Saturday, July 14, 2018

Sorrowful, yet rejoicing / Spiritual growth / Letters from Iraq
















Rachel Carson:

I am not afraid of being thought a sentimentalist when I say that I believe natural beauty has a necessary place in the spiritual development of an individual or a society. I believe that whenever we destroy beauty, or whenever we substitute something manmade and artificial for a natural feature of the earth, we have retarded some part of our spiritual growth.

*

It is my understanding that Vincent van Gogh took these words to heart:

Sorrowful, yet rejoicing.




3 comments:

ellen abbott said...

we parted ways with the earth with the industrial revolution. for all the progress and wealth it brought it also brought the loss of connection with the land.

37paddington said...

we are nurtured by beauty, natural and artistic. indeed we are.

Sabine said...

It is really sad to think that someone as astute as Rachel Carson felt she needed to start this with "I am not afraid". I realise she was way ahead of her time but despite all the feel-good years we have experienced since and all the knowledge and science we now have access to (and thanks to her), we are in a worse place.