The people of any culture cling with fanatical tenacity to the specialness of man. They want desperately to perceive a vast gulf between man and the rest of creation. This mythology of human superiority justifies their doing whatever they please with the world, just the way Hitler's mythology of Aryan superiority justified his doing whatever he pleased with Europe.
But in the end this mythology is not deeply satisfying. The Takers are a profoundly lonely people. The world for them is enemy territory, and they live in it like an army of occupation, alienated and isolated by their extraordinary specialness.
We must teach our children that the ground beneath their feet is the ashes of our grandfathers. So that they will respect the land, tell their children that the earth is rich with the lives of our kin. Teach our children what we have taught our children -- that the earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the earth, befalls the sons of the earth. If men spit upon the ground, the spit upon themselves.
This we know. The earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth. This we know. All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself ...
A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.It is here that I can concentrate my mind upon the remembered earth. It is here that I am most conscious of being, here that wonder comes upon my blood, here I want to live forever; and it is no matter that I must die.
The character of the landscape changes from hour to hour, day to day, season to season. Nothing of the earth can be taken for granted; you feel that creation is going on in your sight. You see things in the high air that you do not see farther down in the lowlands. In the high country all objects bear upon you, and you touch hard upon the earth. From my home I can see the huge, billowing clouds; they draw close upon me and merge with my life.
Once in our lives we ought to concentrate our minds upon the remembered earth. We ought to give ourselves up to a particular landscape in our experience, to look at it from as many angles as we can, to wonder about it, to dwell upon it. We ought to imagine that we touch it with our hands at every season and listen to the sounds that are made upon it. We ought to imagine the creatures there and all the faintest motions of the wind. We ought to recollect the glare of noon and all the colors of the dawn and dusk.
I am interested in the way that we look at a given landscape and take possession of it in our blood and brain. None of us lives apart from the land entirely; such an isolation is unimaginable. If we are to realize and maintain our humanity, we must come to a moral comprehension of earth and air as it is perceived in the long turn of seasons and of years.
There is a great good in returning to a landscape that has had extraordinary meaning in one's life. It happens that we return to such places in our minds irresistibly. There are certain villages and towns, mountains and plains that, having seen them walked in them lived in them even for a day, we keep forever in the mind's eye. They become indispensable to our well-being; they define us, and we say, I am who I am because I have been there, or there.
But only the silence of the outer spheres encircles it; in all that wonderous expanse of magnificent precipices, we hear no sound to save our own voices and the whisper of the wind that comes and goes, breathing with the sound of centuries.
The Important places, child of mine come as you grow. In youth, you will learn the secret places. The cave behind the waterfall, the arms of the oak that hold you high, the stars are so near on a desert ledge, the important places, and as with age you choose your own way among the many faces of a busy world. May you always remember the path that leads you back, and back to the important places.
We cannot pluck a flower without disturbing a star. The one thing that does not abide by majority rule is a person's conscience. Ohana means family. Family means no one gets left behind or forgotten.
This is my family. I have found it, all on my own. It's little, and broken, but still good. Yeah, still good. Here I am, safely returned over those peaks from a journey far more beautiful and strange than anything I hoped for or imagined. How is it that this safe return brings such regret?
The dialectical method is discourse between two or more people holding different points of view about a subject, who wish to establish the truth of the matter guided by reasoned arguments.
The law must be honest, just, reasonable, and according to the ways of the people. It must meet their needs, and speak plainly so that all men may know and understand what the law is. It is not to be made in any man's favour, but for the needs of all them who live in the land. No man shall judge or condemn the law which the King has given and the country chosen; neither shall he or the King take it back without the will of the people.
There is a beginning and end to all life and to all human endeavours. Species evolve and die off. Empires rise, then break apart. Businesses grow, and then fold. There are no exceptions. I am okay with all that.
Yet, it pains me to bear witness to the sixth great extinction, where we humans are directly responsible for the extirpation of so many wonderful creatures and invaluable indigenous cultures. It saddens me to observe the plight of our own species; we appear to be incapable of solving our problems.
The reason why we won't face up to our problems with the environment is that we are the problem. It's not the corporations out there, it's not the governments, it's us. We're the ones telling the corporations to make more stuff, and make it as cheap and as disposable as possible. We're not citizens anymore.
We're consumers. That's what we're called. It's just like being an alcoholic and being in denial that you're an alcoholic. We're in denial that each and every one of us is the problem. And until we face up to that, nothing's going to happen. So, there's a movement for simplifying our life: purchase less stuff, own a few things that are very high quality that last a long time, and that are multifunctional.
To do good, you actually have to do something. The future is made of the same stuff as the present. It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing. It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dreams, for the adventure of being alive.
It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away. I want to know if you can be alone with yourself, and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.
By the time it came to the edge of the forest, the stream had grown up, so that it was almost a river, and, being grown-up, it did not run and jump and sparkle along as it used to do when it was younger, but moved slowly. For, it knew now where it was going, and it said to itself, "There is no hurry. We shall get there some day."
I for one welcome our new computer overlords. Normal people believe that if it I am not broken, don't fix it. Engineers believe that if it is not broken, it doesn't have enough features yet.
Never underestimate the importance of having fun. I'm dying and I'm having fun. And I'm going to keep having fun every day because there's no other way to play it. Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted.No one is pure evil. Find the best in everybody. Wait long enough and people will surprise and impress you.
Brick walls are there for a reason. They are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. The brick walls are there to stop people who don't want it badly enough.
It is not about achieving your dreams but living your life. If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself. The dreams will come to you. We can't change the cards we're dealt, just how we play the hand. If I'm not as depressed as you think I should be, I'm sorry to disappoint you.
The writer is a political commentator, also writes on politics, political and human-centered figures, current and international affairs
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