Eloquence on Nature

For those of you with older children, and those of you without, I recommend you go to the National Geographic website and read the cover story about Permafrost called Cold Scapes.  If that doesn't make you go outside and kiss the earth I don't know what will.

I think it is wonderfully written and very thought provoking prose.  Why not ask your older kids if they think it is interesting writing, and if so, how did the author make it interesting?  In my opinion, it makes for fascinating reading because the author is obviously writing about something he loves. 

For those of you with younger children, pick out a few key paragraphs to read to them. Be sure to dwell longer on the pictures.  (Sometimes it's a good idea to read the essay first - it makes it easier to answer the questions younger kids always ask). 

"The world is beautiful, in many unfathomable ways. In our hurrying, though, we frequently miss what is beautiful around us, in the same way that we forget from time to time what we want our lives to mean. Just to stay afloat in the modern world, many of us reluctantly choose detachment from the constant stimulus. We even turn away from beauty, as if it were another thing we had had too much of.

Gazing at these images, I think of our habits of detachment. More than any other region of the planet, the Arctic has responded in starkly visible ways to global climate change. It is here, if you will, that a canary is singing faintly in a mine shaft. To make pictures of these places—this is my presumption—I imagine the photographer had to have been thinking about us in some way, about how we are going to fare. The images are not merely beautiful, an exoticness to admire, but an invitation to reattach ourselves to the Earth, specifically to a place that has now grown oddly poignant."

Essay by Barry Lopez	Photographs by Bernhard Edmaier
Once you have read the article, go check out the photographs here. Of course, please try to avoid looking at the IRONICALLY placed advertisements for vehicles, yes I know they are hybrids, but why not advertise a push bike instead? Aussie Kim (LA Sue will now translate for the non-Australians - she means bicycle - I had to ask)

Comments

[Bob Boldt]

The addition of Barry Lopez to the staff of regular contributors to the National Geographic is a welcome event. Of late the publication has taken singularly courageous stands on some of the most important issues of our day such as Global Warming and the Evolution v. Creationism "debate". Thanks for the post!

Peace,

Bob Boldt