Thomas Berry was a philosopher, ecologist and author of many books. The following essay is from Thomas Berry's last book, The Great Work. We find his words to be relevant to the preservation of White Pond.
We have lost our connection to this deeper reality of things. Consequently we now find ourselves on the devastated continent where nothing is holy nothing is sacred. We no longer have a world of inherent value, no world of wonder, no untouched, spoiled, world. We have used everything. by developing the planet, we have been reducing earth to a new type of barrenness.
Scientists are telling us that we are in the midst of the sixth extinction. In earth's history, no such extinction of living forms has occurred since the extinction of the dinosaurs some 65 million years ago. There is now a single issue before us survival. Not merely physical survival but survival in a world of fulfillment survival in a living world where the violets bloom in the spring time were the star shine down and all their mystery - survival in a world of meaning. All other issues dwindle in significance whether in law, governance, religion, education, economics, medicine, science or the arts.
As heirs to the Biblical tradition, we believe that the planet belong to us. We never understood that this continent operates on laws that needed to be obeyed and it's own revelatory experience that needed to be understood. We have only recently considered the great community of life here. We fail to recognize our obligation to bow before the majesty of mountains and rivers, before us, the grasslands, the desert, the coastlands.
We need to recover our vision, our ability to see. See or perish. We need to begin to see the whole of this land. Concerning the future , we might make two observations. First the planet is a one time project. There is no real second chance. Much can be healed because the planet has extensive albeit limited powers of recovery. The North American continent will never again be what it once was. The matter in which we have devastated the continent has never before occurred. And prior extinction, the land itself remain capable of transformations but these are now much more difficult to affect. It is clear that there will be a little development of life here in the future if we do not protect and foster the living forms of this continent. To do this, change must occur deep within our souls. We need our technologies but this is beyond technology. We need to awaken to the wilderness itself as a source of new vitality for its own existence. For it is wild that is creative as we are told by Henry David Thoreau- In wildness is the preservation of the world.
We have lost our connection to this deeper reality of things. Consequently we now find ourselves on the devastated continent where nothing is holy nothing is sacred. We no longer have a world of inherent value, no world of wonder, no untouched, spoiled, world. We have used everything. by developing the planet, we have been reducing earth to a new type of barrenness.
Scientists are telling us that we are in the midst of the sixth extinction. In earth's history, no such extinction of living forms has occurred since the extinction of the dinosaurs some 65 million years ago. There is now a single issue before us survival. Not merely physical survival but survival in a world of fulfillment survival in a living world where the violets bloom in the spring time were the star shine down and all their mystery - survival in a world of meaning. All other issues dwindle in significance whether in law, governance, religion, education, economics, medicine, science or the arts.
As heirs to the Biblical tradition, we believe that the planet belong to us. We never understood that this continent operates on laws that needed to be obeyed and it's own revelatory experience that needed to be understood. We have only recently considered the great community of life here. We fail to recognize our obligation to bow before the majesty of mountains and rivers, before us, the grasslands, the desert, the coastlands.
We need to recover our vision, our ability to see. See or perish. We need to begin to see the whole of this land. Concerning the future , we might make two observations. First the planet is a one time project. There is no real second chance. Much can be healed because the planet has extensive albeit limited powers of recovery. The North American continent will never again be what it once was. The matter in which we have devastated the continent has never before occurred. And prior extinction, the land itself remain capable of transformations but these are now much more difficult to affect. It is clear that there will be a little development of life here in the future if we do not protect and foster the living forms of this continent. To do this, change must occur deep within our souls. We need our technologies but this is beyond technology. We need to awaken to the wilderness itself as a source of new vitality for its own existence. For it is wild that is creative as we are told by Henry David Thoreau- In wildness is the preservation of the world.