There is more to life than the useful...(I thought about this while I was making this little dyed piece of fabric you see here.)
Thanks to Mary Anne, an online friend, who led me to Paula Hewitt's blog, I was reminded of something that I sometimes forget.
"You may clear from the surface of the land every plant that is not edible. You may fell every tree that does not serve for telegraph pole or pit wood. You may tabulate the food-productive qualities for the whole earth, and serve it out in a blue-book as literature for the people. You may manufacture electricity, till there is no longer any night, and the mysteries of twilight and the moonlight and the starlight are lost to us forever. You may destroy the birds, till there isn’t one glad song left in the caterpillar-riddled orchards and gardens. You may harness the rivers and streams for mechanical purposes, and drown the voices of the weir in a whirr of wheels, till there isn’t an ounce of energy flowing to waste throughout the length and breadth of the country. You may turn all nature into a huge commercial enterprise that is last word in economics and efficient organisation.
and what is the result? Machines in place of souls! Though this may seem but a parable, to some the reading will be clear: where there is no vision, the people perish.”
The Cottage and the Flower patch: the Best of Flora Klickman. Compiled by Brian Kingslake
"You may clear from the surface of the land every plant that is not edible. You may fell every tree that does not serve for telegraph pole or pit wood. You may tabulate the food-productive qualities for the whole earth, and serve it out in a blue-book as literature for the people. You may manufacture electricity, till there is no longer any night, and the mysteries of twilight and the moonlight and the starlight are lost to us forever. You may destroy the birds, till there isn’t one glad song left in the caterpillar-riddled orchards and gardens. You may harness the rivers and streams for mechanical purposes, and drown the voices of the weir in a whirr of wheels, till there isn’t an ounce of energy flowing to waste throughout the length and breadth of the country. You may turn all nature into a huge commercial enterprise that is last word in economics and efficient organisation.
and what is the result? Machines in place of souls! Though this may seem but a parable, to some the reading will be clear: where there is no vision, the people perish.”
The Cottage and the Flower patch: the Best of Flora Klickman. Compiled by Brian Kingslake
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3 comments:
Hi Yvonne - thanks for the mention. glad you liked the quote.
cheers
Paula
That quote is so thought-inspiring isn't it. I love your bird piece that goes along with it so well.
beautiful
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