Education, I Fear, Is Learning To See

Civilization Has So Cluttered This Elemental Man-earth Relationship With Gadgets And Middlemen That Awareness Of It Is Growing Dim. We Fancy That Industry Supports Us, Forgetting What Supports Industry.

When We See Land As A Community To Which We Belong, We May See It With Love And Respect. - Perhaps Such A Shift Of Values Can Be Achieved By Reappraising Things Unnatural, Tame, And Confined In Terms Of Things Natural, Wild, And Free.

Like All Real Treasures Of The Mind, Perception Can Be Split Into Infinitely Small Fractions Without Losing Its Quality. The Weeds In A City Lot Convey The Same Lesson As The Redwoods; The Farmer May See In His Cow-pasture What May Not Be Vouchsafed To The Scientist Adventuring In The South Seas.

One Swallow Does Not Make A Summer, But One Skein Of Geese, Cleaving The Murk Of March Thaw, Is The Spring.

There Are Some Who Can Live Without Wild Things, And Some Who Cannot. For Us Of The Minority, The Opportunity To See Geese Is More Important Than Television, And The Chance To Find A Pasque-flower Is A Right As Inalienable As Free Speech.