Saturday, November 24, 2012

two experiences of adult life


“…ours are ‘ the two experiences of adult life’ of which Pavese spoke, success and failure, to kill the whale or wreck the ship; one should not surrender to incomprehensible matter, one must not just sit down. We are here for this-to make mistakes and to correct ourselves, to stand the blows and hand them out. We must never feel disarmed: nature is immense and complex, but it is not impermeable to the intelligence; we must circle around it, pierce and probe it, look for the opening or make it.”
…from the Periodic Table

for more Saturday Snapshots see Alyce at: http://athomewithbooks.net/


(photo:  a man hiked an ascending trail for about a mile, cut a tree for Christmas tree, and carried it back to his car. We were hiking when this man carrying a saw passed us going up and while we were on our way back halfway down he passed us again carrying this seven- foot tree.) 

7 comments:

Brona said...

A new twist on the phrase "to embrace nature"!!

Alyce said...

Good presence of mind to snap a photo!

Louise said...

That's some dedication to get a free tree, are people actually allowed to do that?

Laurel-Rain Snow said...

Awesome! Love the snapshot and the excerpt.

Thanks for visiting my blog.

Deb Nance at Readerbuzz said...

Thoughtful quote. Didn't the author later commit suicide?

My Saturday Snapshot

edgar said...

In Incline Village,NV the people can get a permit to cut their own tree at some designated areas of the National Forest and observing some restrictions.
I think the author died of possible suicide.

Booksnyc said...

It is interesting to see those legs coming out of the bottom of the tree!