AN OAKEN STRENGTH

“In reading Henry Thoreau’s journal, I am very sensible of the vigour of his constitution. That oaken strength which I noted whenever he walked, or worked, or surveyed wood-lots, the same unhesitating hand with which a field-labourer accosts a piece of work, which I should shun as a waste of strength, Henry shows in his literary task. He has muscle, and ventures on and performs feats which I am forced to decline. In reading him, I find the same thought, the same spirit that is in me, but he takes a step beyond, and illustrates by excellent images that which I should have conveyed in a sleepy generality. ” 

                                                                                         Ralph Waldo Emerson, June 24, 1863                                                                           Digital Emerson   Work Cited: The Heart of Emerson's Journals. Ed. Bliss Perry.                                                                 Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1926. Print.

"YOUNG MEN OF SENSIBILITY..."

 “If we should ever print Henry’s journals, you may look for a plentiful crop of naturalists. Young men of sensibility must fall an easy prey to the charming of Pan’s pipe.”
                                                                                                                   Ralph Waldo Emerson,  June 1862

The Heart of Emerson's Journals. Ed. Bliss Perry. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1926. Print./ 
Digital Emerson: http://digitalemerson.wsulibs.wsu.edu/exhibits/show/context/parlor/henry-david-thoreau

May we look upon our treasures, the furniture of our houses, and our garments, and try whether the seeds of war have nourishment in these, our possessions.

John Woolman
Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)

Be Here Now

In any weather, at any hour of the day or night, I have been anxious to improve the nick of time, and notch it on my stick too; to stand on the meeting of two eternities, the past and future, which is precisely the present moment; to toe that line.

Poverty, slavery and apartheid

“Overcoming poverty is not a task of charity; it is an act of justice.
Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it
can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings. Sometimes
it falls on a generation to be great. YOU can be that great generation.
Let your greatness blossom.” Nelson Mandela
    Quoted at afsc.org

New Eras

How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book.
Walden: Reading, 1854

Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front

by Wendell Berry

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.


So, friends, every day do something
that won't compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.


Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.


Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion - put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?


Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn't go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.


from The Country of Marriage, copyright © 1973 by Wendell Berry