Quick thoughts from a mentor...

Sometimes (often? usually?) my best thoughts aren't my own, but those that I mine from others. This morning, before heading off for a full day, it's a joy to share some words from a mentor of words, Wendell Barry. What he says here, I agree with, without reservation. He writes:

Let me be plain with you dear reader.

I am an old faishioned man I like

the world of nature despite its mortal

dangers. I like the domestic world

of humans, so long as it pays its debts

to the natural world, and keeps its obligations.

I like the promise of Heaven. My purpose

is a language that can pay just thanks

and honor for those gifts, a tongue

set free from fashionable lies.

neitjher this world nor any of its places

is an 'environment'. And a house

for sale is not a 'home.' Economics

is not 'science', nor 'information' knowledge.

A knave with a degree is a knave. A fool

in a public office is not a 'leader.'

A rich thief is a thief....

The world is babbled to pieces after

the divorce of things from their names.

Ceaseless preparation for war

is not peace. health is not procured

by sale of medication, or purity

by the addition of poison. Science

at the bidding of corporations

is knowledge reduced to merchandise;

it is a whoredom of the mind,

and so it the art that calls this, 'progress.'

So is the cowardice that calls it 'inevitable.'

Amen... preach it Wendell