“These magnificent animals are killed oftentimes for their tusks along, like buffaloes for their tongues, ostriches for their feathers, or for mere sport and exercise. In nothing does man, with his great notions of heaven and charity, show forth his innate, low-bred, wild animalism more clearly than in his treatment of his brother beasts. From [...]
Archive for the ‘Environment’ Category
Great Notions of Heaven and Charity
Posted in Environment, Photography on December 10, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
The Siege of Leningrad
Posted in Environment, Libraries, Literature, War on November 25, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Excerpts from Writing the Siege of Leningrad; Women’s Diaries, Memoirs, and Documentary Prose (2002), collected and edited by Cynthia Simmons and Nina Perlina: “G. Popov dropped in on us today and played the piano. He called me into the room and started to play Ravel’s ‘Promenade in auto.’ At the most bravura place he says: [...]
Man vs. Nature
Posted in Environment on April 16, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
“Man must feel the earth to know himself and recognize his values…. God made life simple. It is man who complicates it.” – Charles A. Lindbergh “The control man has secured over nature has far outrun his control over himself.” – Ernest Jones, The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud (1953) “As we watch the [...]
A Few Words on the Environment
Posted in Environment on April 13, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
“Something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let the remaining wilderness be destroyed; if we permit the last virgin forests to be turned into comic books and plastic cigarette cases; if we drive the few remaining members of the wild species into zoos or to extinction; if we pollute [...]
Here Is Home
Posted in Art, Environment, Gardening, Literature on August 2, 2010 | 1 Comment »
“Any grove or any wood is a fine thing to see. But the magic here, strangely, is not apparent from the road. It is necessary to leave the impersonal highway, to step inside the rusty gate and close it behind. By this, an act of faith is committed, through which one accepts blindly the communion [...]
Awning
Posted in Environment, Photography, Skaneateles on June 5, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Seen on my walk home, a tree fungus serving as an awning over the entrance to a squirrel’s nest.
Canoes
Posted in Art, Environment, Literature on May 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“Our canoes go with the river, but no longer easily or lazily. Every step of the way must be carefully chosen; now close to the steep bank where the bushes hang over; now in mid-stream among the huge pointed rocks; now by the lowest point of a broad sunken ledge where the water sweeps smoothly [...]
The Silver Lining
Posted in Art, Environment on March 9, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I cannot do this justice, but there it is: Last night, thunder, lightning and sheets of freezing rain, and a midnight plunge in temperature. Today, cold, sunny, and every twig and branch shining like a diamond.
All the Trees of the Wood
Posted in Environment, Literature, Religion on December 25, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
“Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth by glad; let the sea thunder and all that is in it; let the field be joyful and all that is therein. Then shall all the trees of the wood shout for joy before the Lord when he comes, when he comes to judge the earth.” – [...]
Trees
Posted in Environment on December 20, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
To me, one of the tragedies of cutting down old trees is that they are gone forever. Mankind will never again let a tree grow for 100 years, let alone 700 or 1000 years. And when you compare trees to people, trees do relatively little harm in this world. Below, just the latest thoughtless crime, [...]
