Words&Dirt

“‘In a war one is either living like a prince or a vagabond. I have seen Lord Wellington––his Grace, I should say––sleeping under a tree with only a rock for a pillow. At other times I have seen thieves and beggars snoring upon feather-beds in palace bed-chambers. War is a very topsy-turvy business.’”

––Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke, pg. 431-2

“As I sit here in this shaggy yard writing to you, I remember a favorite spot from the woods behind my childhood house in Ohio, a meadow encircled by trees and filled with long grass that turned the color of bright pennies in the fall. I loved to lie there and watch the clouds, as I’m watching the high, surly stormclouds rolling over me now. I want you to be able to lie in the grass without worrying that the kiss of the sun will poison your skin. I want you to be able to drink water from faucets and creeks, to eat fruits and vegetables straight from the soil. I want you to be safe from lightning and loneliness, from accidents and disease. I would spare you all harm if I could. But I also want you to know there are powers much older and grander than our own––earthquakes, volcanoes, tornadoes, thunderstorms, glaciers, floods. I pray that you will never forget them. And remember that nature is a lot bigger than our planet: it’s the shaping energy that drives the whole universe, the wheeling galaxies as well as water striders, the shimmering pulsars as well as your beating heart.”

––Moral Ground: Ethical Action for a Planet in Peril, “We Bear You in Mind,” by Scott Russell Sanders, pg. 48