“The poetry of earth is never dead.”
(John Keats, 1817)
A long time ago, the English poet William Wordsworth wrote, in “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey,” a most able synopsis of the ideal relationship between mankind and the balance of earthly life:
To look on nature, not as in the hour
Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes
The still, sad music of humanity,
Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power
To chasten and subdue. And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man
A motion and a spirit that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things. Therefore am I still
A lover of the meadows and the woods,
And mountains; and of all that we behold
From this green earth; of all the mighty world
Of eye, and ear, — both what they half create,
And what perceive; well pleased to recognize
In nature and the language of the sense
The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,
The guide, the guardian of my hearth, and soul
Of all my moral being.
One has to wonder, sometimes, what has happened in this, our ‘modern’ era, to Wordsworth’s “joy Of elevated thoughts”? A glance around at each day’s news headlines — at politics both at home and globally, at scientific data and the discussions based thereupon — offers little reassurance that “The anchor . . . of all . . . moral being” still has any root at all “In nature” much less in “the language of the sense.” Today about all that seems to count, at least for our species, is acquisition of money and power.
I’m not at all certain as to just how many different and distinct species inhabit this little backwater planet we call earth, but I’m guessing ‘tens of millions’ would at least reach ballpark status. And in a sensibly run situation, each and all species would most likely remain viable for a good long time, susceptible far more to global changes brought about by astronomical events than to any sort of localized ‘eat or be eaten’ thesis. In fact, one of the more significant mass extinctions happened some 65 million years ago when a sizable asteroid smashed into the earth, tossed all sorts of dust, smoke, and other debris into the atmosphere, modified the climate, and slammed the door on the dinosaurs, among numerous other life forms, in result. Extinction by natural phenomena is nothing new.
Then came humans. Homo sapiens, as we’ve named ourselves. Not sure just when it was that we popped up. Six thousand years ago, if you believe the believers; maybe a million years ago, give or take a hundred thousand or two, if you believe science. Not that it really matters all that much, given that it’s looking pretty certain that we as a species are well past the halfway mark of our existence, given how diligently we work with all our clever tools to modify the global climate sufficiently to force another mass extinction. Lucky for us there’s all that fossilized carbon left beneath the surface by all the life forms that disappeared in the last mass extinction; it appears, in fact, to be more than enough to ‘fuel’ (sotospeak) the next one.
Oh well, what the hey, I’m too old to worry about it all that much; my fate will likely already be a historical footnote by the time the mass die-off commences. Still, there are the young folks, and, well you know, the millions of other species, many of which will be at risk simply because of the idiocy implicit in our one species.
What went wrong?
I checked with poet Walt Whitman; he offered this little bit of wisdom back in 1855 as part of the preface to his masterwork, Leaves of Grass. He speaks my mind, and he somehow managed to do it some 87 years before I even showed up!
Animals
I think I could turn and live with animals,
they are so placid and self-contained
I stand and look at them long and long.
They do not sweat and whine about their condition,
They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,
They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God,
Not one is dissatisfied,
not one is demented with the mania of owning things,
Not one kneels to another,
nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago,
Not one is respectable or industrious over the whole earth
Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown, or to any man or number of men – go freely with powerful uneducated persons, and with the young, and with the mothers or families – re-examine all you have been told in school or church or in any book, and dismiss whatever insults your own soul; and your very flesh shall be a great poem, and have the richest fluency, not only in its words, but in the silent lines of its lips and face, and between the lashes of your eyes, and in every motion and joint of your body.
Sounds like some of the best advice anyone could ever offer to not only you and me, but also to the entire of our species (even including such sapiens marginals as, say, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, et al. et al. . . . the list is endless). And seriously, just how is it that life-on-earth’s most “intelligent” species is the species engaged in a process previously left solely to galactic processes? What went wrong?
I tried to answer that question a decade or so ago. I used a total of 140 syllables in my so called Paradox of Humakind: Superior Inferiority effort and while I’m not at all sure I overturned every stone in the process, what the heck, right?
Brash vanity ordains that Mankind be
Superior to all other life on Earth,
And curious source of this Mythology
Derives from Bible’s unintended mirth.
Thus bold is he who advocates the case
Of Genesis errant, where metaphor,
As whimsical devise, cannot replace
Realities which each confirm the Core
Of Life: that every living form appeals
To Duty greater than itself alone.
A single moment’s intellect reveals
One Truth, as if inscribed in tempered stone:
Each bird and beast, each flowered weed, each tree
Expounds on Man’s Inferiority!
So today, thanks to human consumption of fossil fuels and with climate change well underway courtesy of atmospheric CO2 levels approaching historic levels — with the Arctic ice cap rapidly melting and thereby allowing the release of the even more climate-altering (permafrost-embedded) methane, and with efforts on the part of science and thinking people to do whatever is necessary to halt and reverse the process dismissed as some sort of collaborative tom-foolery by industrial and political power centers — we have managed to contrive a potential mass extinction episode with the potential equivalence of the asteroid collision some 65 million years ago. Bring on the Keystone XL Pipeline! More War! Invade Syria! Nuke Iran! Yeah! Benghazi Benghazi!!
So. Where is the sapiens these days, the intellect, the intelligence? What of “The anchor . . . of all . . . moral being”? Wordsworth drew that concept as he apparently pondered the messages he gained from his juxtaposition between the natural world and the world of Tintern Abbey in Wales, an ancient church founded in 1131 by Cistercian Monks who adhered to the Benedictine philosophy that insisted upon a moderate path between individual and institutionalized theses. Tintern Abbey stands in ruins today, as it has for several centuries. One cannot help but wonder if the words “in ruins” are not also applicable these days to most ‘Western’ religious practice, given that today’s major and most murderous conflicts are, after all, between the three major “God” -based belief systems of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. And so the question persists: wherein and in whose hands lies the fate of the human species, indeed of the planet itself?
Brings to mind yet one more piece of compelling poetry, this one written by Philip Appleman sometime in the latter half of the twentieth century. It’s titled Last-Minute Message for a Time Capsule, and its message carries an all too familiar ring of truth.
I have to tell you this, whoever you are
that on one summer morning here, the ocean
pounded in on tumbledown breakers,
a south wind, bustling along the shore,
whipped the froth into little rainbows,
and a reckless gull swept down the beach
as if to fly were everything it needed.
I thought of your hovering saucers,
looking for clues, and I wanted to write this down,
so it wouldn’t be lost forever –
that once upon a time we had
meadows here, and astonishing things,
swans and frogs and luna moths
and blue skies that could stagger your heart.
We could have had them still,
and welcomed you to earth, but
we also had the righteous ones
who worshipped the True Faith, and Holy War.
When you go home to your shining galaxy,
say that what you learned
from this dead and barren place is
to beware the righteous ones.
Are we genuinely the ‘masters’ of our own fate? Of the fate of the planet’s biosphere? Based on current information, we may well prove to NOT be that much better an option than another collision with a giant asteroid! Here’s a better idea: “re-examine all you have been told in school or church or in any book, and dismiss whatever insults your own soul; and your very flesh shall be a great poem . . .” Thanks Walt. If we can get THAT done it will be further evidence that Keats might have been correct after all when he wrote, “The poetry of earth is never dead.”
OPEN THREAD
If we take science as our sole guide . . . the old theology
must go.
That’s about the most able summation of my ‘passage’ I’ve run across to date! A quick google came up with this one, also by Burroughs:
“One resolution I have made, and try always to keep, is this: To rise above the little things.” — proof positive that he and today’s R-Wingnuts arrived here from different galaxies!
Marmite, Irn-Bru and Bovril banned in Canada after they fall foul of food additive rules
I don’t know what the other stuff is, but I’ve had an Irn-Bru. My ex drinks those on the mornings when she needs to get going in a hurry. It’s an alternative to a Red Bull.
Irn Bru the most popular soft drink in Scotland (even above Coke). An unfeasible orange colour
The earth will continue in its poetic majesty unless we allow the teabagging morons to allow their corporate puppetmasters to finish taking control of the political systems.
Earth first, people second, animals next, corporations somewhere at the bottom of the stack. Like a turtle named Mack.
…turtle named Mack.
FreedomWorks backs Mitch McConnell challenger Matt Bevin
I wonder which one Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS will endorse. This could be the battle of the superpacs.
Reminds me of the ‘passengers’ on board this Atlantic cruise
I was laying off that just to see who would post it first. 😀
It was that or more Bieber 😉 – or maybe the naughty stuff hidden in the Lion King, Aladdin and other Disney movies by the animators 😯
“Earth first, people second, animals next . . .”
So long as the word “people” excludes Republicans, teabaggers, and fundies, I’m ok with that. 😉
the evolution of homo sapiens is but a zeptosecond of a Planck time unit in the grand expansion and contraction of the cosmos…..from the bang to the bust. enjoy and protect, this little spark of static electricity called life on earth.
Today would have been his 67th birthday. Damn.
Exceedingly talented! Gone far too soon – thanks for music Warren Z.!
Fuck all the RWNJs claiming Obamacare isn’t secure.
Neiman Marcus Data Breach Worse Than First Said
I received my Alabama Unemployment statement for my taxes over a week ago. That’s Alabama. Still waiting for all three W2s from those more efficient private sector companies.
There’s no profit in W2s.
Government doesn’t require a profit, and yet it is more responsive.
Corporate administration doesn’t generate profit. They’re a drain on profit.
Most companies outsource accounting since it’s a seasonal service anyway.
Why George Lucas, Eric Schmidt, (and yes, Steve Jobs) Should Go to Jail: Conspiring to Reduce Wages of 100,000 Tech Pros
Yes, Steve Jobs is dead. His policies may live on, but we’re in the process of doing something about that as well.
And yet Jamie Dimon and John Corzine are as yet unindicted for anything!
CNN – not really a news channel anymore, its just 98,000 people watching an assortment of paid corporate talking heads yell at each other and Wolf Blitzer jerk off on TV every day
Sounds like the Circuit City business model. Fire all the experience, and hire younger, cheaper people, then wonder why nothing gets done right.
Zucker isn’t going to take viewers away from Fox, won’t try to compete with MSNBC for left-leaning viewers, and will only get ratings when there’s a disaster. Nancy Grace only gets ratings when there’s a major trial. I wonder if her ratings will go up when Chris Christie or the McDonnells go on trial?
Nancy Grace will only get involved when some young mother is accused of killing her kid or some other human tragedy she can exploit for airtime. She loves to degrade other human beings who can’t fight back. She is the Ann Coulter of crime reporting.
This guy is just another thug: just listen to the sh*t he spews on TV /RWM off
My bet is it’s Hannity who says it first.
Rush just started his show at noon EST. Hannity doesn’t come on until 3pm.
you saying Rush watches PBS? you wanna double-down on that ? Loser has to watch a full hour of Wolf Blitzer’s Situation Room!
With the sound on, mind you 🙂
I’m not giving up my afternoon westerns to watch Blitzer. Rush will probably be told by someone on his staff, or a listener will call in and tell him about it.
Try putting the sound on for the Westerns and the picture to Wolfie….. I bet that’s informative.
Former Chief of Staff for Sen. Lamar Alexander, Found Dead of Apparent Suicide
Paging Joe Scarborough for informed comment
“was residing with his parents after being released into their custody following an arrest on child pornography charges.”
— Golly, you don’t think he was guilty, do ya?
As if bitcoins weren’t a complete enigma to me, yesterday Badmoodwife mentioned something called an “online charter school” and this morning on NPR they used the term, “email suicide bomber.”
Dafuq?
Don’t open the attachments.
Terry, you usually do this, but I’ll pick it up today. The Rude Pundit speaks.
Ten Other Relatives Mike Huckabee Wants Women to Avoid:
“8. Anderson Cooper” – that was the one, good job I always pack a spare pair in my computer bag.
QOTD:
“Just another retaliation by this administration. And some folks think its a good idea that he gets the nuclear codes,” – Chris Bollwage, mayor of Elizabeth, New Jersey, who claims governor Chris Christie shut down his town’s DMV office in another act of political retribution.
That’s one way to create a traffic jam on the Moscow river
You’re amazing, frugal. 🙂 Great post!
Thanks! Easy work for a poetry fanatic such as moi. 😉
Ahead of the Superb Owl, another BLR:
hehe – superb owl. Handle I saw sometime ago – ‘the kid is hot tonite’ ….. but they used it all run together so it was ‘the kid I shot tonite’
That just might be the best DLR yet!
Beating Mitt Rmoney and Rick Sanitation is hard – two of the all-time greats, mainly because they probably said half that shit anyway for real.
True. Picking the best DLR is every bit as hard as identifying the most vile rightwhiner. But? This one almost made me wet myself.
Oh yes – my small Turtles will probably do so.
Yes, you can get a concussion playing football.
That just proved it.
I’m going to the Rolex 24.
Football? Bah!
QOTD2:
“D’Inesh D’Souza D’indicted.”___ Several sources
Moral of the story – D’on’r d’ish d’irt d’ceitfully.
WTF? I thought green energy was a Nazi scam. Oh yeah. These freaks don’t know the difference between fascists and communists.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/01/24/3197321/renewable-energy-stalinism/
Wow – the war on women – they don’t even get minimum wage?
Does breast augmentation surgery count as wages? I’m not being disparaging, and I think everyone is entitled to an honest day’s wage for an honest day’s work, but I can’t recall the last time I saw a NFL cheerleader who was still using her “original equipment” instead of great big saline sacks that hang from her ribs and I’m pretty sure that said saline sacks don’t come cheap.
Can they write those off as business expenses? I dunno.But $5 an hour?
I don’t know if they can be written off but, considering what they are paid now, I’m just curious how they financed the “accessories” in the first place. I suspect that the truth of the matter would probably make me sad so I should probably just drop the subject.
BTW. All breasts are real because they have mass and occupy space. It’s just that some are not original equippment.
A partial list of things Alex Jones is afraid of:
1. Clouds.
WTF. Once one admits to being afraid of clouds everything else is just piling on.
A partial list of things Alex Jones is afraid of:1. Clouds.WTF. Once one admits to being afraid of clouds everything else is just piling on.
On the interwebs:
One graduated from Stanford with a 3.9 GPA and showed poor sportsmanship after biggest win of his career. The other street-raced a sports car while drunk and with an expired license. Guess which one the pundits labeled “misguided” and which one they called a “dangerous thug”?
Neil deGrasse Tyson again?
I think it might have something to do with their relative complexions.
FUCK FUCK FUCK!!!
It looks like I’ve very likely just lost my U-Haul truck driver.
What the hell am I going to do now?
Not with your stuff in the Uhaul?
No, my stuff is sitting in boxes all around me, waiting to be loaded on Sunday. It’s possible to get over the flu in two days, right?
Although, if all my stuff did disappear in the U-Haul, I wouldn’t have to deal with it anymore. *grump*
Moving always sucks, Zooey, but the stuff always does get moved. Eventually.
Two of my favorite neighbors are moving and I volunteered to help. We carried out the first three loads when it was -5F and, after a day of rest, it looks like the next loads will be carried out when it’s +5F with a 25mph wind. I think that works out to a wind chill of around -20F! Did I mention that the elevator is busted?
Since I’m about 1,000 miles away I’m afraid that all I can offer is; chin up and look forward to the new digs. If all else fails? Try some wine and deep-breathing techniques!
BTW. As I have moved around during the last 10 years I have systematically reduced the volume of my stuff. Now I’m down to a big aquarium, my model airplanes, and several boxes of treasured books.
Don’t forget your giant couch. 😉
I have a giant couch that will be chopped up with a chainsaw and thrown off the balcony the next move I make.
Depends which one 😦
Yep. 😐
Jeebus, I haven’t moved in 25 years. What am I doing wrong?
I’ve been in my house 25 years too. Of course, I’m in Alabama. I’d leave if I could get a machinist job in a blue state, once I get my car collection liquidated. It’s in the works to reduce it soon.
Texas judge finally orders hospital to remove brain-dead, pregnant woman from life support. Gestating inside a corpse isn’t the ideal for good development and this fetus wasn’t viable anyway.
I am still trying to refrain from making any comment on this case. The best that I can come up with is; let Mother Nature do her job.
When the family says let her go and the hospital ignores a DNR order, it’s pretty clear what’s proper.
Indeed.
Cat on a skateboard. 😀
(smiling)
McDonnell Rejected Plea Offer To Face One Felony, Spare Wife Any Charges, Avoid Trial
If both are convicted and do time, he’ll wish he had fallen on his sword and gotten it over with.
Damn, I do detest the Repugnants governing women…
this family should not have been put through all of this.
The legislatures aren’t medically trained and should NEVER have gone against this woman and her family’s wishes..
oops – didn’t refresh soon enough to see that bdmm already posted the story!
Heh. Sharpton has a graphic of Huckabee and Reince Preibus, with ‘Livin’ “Libido” Loca’ as the caption. 😉
Now that made me guffaw and scared the cat awake!
Just saw this on Al Sharpton:
Port Authority Won’t Pay Legal Bills For David Wildstein
He’s going to make a plea deal pretty soon. He has to. Unless a Koch Brother or somebody else with a deep pocket comes to his rescue, he’ll do serious time unless he rolls over on the rest of them. This is gonna be good! 😀
Gather up the snacks and beverages…
Well, that was unexpected.
From the Mike Malloy thread at DU.
Little kitty in a shoe!
The ‘Bob Ross’ painting cat – hilarious! “happy little catnip trees”
Isn’t it about time for you to get a cat or two, house?
I just got an over $400 utility bill, thanks to this ridiculous cold weather. I’ll have to wait until it warms up.
My predicted “high” for Monday is -11!
Houses where you live are built for colder weather, Pete!
Ouch! on that bill. Do you use propane or gas?
The ornamental cherry and pear trees are in full bloom, more than a month earlier than usual.
Magnolias have budded, blossomed and dropping the petals – nearly two months earlier than most years!
Nope. Just electric and the woodstove, which is running out of wood this year. I may have a defective meter. I’m going to look at it in the daylight tomorrow.
Are you lighting up that entire section of Alabama?
That is ginormous for electricity!
I run one 30 watt fluorescent over the sink, 24-7. The water heater and fridge run all the time, of course. I’ve been home for the past four weeks, so I’ve been running the tv and computer more. The difference is the 5400 watts of heaters that have had to run much more than usual. It still may be a meter reader error.
“I just got an over $400 utility bill”
I’d kill for a bill that low. My last DWP (water & power) was $1046. That’s for 60 days.
Mine was only for a month. I think it was about $460 with water, sewer, garbage and taxes.
[practicing patience]
(windows) ——//——//——//—— (2pm)
–––––––––––––––X(I am here)–––––––––
(windows) ——//——//——//—— (3p)
––––––––––X(I am here)–––––––––
——//——//——//—— (3.30p)
X – hand my id – [oh, those Rxs are on their way via USPS]
I did not know this.
Interesting! Give the First Nations back the land.
Many gods makes much more sense than just one ‘heavenly ghost’.