q

Myth: we have to save the earth. Frankly, the earth doesn't need to be saved. Nature doesn't give a hoot if human beings are here or not. The planet has survived cataclysmic and catastrophic changes for millions upon millions of years. Over that time, it is widely believed, 99 percent of all species have come and gone while the planet has remained. Saving the environment is really about saving our environment - making it safe for ourselves, our children, and the world as we know it. If more people saw the issue as one of saving themselves, we would probably see increased motivation and commitment to actually do so. 

-Robert M. Lilienfeld, management consultant and author (b. 1953) and William L. Rathje, archaeologist and author (b. 1945)

p

Earth Dweller

It was all the clods at once become

precious; it was the barn, and the shed,

and the windmill, my hands, the crack

Arlie made in the ax handle: oh, let me stay

here humbly, forgotten, to rejoice in it all;

let the sun casually rise and set.

If I have not found the right place,

teach me; for somewhere inside, the clods are

vaulted mansions, lines through the barn sing

for the saints forever, the shed and windmill

rear so glorious the sun shudders like a gong.

Now I know why people worship, carry around

magic emblems, wake up talking dreams

they teach to their children: the world speaks.

The world speaks everything to us.

It is our only friend.

William Stafford

q

Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's
greed.
Mohandis K. Ghandi

p

To Daffodils

Fair daffodils, we weep to see
You haste away so soon;
As yet the early-rising sun
Has not attained his noon.
Stay, stay
Until the hasting day
Has run
But to the evensong;
And, having prayed together, we
Will go with you along.
We have short time to stay as you,
We have as short a spring;
As quick a growth to meet decay,
As you, or anything.
We die
As your hours do, and dry
Away
Like to the summer's rain;
Or as the pearls of morning's dew,
Ne'er to be found again.

Robert Herrick

q

If you don't find god in the next person you meet, it's a waste of
time looking for Him further.
Mohandis K. Ghandi

p

In Response to a Question

The earth says have a place, be what that place

requires; hear the sound the birds imply

and see as deep as ridges go behind

each other. (Some people call their scenery flat,

their only picture framed by what they know:

I think around them rise a riches and a loss

too equal for their chart – but absolutely tall.)

The earth says every summer have a ranch

that's minimum: one tree, one well, a landscape

that proclaims a universe – sermon

of the hills, hallelujah mountain,

highway guided by the way the world is tilted,

reduplication of mirage, flat evening:

a kind of ritual for the wavering.

The earth says where you live wear the kind

of color that your life is (gray shirt for me)

and by listening with the same bowed head that sings

draw all songs into one song, join

the sparrow on the lawn, and row that easy

way, the rage without met by the wings

within that guide you anywhere the wind blows.

Listening, I think that's what the earth says.

William Stafford

q

How soon will you realize that the only thing that you don't have is
the direct experience that there's nothing you need that you don't have?
Ken Keyes, Jr.