My neighbor and friend, Brenda Fairaday, (and a main stay at Corpus Christi parish in NYC) sent a link to an essay about Thoreau and Walden Pond. She pointed to its closing paragraph with this: "The final paragraph of this well considered article could easily describe our church/Church and community."
"It’s a monument designed by no one, built by everyone. It’s assembled
one piece at a time, over time, by individuals who will never meet, but
who, in our devotion, form a community of souls. It’s a monument that
honors the dead, but is living, changing, growing. During the present
crisis that is isolating us, this monument has the potential to bring us
together: It is an instructive emblem to contemplate, and a consoling
one."
The article itself is by Holland Cotter of the NYTimes.
I like your friend's thought sbout the final paragraph of the essay, that it describes the church and community.
ReplyDeleteThe linked article is good, and so are the photos.
BTW, I hope you and your family are surviving in quarantine okay.
Very nice sentiment, and very worthwhile essay by Holland Cotter.
ReplyDeleteThe appropriation of the cairn description for the church works for me.
ReplyDeleteThe essay and its subject do, too. I find it sorrowing that the kinds of places people can achieve social distance -- parks and beaches -- are being closed around the country. Officialdom never likes nature because it can't control it. But it's OK to hang out at the shooting range.
I don't ever remember the sky being this blue, at least on a constant basis. I and MaryAnn sat outside on her back yard (4 meters apart) and watched the stars come out one by one in a cloudless and pollutionless dusk. Venus was first to be seen. When Orion appeared, I could actually see the redness of the Red Giant Betelgeuse, only ten million years old and ready to go nova sometime between now and another ten million years. Oh, please, now.
ReplyDeleteThe Hindi are seeing the Himalayas for the first time in thirty years. Can't we find a comfortable way to live that doesn't suppress such beauty?
What a lovely post! We live in the sticks and take our clear night sky for granted. Maybe as more people get out and walk and start looking around, they will have that same epiphany. I'll make that my Easter prayer!
Delete"Can't we find a comfortable way to live that doesn't suppress such beauty?" Would surely be nice. I'll add my prayer to Jean's.
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