Our Wild Saints

Rachel Carson, (1907-1964) was an American biologist well known for her writings on environmental pollution and the natural history of the sea. Her book, Silent Spring (1962), became one of the most influential books in the modern environmental movement and provided the impetus for tighter control of pesticides, including DDT.

Silent Spring suggested that the planetary ecosystem was reaching the limits of what it could sustain. Carson stood behind her warnings of the consequences of indiscriminate pesticide use despite the threat of lawsuits from the chemical industry.

“The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.”

Rev. Ruth Underwood was the first woman ordained in our area in the United Methodist Church. Legend has it she hopped the fence of the Kilmer property in Windsor, NY and convinced a group of people to buy the land and establish a Sky Lake Camp in 1947. We admire her fence-hopping gumption and ability to sense the Spirit’s presence in this land. As one of the founders of Sky Lake she is our saint of this sacred space.

Marsha P. Johnson, (1945-1992) was an African American trans woman activist and one of those credited with starting the Stonewall Rebellion that launched the modern LGBTQ liberation movement. Those LQBTQ people that resisted police at the Stonewall Rebellion dared to battle an unjust system. They stand for the human spirit and faith in ourselves. They performed the miracle of transforming shame into pride.

Marsha remained faithful, lying prostrate in front of the statue of the Virgin Mary after friends died of AIDS or other hate acts. She was very much connected to God as a woman and to Mary.

“How many years has it taken people to realize that we are all brothers and sisters and human beings in the human race?”

Gloria Jean Watkins (1952 – 2021), was better known by her pen name bell hooks. bell was an American author, theorist, educator, and social critic who was a Distinguished Professor in Residence at Berea College.

Her scholarly and activist works examined the connections between race, gender, and class. She often explored the varied perceptions of Black women and Black women writers and the development of feminist identities.

“To love well is the task in all meaningful relationships, not just romantic bonds.” “Knowing how to be solitary is central to the art of loving. When we can be alone, we can be with others without using them as a means of escape.”

RuPaul is unequivocally the most famous drag performer of all time. With recent political attacks on performing drag, sainting her seemed right.
RuPaul wrote in her book Workin’ It! Rupaul’s Guide to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Style, “We all came into this world naked. The rest is drag. Whatever you proclaim
as your identity here in the material realm is drag. You are not your religion. You are not your skin color. You are not your gender, your politics, your career, or your marital status. You are none of the superficial things that this world deems important. The real you is the energy force that created the entire universe!” AMEN

One of RuPaul’s most famous lines, which she says at the end of every episode of Drag Race is, “If you don’t love yourself, how in the hell you gonna love somebody else?” Which is the greatest commandment but in reverse, right? If the goal is to love others better start practicing on yourself.

Nap Bishop & Founder of the Nap Ministry, Tricia Hersey! In her book, Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto :
“For Black people who are descendants of enslaved Africans via the Transatlantic Slave Trade and chattel slavery, consider the fact that your Ancestors built this entire nation for free with their stolen labor. Use this knowledge to tap into what they have already done, so you don’t have to grind yourself into oblivion now.”

“Without love, our efforts to liberate ourselves and our world community from oppression and exploitation are doomed. As long as we refuse to address fully the place of love in struggles for liberation, we will not be able to create a culture of conversion where there is a mass turning away from an ethic of domination.”

We need communities of rest!

Probably the most famous resident of Broome County, a visionary, advocate, and sci-fi legend, Mr. Rod Serling (1924 – 1975), was creator and writer of The Twilight Zone, ‘59-‘64. An episode was even filmed at Rec Park! Rod Serling is most known as a writer / producer, but he was a staunch activist who repeatedly butted heads with Hollywood execs over issues of censorship and racism.

“If you write, fix pipes, grade papers, lay bricks or drive a taxi – do it with a sense of pride. And do it the best you know how. Be cognizant and sympathetic to the guy alongside, because he wants a place in the sun, too. And always…always look past his color, his creed, his religion and the shape of his ears. Look for the whole person. Judge him as the whole person.”
“The ultimate obscenity is not caring, not doing something about what you feel, not feeling! Just drawing back and drawing in, becoming narcissistic.”
In response to the assassination of MLK, “A sickness known as hate; not a virus, not a microbe, not a germ – but a sickness nonetheless, highly contagious, deadly in its effects. Don’t look for it in the Twilight Zone – look for it in a mirror. Look for it before the light goes out altogether.”

John Denver

Sainted August 14, 2024