I wish I could still live this. Instead, I got an EnviroSci degree and now live Aldo Leopold's warning: “One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds. Much of the damage inflicted on land is quite invisible to laymen. An ecologist must either harden his shell and make believe that the consequences of science are none of his business, or he must be the doctor who sees the marks of death in a community that believes itself well and does not want to be told otherwise.” I love the wild, but it's a battle to feel the peace in it.
And Edward Abbey wrote: "One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am - a reluctant enthusiast....a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this; You will outlive the bastards.” ― Edward Abbey And Aldo Leopold also wrote: "We shall never achieve harmony with the land, anymore than we shall achieve absolute justice or liberty for people. In these higher aspirations the important thing is not to achieve but to strive.” ― Aldo Leopold, Round River: From the Journals of Aldo Leopold Keep fighting the good fight and striving with your knowledge and degree...then bathe in nature during your respites...
Tell me more. It sounds like social work for humans bur for the world. You bear wounds with others and bc u see it u cannot unsee it and beauty feels elusive. Does that sound similar? I listened to a podcast on fungi and their role in ecosystems. Invisible but so important. I am blown away how connected to earth we are and how we simply overlook it and destroy it so easily.
I spend many hours "taxing my life with forethought of what my children" and grandchildren's " lives may be," as we hurtle toward climate change and the destruction of life. I lived in Costa Rica, the country with the greatest percentage of conserved land teeming with wildlife, and recently moved to NH surrounded by old forest, my view of forest out of each window; in over a week, I have had one bird in my yard, few bugs. No birds have landed on my bird feeder. As I walk my dog in silent woods, it is hard to come into " the peace of wild things." So I rest in the peace of my dog and her joy.
Humans also have to be at peace being a wild thing in the presence of other beings. And we are too busy to enjoy it. Thank u. Now i want to visit NH. Drove thru NH and i so wanted to stay. We were visiting Maine. Loved it.
I have only just discovered this poem. The video perfectly captures the essence of how in a troubled world there is, if you look for it fleeting moments of peace and beauty.
Dam… I don’t think I’ve ever heard something as powerful and that so uniquely fits me, my life, and how I cope! This will stay with me for life and be read and listened to quite often!
This is my most favourite poem! Thank you so much for this wonderful video, along with the words, the visual art takes me to the world of Wendell Berry 😭❤️
Wonderful conversation, and yet I find myself frustrated. The amount of times, spiritual or spirituality was brought up in this conversation is annoying. Why is it that we have to be spiritual? Why can’t we just be human? Why is that not enough? I feel Spirituality is the new Jesus. If you were to put Jesus into this conversation every time you mentioned spirituality I think you might realize my frustration. I am a human. I am not a spiritual being stuck in a human body. Why cant I go into a shop and buy a tomato and be happy that I’m involved with other humans and participating in their nurturing and my own. Why is that a spiritual act, and not a human act. The new forms of giving power to outside entities has become normalized. I do appreciate everything that this conversation has brought. It’s misleading to say spirituality will create a better world. Human beings with all of their faults may or may not create a better world. That’s the truth and possibly frightening.
This is an interesting point you bring up and a valid annoyance in a world that’s full of so many different people and different vantage points. The world would be boring with a bunch of spiritualists all agreeing with each other. The friction of billions of lives bouncing off each other, each human engrossed in their own personal life movie, attempting to simply survive is the name of the game for some. Others just attempting a life of peace amidst the chaos of everyone else’s friction and power grabs or fighting over beliefs, while some may only have the luxury of deciding who eats the last piece of bread, too concerned with biological sustenance. The world often feels like it’s the wild wilderness of peace and immediacy that is overlayed with all of our internal stories. This poem seems to reflect on the awareness that beyond all the stories we are all wrapped up in from day to day (including the concepts of spirituality vs human vs nature vs nurture vs religion vs biology vs evolution, etc.) To me the act of being “spiritual” has nothing to do with beliefs or religion or dogma or shoulds vs shouldn’t. To me, being spiritual IS simply paying attention to the space inside me that can focus on the stories of my life or can focus on the wordless peace of nature or can ponder on a million whys, or can just be. To buy a tomato amongst other humans, just going about your human day can just be a human thing or it can be a “spiritual” experience to another as they consider the miracle of how the sunlight and the earth and a human worked together to foster this tomato into your hands. But where did the tomato come from to begin with? Why a tomato at all? Why does anything exist at all and certainly why am I compelled to spend my time responding to a question that was obviously rhetorical and aimed at no one? I can only posit that love is the force that created the tomatoes and the sun and human and the awareness that the human has of their experience. Without awareness of all this, without the friction, without the ability to focus on peace, without the yin and yang we experience here- there would be no game. And to me, the game is to have a human experience as you said. You can have yours how you choose to see it and name it, and I can have mine. And somewhere along the lines our experience overlaps, even in a small TH-cam comment thread her we are- just having a human experience. Perhaps there is more under the surface that choose to filter out until we crave something more out of the experience. Energy cannot be created or destroyed- only changed. And I’m grateful I’m always changing throughout this human experience. Be well my friend.
Spirituality is a human need, like water, nutrition, love, and intimacy. If spirituality isn’t in the mix, then it’s going to be hard to attain any meaningful traction on, well, anything.
Spirituality is a running theme of On Being, and of Wendell Berry’s work and life, so it is only fair and expected that it would be a major component of a conversation with him in this podcast.
@@UuuuyyyyuuuI absolutely LOVE how you expressed this. Rich words indeed. Hope you will write a book someday. I would surely be the first one at your book signing. ❤
I have been privileged to watch a coyote grab a rabbit out from under my deck in the time before I had enclosed the gap, to witness a fox trot up to the pole where a birdfeeder hangs and quickly scoop up and flip a chipmunk into its mouth and swallow it whole, to notice the sudden shadow of a hawk zooming overhead and look on in stunned silence as it turned mid-flight to snatch a goldfinch off the perch of that same birdfeeder, to see a crow pluck a baby rabbit out of a shallow burrow at the base of a chimney and fly off to its own nest with it while it screamed, to observe an hour’s long effort of a hardworking fox to chew a rabbit in half and then dig a deep hole and bury half where it stood and carry the other half across my street to bury it on a neighbor’s land. Several times a month, an often drawn out episode of screaming will awaken me when the owls find sustenance by moonlight. Opinions may vary, but to me, these things are as representative of the grace of the world as a sunset.
I wish I could still live this. Instead, I got an EnviroSci degree and now live Aldo Leopold's warning: “One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds. Much of the damage inflicted on land is quite invisible to laymen. An ecologist must either harden his shell and make believe that the consequences of science are none of his business, or he must be the doctor who sees the marks of death in a community that believes itself well and does not want to be told otherwise.”
I love the wild, but it's a battle to feel the peace in it.
Thanks for sharing this thought and quote. I am extremely moved
And Edward Abbey wrote:
"One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am - a reluctant enthusiast....a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this; You will outlive the bastards.”
― Edward Abbey
And Aldo Leopold also wrote:
"We shall never achieve harmony with the land, anymore than we shall achieve absolute justice or liberty for people. In these higher aspirations the important thing is not to achieve but to strive.”
― Aldo Leopold, Round River: From the Journals of Aldo Leopold
Keep fighting the good fight and striving with your knowledge and degree...then bathe in nature during your respites...
@@jefftolhurst9876 Love your post. In other words... "right here right now." Thank you.
Thank you. I feel you!
Tell me more. It sounds like social work for humans bur for the world. You bear wounds with others and bc u see it u cannot unsee it and beauty feels elusive. Does that sound similar? I listened to a podcast on fungi and their role in ecosystems. Invisible but so important. I am blown away how connected to earth we are and how we simply overlook it and destroy it so easily.
I read this poem often and share it often. It soothes my soul.
In view of the new terror over the weekend, this is a welcome solace. I feel more of this is needed.
There’s something so genuine about the art style. Very raw and sincere.
I spend many hours "taxing my life with forethought of what my children" and grandchildren's " lives may be," as we hurtle toward climate change and the destruction of life. I lived in Costa Rica, the country with the greatest percentage of conserved land teeming with wildlife, and recently moved to NH surrounded by old forest, my view of forest out of each window; in over a week, I have had one bird in my yard, few bugs. No birds have landed on my bird feeder. As I walk my dog in silent woods, it is hard to come into " the peace of wild things." So I rest in the peace of my dog and her joy.
Humans also have to be at peace being a wild thing in the presence of other beings. And we are too busy to enjoy it. Thank u. Now i want to visit NH. Drove thru NH and i so wanted to stay. We were visiting Maine. Loved it.
I have only just discovered this poem. The video perfectly captures the essence of how in a troubled world there is, if you look for it fleeting moments of peace and beauty.
One of my favorite poems. A wonderful vocalization of the peace and sureness that is apparent in all things wild.
Dam… I don’t think I’ve ever heard something as powerful and that so uniquely fits me, my life, and how I cope! This will stay with me for life and be read and listened to quite often!
I love Wendell Berry. Deeply needed today with the tragedy in the Ukraine. Thank you, Julia
I've loved this poem for many years. Thanks for adding the creative video!
I keep coming back to this video...poem is beautiful and the visualization blends it in perfectly💙
Beautiful. Wendell Berry is such a treasure and this animation is a perfect collaboration with his words.
This is my most favourite poem! Thank you so much for this wonderful video, along with the words, the visual art takes me to the world of Wendell Berry 😭❤️
This was sent to me by an education mentor I admire. This was so moving, and I appreciate the message. Powerful!
"In wildness is the preservation of the world." Henry David Thoreau
This poem is so reassuring & so vital, especially lately.
Beautifully relaxing!
A favorite poem. Apropos for what most of us need to feel right now. Thank you.
Beautiful, apt, perfectly aligned in word and image. Thank you.
So beautiful... 🕊
Rest in the grace of the world"
I love hearing and reading this before bedtime...
Beautiful poem. Wonderful animation. Thank you.
comforting and excruciating
Wow. Amazing poem and loved the illustrations!
Gorgeous. Thank you for sharing.
Sometimes I can only utter... wow!
What a visionary Mr Berry is …
I love this! It transports me to a different place.
So beautiful! Thank you!
Very relaxing and reassuring.😌
I love this so much!
Beautiful!
Coming here after watching an episode of "Emergency Room (ER)" where old Dr. Lawrence declamated this poem. Who else?
i love hearing his accent
love.
Beautiful 🕊️✌️
incredible
Beautiful
Perfect
Lovely
Fullfilling
I remember being this.
Wonderful conversation, and yet I find myself frustrated. The amount of times, spiritual or spirituality was brought up in this conversation is annoying. Why is it that we have to be spiritual? Why can’t we just be human? Why is that not enough? I feel Spirituality is the new Jesus. If you were to put Jesus into this conversation every time you mentioned spirituality I think you might realize my frustration. I am a human. I am not a spiritual being stuck in a human body. Why cant I go into a shop and buy a tomato and be happy that I’m involved with other humans and participating in their nurturing and my own. Why is that a spiritual act, and not a human act. The new forms of giving power to outside entities has become normalized. I do appreciate everything that this conversation has brought. It’s misleading to say spirituality will create a better world. Human beings with all of their faults may or may not create a better world. That’s the truth and possibly frightening.
This is an interesting point you bring up and a valid annoyance in a world that’s full of so many different people and different vantage points. The world would be boring with a bunch of spiritualists all agreeing with each other. The friction of billions of lives bouncing off each other, each human engrossed in their own personal life movie, attempting to simply survive is the name of the game for some. Others just attempting a life of peace amidst the chaos of everyone else’s friction and power grabs or fighting over beliefs, while some may only have the luxury of deciding who eats the last piece of bread, too concerned with biological sustenance.
The world often feels like it’s the wild wilderness of peace and immediacy that is overlayed with all of our internal stories.
This poem seems to reflect on the awareness that beyond all the stories we are all wrapped up in from day to day (including the concepts of spirituality vs human vs nature vs nurture vs religion vs biology vs evolution, etc.) To me the act of being “spiritual” has nothing to do with beliefs or religion or dogma or shoulds vs shouldn’t. To me, being spiritual IS simply paying attention to the space inside me that can focus on the stories of my life or can focus on the wordless peace of nature or can ponder on a million whys, or can just be.
To buy a tomato amongst other humans, just going about your human day can just be a human thing or it can be a “spiritual” experience to another as they consider the miracle of how the sunlight and the earth and a human worked together to foster this tomato into your hands. But where did the tomato come from to begin with? Why a tomato at all? Why does anything exist at all and certainly why am I compelled to spend my time responding to a question that was obviously rhetorical and aimed at no one?
I can only posit that love is the force that created the tomatoes and the sun and human and the awareness that the human has of their experience. Without awareness of all this, without the friction, without the ability to focus on peace, without the yin and yang we experience here- there would be no game. And to me, the game is to have a human experience as you said. You can have yours how you choose to see it and name it, and I can have mine. And somewhere along the lines our experience overlaps, even in a small TH-cam comment thread her we are- just having a human experience.
Perhaps there is more under the surface that choose to filter out until we crave something more out of the experience. Energy cannot be created or destroyed- only changed. And I’m grateful I’m always changing throughout this human experience. Be well my friend.
I’m with you
Spirituality is a human need, like water, nutrition, love, and intimacy. If spirituality isn’t in the mix, then it’s going to be hard to attain any meaningful traction on, well, anything.
Spirituality is a running theme of On Being, and of Wendell Berry’s work and life, so it is only fair and expected that it would be a major component of a conversation with him in this podcast.
@@UuuuyyyyuuuI absolutely LOVE how you expressed this. Rich words indeed. Hope you will write a book someday. I would surely be the first one at your book signing. ❤
Free & unafraid I am
Well, I wonder if he has ever watched a coyote devour hare while it's alive and screaming? I love Berry, but this is pure sentimentality.
There is an existential ease of fearlessness regarding one's end. We are all worms' meat in the end.
@@johnmarkhunter yes, and one does not negate the beauty and power of the other.
Yes. Sentimentality may be the right word. And yet...is it to be dismissed for that reason? Have no idea.
Nature can be cruel in the daily fight for survival, but it teaches us all that there is beauty, calm and refuge in existence.
I have been privileged to watch a coyote grab a rabbit out from under my deck in the time before I had enclosed the gap, to witness a fox trot up to the pole where a birdfeeder hangs and quickly scoop up and flip a chipmunk into its mouth and swallow it whole, to notice the sudden shadow of a hawk zooming overhead and look on in stunned silence as it turned mid-flight to snatch a goldfinch off the perch of that same birdfeeder, to see a crow pluck a baby rabbit out of a shallow burrow at the base of a chimney and fly off to its own nest with it while it screamed, to observe an hour’s long effort of a hardworking fox to chew a rabbit in half and then dig a deep hole and bury half where it stood and carry the other half across my street to bury it on a neighbor’s land. Several times a month, an often drawn out episode of screaming will awaken me when the owls find sustenance by moonlight. Opinions may vary, but to me, these things are as representative of the grace of the world as a sunset.