- [Explainer] Generous support for the following program provided by the Bible Family Fund of the Denver Foundation and the O'Bannon Foundation, a fund of the Indianapolis Foundation.

(bright upbeat music) - As an 88-year resident of planet Earth, I'm constantly amazed by the infinite variety of activity I see going on around me, the complexity of it all, the way it all works together.

Every animal, every vegetable, every mineral, every solid, liquid and gas, each its own unique contribution just like us, to the bigger picture, the vast, infinite, interdependent, interconnected web of all creation.

I admit it's a lot for me to process more than I can handle on my own, which is why I reached out to these people.

- I exist because you exist.

- Some of my most thoughtful and most thought-provoking fellow Hoosiers to help me sort it all out.

- I see this connectedness in my community where pieces fit together.

- If we kind of allow science to inform our social understanding and whatnot, it's that we really are connected.

- If there really is a true back and forth connection between everything and everyone, what does it mean?

How does it affect, or maybe how should it affect the way we live our lives, how we think and feel and believe and behave?

Good questions in search of good answers, which I hope we can get a little closer to as we explore the connections that exist between you and me, everyone and everything everywhere.

(bright upbeat music) We begin today by saying hello to Dr. Carol Frances Johnston, an environmental theologian who brings us glad tidings of great joy.

Connect for me that joy, those people you admire and their connection with God, how does all that fit together?

- One of the things about having a spiritual sensitivity and practice of whatever kind, I wouldn't claim Christianity's the only one that works well, is that it helps you become much more aware of how interconnected we all are, and of that there is a dimension and a mystery in life that goes very deep and that it also sustains us.

- The people you said you'd so admired that were spiritual people, Desmond Tutu and how he just would giggle and laugh, and Dalai Lama has that hmm-hmm laugh he does, connect that with God, how you feel about God and creation, that joyfulness.

- Well, my own experience of the presence of God has in the times that I've had a deep experience, it always had an undercurrent of joy in it.

And the first time that I can remember it happening clearly, I was actually sitting in a really boring philosophy class in college, and all of a sudden I could perceive how everything is made of energy and everything is patterns of energy, and everything is swirling in and out of each other.

And along with that, I felt like there was something that was sustaining that, and it just felt wonderful.

And I've never forgotten that and other times I've seen, I've had experiences that were a little different, but still I felt a presence that was very reassuring.

It felt like it was saying, "You're loved, you're loved, you're loved beyond your wildest dreams."

And as I said, the spiritual leaders that I most admire, will all testify to that even the ones like the Dalai Lama who's not a theist, but he's full of joy and he has that, I mean, he must have had some experience of the interconnectedness of everything and of being sustained by that, whatever he wanted to name it, or his tradition might name it.

- Even as a kid, Carol recognized that there were lessons to be learned by paying attention to the natural world around her.

Now, all these years later in retirement, she finds that those lessons just keep on coming, lessons like biomimicry.

Now what is that?

- Biomimicry, mimicking nature.

Scientists are figuring out how to work with manufacturing designers to find out what they're trying to do, and then show them ways that nature's already figured out how to do it and how to do it in ways that are sustainable and renewable and... - Cost effective.

- And very cost effective.

And one of my favorites, of course, Velcro is a great example of biomimicry, Velcro is designed so that it's mimicking the burrs that are on in... that you find on bushes that grab onto you, that's what Velcro is, is it's just mimicking that.

- See, I never connected that before, oh, I love that, tell me about some others like that.

- Well, another one that's a great one is when they first started making the giant wind turbines, they had this terrible high hum, which drove everybody nuts, right?

So they were trying to figure out what to do about it, and somebody asked the right question, what moves through the air completely silently?

Owls, owls make no noise whatsoever when they fly.

So they studied the owls and they applied what they learned about owls' wings to the manufacturer of the big turbines and it works.

- And they don't buzz anymore?

- Nope, that's done, they figured it out.

- I've never had a friend that was an environmental theologian before.

And you know, I always introduce you as that because I just think that's sort of awesome, help us to understand maybe what people who follow more of a Christian kind of a leadership when in Genesis it says that God made the Garden of Eden and man and woman and said, "Now half dominion over."

I want you to discuss that religious portion.

- Okay, so you wanna look at the...?

- Yeah, we wanna look at (murmurs).

- Look at the text.

This is in Genesis chapter one, the very beginning of the Bible, the first creation story.

"And God said, 'Let us make humankind in our image.'"

That's what the Hebrew says, "'After our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the fowl of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth, over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.'"

And then a little further down it says, "Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air."

- A lot of people... - So what does that mean?

- Well, I think a lot of us in our institutions we've developed, have thought that meant if it feels good and makes you profitable, no matter what it is you're doing to the water, the air and the soil, do it.

- Well, that's one way to put it, another way, a similar way to put it, is that people think that means that we're in charge of everything, and we can do with it for our benefit, whatever we want to do with it, that's for our benefit.

- You're a theologian, how do you interpret it?

Well, I think if you read the story carefully, and I'm really serious about this, I'm talking about what the Bible says and what the Bible says, is that we are to have dominion the way an imitation of the way God exercises dominion because we're made in God's image and in the ancient Near East, bearing the image of the ruler means that you speak for the ruler and you act on the ruler's behalf and do what the ruler would do if the ruler were there.

So to have dominion is to do as God does with the rest of creation.

Now, we have immense, immense power in terms of our capacity to create destructive destruction in the natural world, in the creation, we're having such a great track record in being creative about improving it, even though we often think we are.

But the thing is, if you wanna figure out how God exercises dominion, the best thing to do is look at God's creation.

Just look at it and learn from it because God created it.

And what we are learning as we look at it, God loves diversity, I mean, the billions of species, God loves interconnectedness and interdependence because the species are all dependent on each other for life, and everything lives from the life of other things and then contributes to the life of other things one way or another, there are so many things we can learn from the natural world about what God's dominion is all about.

But one thing we know for sure it's all about, is a tremendously complex, dynamic, creative, marvelous, marvelous creation.

And so dominion, and it's clear in other places in the...

I mean, I could go on all day out this, but I won't, but it's clear when you read the text carefully, what is intended here is that human beings are called by God to join in, in helping the whole creation thrive.

All of life together, not just us, us, yes, but also us and everything else.

That's the point of dominion, of having being given dominion, is that we're called to be partners with God in the thriving of creation.

So it's such a misunderstanding to think that dominion has to do with dominating other things and doing what we want for our own sake.

That's not what it's all about at all.

- The garden also was not my creation.

- Next, let's meet Aster Bekele, a retired chemist, who by connecting science with the everyday lives of young people, makes those young lives richer and their futures much more promising.

- A lot of my passion really grew at Lilly's because it's community-oriented.

I remember when I started working at Lilly's, we had a training and that says we want happy employees, so find your passion, if you have to do any with community, do it, and I thought like, oh, so what do you have for me to get into?

How it started was I was going at lunchtime from Lilly's, we called it Brown Bag Science discussion.

So I'll go to IPS, we will talk, but I saw a lot of students who felt like science was not for them.

Then I thought, well, if I have more time than 20 minutes, it will make sense, so I started doing after school.

It still did not make sense.

- Aster created Felege Hiywot, now a thriving indoor, outdoor, rain or shine teaching laboratory.

But it didn't start out that way.

- What the place looked like here when we... when really started, boarded up and nobody would drive through here, at a point where I was getting ready to give up, these girl said, "Can we plant flowers?"

So when she asked that, I thought, yes, let's do what they want and put signs in there.

So that has been where really, a big education, like she asked that question, from then on, we asked them, "What do you wanna do next?

How does science fit in what you want, what you like?"

So that was my first education.

And then I realized, we're losing so many of the population here behind when we keep going and going and they were not gonna catch up unless we turn the language to what they understand.

That means whatever they're interested, science needs to fit there.

The way education needs to happen is I meet them where they are, and then we start talking and get to know them first, how do they think, how do they process things?

And then they start becoming part of that dialogue.

The scientific theory says, do you have a question?

Yeah, this happens, then how do you think you will go by to solve that?

What do you think will be a better way to do it?

And then they will say, "This and this and this," and I'll say, "Okay, let's go ahead and do it."

That's how that little girl in fourth grade started the garden 18 years ago because I listened and I said, "If that's what works, let's do that."

We started making them decide what color plant, where, how do they wanna do it, how do they wanna do the landscape?

So they were part of the discussion.

Then another thing I learned is there's a lot of things you gotta work through, I'm all excited that they can do... they can make decision and they can do this.

So basically I am more of their student first, and then after I become their student, then I see where I can put mine in.

So that's the way it works to really work with the students that I have been working with for 18 years, so that process is a long process, but we have to be patient because our goal is not so much rushing, but once you change the heart of one generation, you got it.

- Compassion is the recognition of the interconnectedness of all things, not just people, but our cosmos.

- Next, I'd like you to listen in on a conversation I had with Dr. Jim Lemons - Recognizing that we're all part of this journey, one of my favorite quotes by Ram Dass is, "We're simply walking each other home" and that mind's eye view to me of seeing us all together, one's not better than the other, we happen to be in these circumstances, but journeying together and caring for one another just naturally, that's what to me life should be about.

I do neonatology or newborn intensive care, so the NICU or the Newborn Intensive Care Unit is where we kind of live here at Riley, but we have a dozen NICUs that we manage, our faculty manage around the city and state, and we take care of probably eight or 10,000 babies in Indiana in intensive care every year.

- Why is it so important to save those babies?

- Oh, there are many reasons one could probably posit, but to me, that's the beginning of life and it's saving those children, but really empowering the parents at the same time because although we've improved on how we can care for babies tremendously over the last 40 years, a baby who weighed two pounds when I first came here, we would probably not even attempt to resuscitate and stabilize because their mortality rate was essentially 100%.

Now, a two-pound baby has 95% plus chance of survival and normal survival, quote, normal, whatever, how we interpret normal.

In this world of the NICU with all of these fragile, totally vulnerable newborns, that's where we need to receive the love and hopefully give it back.

- [Judy] If Dr. Lemons ever needs a reminder of just how far reaching and impactful the power of connection can be, all he has to do is think of Ashley Bowling.

He cared for Ashley, saved her life really as a newborn, and then many years later in another part of the world, it was Ashley's turn to return the favor.

- Ashley, here's this 28-year-old, beautiful young lady, who as a newborn was actually cared for critically ill, almost died back in the Riley Hospital NICU in Indiana, now teaching nurses in the NICU at the Riley Mother & Baby Hospital of Kenya.

But those kind of connections through love and the ripple of love that goes around and around and around, and if we're lucky to catch some of those ripples wherever they may occur right here at home, but sometimes around the world, and to me, that's what fills me up in medicine.

We always say we have maybe four dimensions if we consider time, but string theory requires 11 or 13 dimensions, and of course we can't imagine that, but I began to at least try to open my mind to the possibilities of dimensions that we really don't understand, but maybe in the future, our young people with the new technologies might be able to begin to probe.

But to me, still love has to hold it all together and that requires connectivity and relationship.

(Dani croaking loudly) - [Judy] Can you identify the foreign language this woman is speaking?

- When you see the cranes fly in the sky, I can talk to them... - [Judy] The sandhill cranes?

- Yes, I can talk to them and they'll come back and then they see that I'm not who they thought I was and they'll go on.

- Who she is is Dani Tippmann, a member of the Miami of Oklahoma Tribe, and also director of the Whitley County Historical Museum.

- Well, we're in the Whitley County Historical Museum, and behind us you can see some of the displays about Miami people.

- But I'm particularly interested in talking you because you are of an Indian-American descent and what we're seeing behind you, is a scene of maybe what their housing would look like, their clothing.

- Yes, there's a cattail wuhyami, the cattail leaves of the cattail plant are sewn together in mats and those are the outsides of the wigwam.

I'm a citizen of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma, and nilo Myaamia, I am Miami.

We have a way of thinking and we have a way of living that is Miami, and I think that is truly what is important is the culture that's passed down from one generation to the next.

Heritage food connects us to our past, right?

So these are Miami corn that have been passed down from mother to daughter for generations.

It's not just something that nourishes my body, nourishes my soul when I eat it, we have a saying that our food is our medicine and what we eat either makes us healthy or doesn't.

- [Judy] What does that say as a gardener when you look at weeds coming up?

- I go through and I harvest the weeds the first day and we'll have those for supper, and then the next day I'll harvest whatever is I planted.

- [Judy] Okay, like tell me some examples of what people might think is weeds that you have for supper.

- So this plant is a plant that we use as food, it's called lamb's quarter or goosefoot, this is swamp milkweed, this plant is called lamb's-ear, this little plant is called purslane, this is a plant that you'll commonly see, it grows low to the ground and it's called Crassula, and it'll have these purple flowers and they make a nice little button-shaped fruit that we can peel out and you can see it, it's really, really tasty.

The air I breathe has been breathed so many times before by other people.

The water that I drink was probably peed by dinosaurs at some time, but that connects me to every other being in the world, past, present, we're all connected through not just those physical things, the earth and the water and the air, but through a spiritual way too.

All together here, because we are all connected, we see...

I see a spirit in you and I understand that all over the world we are connected and not just to other people, but to the plants and to the animals.

What I do every day in my life, is gonna affect a person on the other side of the world in some way.

And if I do good in my life and I try my best, then I am gonna project good all the way across the world.

Maybe infinitesimal, but if we all do good, that grows on it and it makes it so much better.

(bright upbeat music) - Dr. Carol Johnston, an environmental theologian, looks to God's creation for the guidance as to man's role in the cosmos.

Aster Bekele, a retired chemist, has found that meeting kids' needs means listening to their interests and concerns, thus finding their connections to science as an aid to problem-solving and giving purpose to life.

Dr. Jim Lemons, who over the years while caring for fragile premature babies and developing institutions that can serve them, has found that love and skill and resources must all be factored into make impacts on how babies survive to become healthy contributing adults.

(Dani croaking loudly) Dani Tippmann gives us a modern day prescription for a way of life from her heritage and occupation, and shows how she is not just a descendant of the Miami Tribe, but is instead a Miami, a citizen, and a human being.

How does your ancestry or personal past, coupled with your occupation and passion, link you to the cosmos of millions of years past and into the great future beyond?

I'm Judy O'Bannon, thanks for watching.

(bright upbeat music) - [Explainer] Generous support provided by the Bible Family Fund of the Denver Foundation and the O'Bannon Foundation, a fund of the Indianapolis Foundation.

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