Once again shockwaves of violence out of Texas. What is it about Texas? Is that even a fair question? Neighbors around the world want to know what it is about us, the U.S. Not a fair question either, I think. What is it about people . . . why do we torture ourselves with hatred of our own kind?
Shortly after September 11, 2001, I was at a colloquium in Traverse City. A still-shaken Joe Vandermeulen opened the session with a reading: Wendell Berry’s The Peace of Wild Things. It is a fine poem, and you can read it at Poetry Foundation. It could be interpreted, I suppose, as an excuse to flee to the woods to escape from our troubles . . . but I have read a lot of Wendell Berry, and he seems to me above all to believe in personal responsibility, accountability for the choices we make, the virtue of doing the right thing and the obligation to seriously, without cynicism, study just what “the right thing” might be. I think the poem is an invitation to quiet our minds for a moment, “where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.” But only for a moment. Then it is time to rise and move forward, to do our work.
I’m going to work. I can’t think of anything else to do. Can you?
Torch Lake Views 
Brad
November 6, 2009
Well put. Thanks.
Molly
November 6, 2009
Well put, both by Wendell Berry, and by you. I can’t think of anything else to do either – except hug my dear ones extra-tight. I realized yesterday and today when I heard the news (first Ft. Hood, then Orlando), that I am no longer shocked when I hear stories like these. Saddened and horrified, but no longer surprised.
p.j. grath
November 6, 2009
“The afternoon knows what the morning never suspected.” That is supposed to be a Swedish proverb. I copied it down a while back to remember it. Morning’s innocence is gone, but the work day is far from over. You are completely right about Wendell Berry.
Gerry
November 6, 2009
I am gratified to find my position ratified. And my Swedish ancestors are laughing their derrieres off.
Gerry
November 6, 2009
Thank you, all of you, for commenting. And thanks for everyone who rested a moment, and then went back to work.
flandrumhill
November 9, 2009
Wild things seem, for the most part, to know their place in the world and their responsibilities. It’s this stability that brings peace. We humans are all over the place with our actions and our goals. There’s little time for reflection in this fast-paced world.