own connection through them with the God of my being. I pray that they will show you a way that leads you to be grounded in your own identity and affinity with the One who created you and calls you into the work you do.

“When he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth.” (Jeremiah 10:13)

“You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures forevermore!” (Psalm 16:11)

“Then my tongue shall tell of your righteousness and of your praise all day long.” (Psalm 35:28)

“For there shall be a sowing of peace; the vine shall yield its fruit, the ground shall give its produce, and the skies shall give their dew.” (Zechariah 8:12-13)

“The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever.” (Isaiah 40:8)

“Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in splendor, doing wonders?” (Exodus 15:11)

“Happy are those…whose hope is in the Lord their God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them!” (Psalm 146:5-6)

Rev. Eric Beene is General Presbyter of the Presbytery of the Redwoods and an amateur photographer. Previously, he served as Pastor to congregations in Savannah, Georgia, and Boston, Massachusetts. He lives in Windsor, California, with his wife Mary and their teenage son Isaac.