766
86.2 One Great Supposition: Ecology
To speak of if whilst thoroughly confined to the frissons of the Anthropocene invokes
both the desperation and grandiosity of our all too human supplications and hymns.
Like all good ideas, prayer decidedly takes enough time to satisfy the breadth of its
one great supposition, ecology. Barring the statistical likelihood of perfect beginnings or unequivocal endings, the ambiguous qualia defining human experience at
its perdurable moments of extremis are universally in no condition to argue with
reality. Philosophy cannot stand up to environmental calamity. Prayer at its most
vulnerable moments manifests answers to the nagging nexus of its inherent fragilities. What is most vulnerable—all mind shares in this category—will not be tempted
to mount crusades against the metabolic truth of any biome in which we figure.
Because prayer emerges typically at the intersection of angst and evident disaster, the earth will always provide for it, as if biology herself were mindful of the
Fig. 86.1 On the side of the road along a mountain pass in Mexico. (Photo © M.C.Tobias)
86 The Paradox of Prayer