by Rev. Charlotte Lehmann

I grew up Unitarian Universalist with a father who was a professional geologist. As a kid, I pored over books about the earth and plate tectonics. We had mineral specimens, hard hats, head lamps, rock hammers, and all kinds of stuff, and with my father in the lead, we explored I made fossil expeditions on my own, riding my bike around the lakes in Minneapolis.

My geology major in college brought me outside in a way other academic disciplines didn’t. As a young adult, I worked summers for my dad. The mineral exploration business involves research and discovery—staking claims, sampling rocks, and finding out the ore content to determine whether there is an economic advantage to extracting a resource.

Because of my father, I know in my bones our dependence on the extraction industry. We simply can’t live as we do, using computers, talking on phones and driving everywhere, without extracting resources from the earth.

As a Unitarian Universalist, I also know our stewardship responsibility. The Seventh Principle means more than an interconnected web of life—it is actually “all existence” that we’re connected to: rocks, water, everything. No, we cannot live the way we do without an impact on the Earth. How can we be more measured and better understand both sides: the business side which supports technology we count on; the environmentalist side which looks out for our interconnected web?

My father died in December 2013. The minister who delivered his eulogy had picked up on the depth of Dad’s connection to the Earth. Paraphrasing the Rev. Jeffrey Sartain: The land is not simply a vehicle or only a resource; it is a friend, a mysterious companion, an object deserving respect, and even reverence.

As my father’s daughter, I am humbled and awed by the magnificence of the Earth in its grandeur and its detail of form and function. The variety and beauty of minerals and the creativity of Creation inspire me daily. I habitually pick up rocks and put them in my pocket, even now. I still carry a rock hammer in my car, just in case.

Wondering Questions

• What is your passion or vocation?
• How do you share it with your children?
• What do your children do or ask in response to a parent’s vocation?
• What lessons of faith, spirituality, or ethics do you transmit, along with information or skills?

Additional Activities

Download the Fall 2014 UUWorld Families Pages (pdf) for more activities.

Originally published in the “Families Weave a Tapestry of Faith” insert in The UUWorld.