"we need the tonic of wildness...

at the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be infinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable.  we can never have enough of nature... we need to witness our own limits transgressed, and some life pasturing freely where we never wander."  --henry david thoreau

i am currently reading "the art of the commonplace" written by wendall berry, who writes about agrarian alternatives to dominant urban culture.

as i sink further and further into my program of becoming a pastry chef, i write lists about bucket-list goals and where i want to be in 5 years.  i've decided to focus my current attention on the importance of local and fresh, which has led me to the agrarian essays of wendall berry.

berry discusses our testifying of the "intransigent destructiveness" within us, that prompts us to place our well-being in contention with the well-being of others and the earth.  we assume that we know what is best for ourselves, disregarding the needs of communities (natural and human) that are sustaining us! 

the destructiveness has become clearer than ever, considering most of the world's habitats are in a crisis, with toxification, contamination, pollution, extinction, deforestation and an overall hopelessness.  while at the same time, more of us than ever live lives of luxury and ease.  "the frantic, stressful striving going on all around us indicates that we are profoundly lost."

berry concludes that "it is not from ourselves that we will learn to be better than we are."  we are isolated, left wondering how what we are doing matters.  rather than be judged by our intelligence in terms of the mastery of specialized information, berry suggests we be judged by "the good order or harmoniousness of his or her surroundings."  this is encouragement for me and for you, if we can just step back and relaaaax ourselves!  then maybe we'll be on the road to discovering and grasping the way of life that berry suggests.  we must recognize and find harmony in the interdependence between the earth and us.