Born in a national forest in the High Sierra between California and Oregon next to Mt. Shasta, Brenda Peterson lived her early years within millions of acres of wilderness.
“I was in a natural, beautiful setting, and I was given my natural birthright,” Peterson said. “Having a family that loved the earth and other animals gave me a strong grounding in the idea of earth as God’s creation.”
Her father, a forest service ranger, always encouraged the author’s appreciation of the natural beauty of the region.
“He obviously loved trees and rivers, and was very much a teacher to me of the beauty of the world. On the other hand, my family’s religion depended on the church,” Peterson said.
During her childhood, Peterson was often faced with two opposing ideas of the world. The author’s family was Southern Baptist by religion, and in her memoir she talks about how the belief of the world as just a place to reside until the Rapture comes strongly contradicted with her father’s ideas about the environment and the natural world.
“I’ve resolved that the forest got to me before the faith did,” Peterson said. “[The belief that] this world is not my home, I’m just passing through, and the readiness in favor to go to heaven conflicted with my love of Earth. As a child that put me in a paradox.”
Peterson said it’s something that she’s still looking at today, and she says she has come to the realization that she doesn’t belong as a Southern Baptist because of these issues. Peterson thinks of earth as more than just a temporary home for people until the Rapture.
“If we looked at the earth as more divine, we would take care of it, and if we really thought our souls were at home here as many native peoples do, we wouldn’t be avoiding global warming,” Peterson said.
I Want to Be Left Behind: Finding Rapture Here on Earth is quite different from her previous work, which was mostly about animals and nature, but also her spiritual journey. In the new memoir, Peterson adds her sense of humor in a playful criticism of the beliefs she was taught as a child.
“It’s got a definite comic edge. I meant it to be a dark comedy,” the author said. “I think it comes with age, the understanding that we aren’t the center of the universe, an idea that we have when we’re young.”
Peterson’s memoir also touches on how she felt as a child living in a paradox between two conflicting beliefs, and how that affected the way she felt when interacting with her family.
“However old we are, we all have had that feeling,” Peterson said. “[The feeling that we’re] misfits, and this is my story of not quite fitting in with a family that pretty much believes the same thing.”
Peterson, a resident of Seattle, Wash., says she feels like she fits in now, right here in the Northwest.
“The combination between spirituality and environmentalism in the northwest is really a blessing, and I’m looking forward to coming to Portland” Peterson said.
For additional information about her upbringing, the memoir, her environmental work or her previous and upcoming books visit www.iwantobeleftbehind.com. Peterson will be visiting from Seattle to Powell’s City of Books here in Portland.
“Instead of finding rapture away from this earth and having our spiritual practice separate,” Peterson said. “We need to find rapture, [and that] spiritual and religious fulfillment in this divine creation, Earth.”