Myra Beatrice > Recent Status Updates

“Herein lies a crucial dilemma for politics and global society in this age of weapons of mass destruction. The law of the ladder of political and business ascendancy is that those least worried about treading on other climbers will most readily get to the top. Yet what the world needs atop that ladder is humaneness and far-sightedness and understanding.”

“I don’t go along with the theory that, as there are already huge numbers of people going to Antarctica (or any other fragile area), one more won’t hurt. A little restraint from each of us, in our own way, can be an enduring gift to the Earth.”

“In other words, we must give up concentrating on this or that species as endangered and focus instead on the consequences of endangering the functional relationships that are critical to the integrity of the ecosystems.”

“Truffles form at least 90 percent of the diet of long-footed potoroos…[which] move up and down the slope of the forested water catchments they occupy in response to the seasonal fruiting of the various species of truffle.”

“And it all begins with a seed that germinates, is allowed to grow, and through time performs its appointed functions in the forest—one of which is to reinvest back into the soil the biological capital temporarily archived in its body.”

“In light of these uncertainties, it would be prudent to doubt the certainty of our current knowledge regarding fire and proceed with caution and humility, which casts a more gentle human shadow across the land for the benefit of all generations.”

“Of course, for every book or scientific article that promotes such a simplistic view, there is a book or scientific article that refutes it. Furthermore, wisdom is seldom common.”

“What need has a child of dreams or aspirations? They live, and love, the life that is.”

“Williamson also wrote: ‘Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.’ We hide behind claims of modesty or shyness or inadequacy: Oh, I couldn’t do that! But what if ‘that’ is something that could bring you into the light — something that might allow you to flourish as a loving, giving human?”

“The melancholy truth is that many of us are frightened by the demands of living lovingly, when it sometimes seems easier to resort to negative, egotistical alternatives…”

“Fundamentalists and assorted religious extremists and fanatics are so passionately certain of the invincibility of their own position; so sure of themselves, so obstinate, that there doesn’t actually seem to be any room for faith…Doubt is the oxygen that keeps the flickering candle of faith alive: I believe precisely because I can’t know.”

“There’s a childlike innocence about curiosity. An openness. A flexibility, too, that allows us to move on from something that isn’t working and look for something that works better.”

“Your culture is not what your hands touch or make—it’s what moves your hands.”