Simplicity and clarity; two virtues that have been left behind in order to make time for stadiums, megachurches, shopping and plastic.

John Owen

To suppose that whatever God requireth of us that we have power of ourselves to do, is to make the cross and grace of Jesus Christ of none effect.

N.C. Wyeth

Leave the TV and the radio behind
Wonder what you'll find

Are we eroded beyond fertility, are we corrupted beyound restoration?
Have we greatly over estimated the nobility of man?
Is our pathos all consumming?

Mary Sarton

Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is the richness of self.

Thomas Moore

The many great gardens of the world, of literature and poetry, of painting and music, of religion and architecture, all make the point as clear as possible: The soul cannot thrive in the absence of a garden. If you don't want paradise, you are not human; and if you are not human, you don't have a soul.

Aldo Leopold

There is as yet no social stigma in the possession of a gullied farm, a wrecked forest, or a polluted stream, provided the dividends suffice to send the youngsters to college. Whatever ails the land, the government will fix it.

(Or maybe deified science)

Aldo Leopold

Our grandfathers were less well-housed, well-fed, well-clothed than we are. The strivings by which they bettered their lot are also those which deprived us of [Passenger] pigeons. Perhaps we now grieve because we are not sure, in our hearts, that we have gained by the exchange. The gadgets of industry bring us more comforts than the pigeons did, but do they add as much to the glory of the spring?

Jason Fried

You don't need to outdo the competition. It's expensive and defensive. Underdo your competition. We need more simplicity and clarity.

Rev. 4:11

"Worthy are you, our Lord and our God to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things and because of Your will they existed and were created."

Thomas Merton

“Those who seek to build a better world without God are those who, trusting in money, power, technology and organization, deride the spiritual strength of faith and love and fix all their hopes on a huge monolithic society, having a monopoly over all power, all production, and even over the minds of its members. But to alienate the spirit of man by subjecting him to such monstrous indignity is to make injustice and violence inevitable. By such means we may indeed increase economic production but in doing so we will only make the world worse.”

When we fail to cultivate a community, a family, a friend, a craft, a plant, the soil, art, nature, a conversation, a story, an animal, a life; we have been reduced to nothing but inept, habitual consumers. The number one form of entertainment in the U.S. is shopping; we seek a life that is promised at our local cathedrals of consumption. Maybe we should call ourselves Mallites.

The Whole Horse

March 2007 | Tune In :: Meditation

One of the primary results — and one of the primary needs — of industrialism is the separation of people and places and products from their histories. To the extent that we participate in the industrial economy, we do not know the histories of our families or of our habitats or of our meals. This is an economy, and in fact a culture, of the one-night stand. “I had a good time,” says the industrial lover, “but don’t ask me my last name.” Just so, the industrial eater says to the svelte industrial hog, “We’ll be together at breakfast. I don’t want to see you before then, and I won’t care to remember you afterwards.”

In this condition, we have many commodities, but little satisfaction, little sense of the sufficiency of anything. The scarcity of satisfaction makes of our many commodities, in fact, an infinite series of commodities, the newer ones invariably promising greater satisfaction then the older ones. And so we can say that the industrial economy’s most marketed commodity is satisfaction, which is repeatedly promised, bought, and paid for, but never delivered. On the other hand, people who have much satisfaction do not need many commodities.

The persistent want of satisfaction is directly and complexly related to the dissociation of ourselves and all our goods from, our and their, histories. If things do not last, are not made to last, they can have no histories, and we who use these things can have no memories. We buy new stuff on the promise of satisfaction because we have forgot the promised satisfaction for which we bought our old stuff.

—Taken from Wendell Berry’s “The Whole Horse” in The Fatal Harvest Reader, (Island Press)

Americans

Are Americans so involved in progress, speed, competitveness, consumption, commercialism and entertaining ourselves to death, that we are unable to truly live and enjoy life?
Are we too busy worshiping the creation that we have forgotten the Creator?
Have we forgotten that we are creatures who owe homage to Someone else?
Are we in awe of anything?

Questions

Do you believe that capitalism is immoral? Why?
Do you believe that an industrial economy is immoral? Why?
Do you think that an electronic media has a negative effect on our culture? Why?
Do you think that the "church" is unaware that the water in which it swims is severely polluted? Explain?