As I travel this week through the Washington Dulles airport, I am struck by the focused human talent and energy devoted to the business and governmental machinery. Intelligent men and women buzz about, carrying their leather briefcases filled with memos, ad copy and laptops filled with data.

I try to imagine what it would be like if all this creativity and talent were suddenly awakened to the cause of reforming or turning human interrelationship with each other and our planet home. Seems to me that the issues of justice, which are fundamentally relational, are directly related to getting this first planetary relationship right.

In fact, for those who are devoted to their religious faith I might ask the question: what if the first and primary relationship with the divine is reflected in how we enter into the mystery of our relationship with creation? What if we were all to suddenly see this Earth–each hill, rock, stream and creature–as sacred?

Thomas Berry said that Earth is a one time endowment. He goes on to say that Earth is primary, that all else , including the human, is derivative. What if we acted as if we believed this?