Letter from President Thomforde

Earth Day 2004

Men and Women of St. Olaf:

Thursday, April 22, 2004 is Earth Day.  For the past several days, a phrase
from Psalm 24 has been sounding in my mind and heart, "The earth is the
Lord's and the fullness thereof."  

Let me take the liberty of sharing with you some of my thoughts about the
earth in light of this phrase and of several episodes in my own life.  Let
these thoughts of mine be a catalyst to help you reflect upon your own place
on earth, and for all of us to reflect together about St. Olaf's calling to
care for the planet and its people.

If "the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof" then, it seems
appropriate to me to spend our best energies wondering about the earth.
This wonderful world is not simply a place to live or a commodity to sustain
our own livelihoods.  It's also an object of wonder, something to reflect
upon, something to study, something to care about.  Once, while sailing
around the northern coast of Japan on my way to Russia, and then many years
later, again, while standing alone on a starry night in the midst of the
great wheat field on the plains of Kansas, I had a direct sense of the
awesome wonder of the earth.  The greatness of the earth and its sublime
majesty held me firm in a most sacred moment.  Earth Day can be a time for
us to grow in appreciation of our planetary home, to wonder about its
breadth and greatness, and its future.  

As you know, I fly around the country a great deal, representing St. Olaf to
its various constituencies. Sometimes, I have a window seat and I can spend
long periods of time looking out the window as my plane flies over the face
of the earth.  I am often struck by the many artificial boundaries I see far
below me.  While the earth is a place of wonder, it is also a place of
contention and violence, as we divide up the face of the earth and its
hidden riches between what belongs to my group and me and what belongs to
others.  If the earth is the Lord's, what might these boundaries mean?  And
what does it mean to try to divide the face of the earth into districts and
nations that have my group and me at the center of their identity? 

My son Jon gave me a copy of a set of essays by Aldo Leopold as a Christmas
present in 2002.  I read them with great interest, in part out of
appreciation for my son's love of the environment.  Among many significant
insights, I remember this one from Leopold's essays: we live in community
with the earth.  Community is not only coming together of men and women to
serve a great and worthy cause; it is also the coming together of men and
women with trees and animals, with earth, sea, and sky as well.  We have
thought hard and tried to create human communities that are just and
creative.  And now, Leopold tells us, we need to think, hope, and act in
such a way that all the fullness of the Lord's earth might be lived out in
common as well.  Such an insight has powerful and direct impact upon us at
St. Olaf, for the college is not only a community of scholars and artists;
it is also a place, a space.  How does our teaching and learning and
performing affect this place?  How do we care for the campus where our life
and work literally take place?          

One last episode-Last September, I took my grandson Henry for a walk along
the banks of the Elbe River, which flows through Magdeburg, Germany where my
daughter Sarah and her family live.  It was a fine afternoon and a great
treat for me to be with Henry.  Then I began to think, "What will the
condition of this river and its beautiful banks be when Henry is my age?"
Earth Day brings to mind the issue of our stewardship of the earth today for
the sake of those who will be following us.  Of course, we are confronted
daily with genuine matters of life and death, health and disease, and
security and fear.  How do we respond to these challenges in ways that are
balanced and life giving for us and our communities, as well as good and
healthy for the long term viability of those who will be coming after us?

We are all up to our eyebrows in work these days and the end of the semester
creates a real sense of pressure for us in doing this work.  I do hope,
however, that you will take a moment this Earth Day to reflect upon the
Lord's earth, its fullness, it future, and your part in it all.  How are you
encountering the fullness of the earth in this place?  What are you doing at
St. Olaf to care for and honor the earth?  How are you helping to make the
earth a good home for future generations?  I know the pressure to get work
done these days, but I want to give us all "presidential permission" to
wonder, to reflect, to talk with others, to plan for the future, and to act
in ways that are sustaining of life in community with each other and with
the earth.

Christopher M. Thomforde
President