Wed 18 Apr 2007
Good Things: Earth
Going to college sometimes got in the way of my education, but at least once the two worked hand in hand. I read Thomas Wolfe’s “You Can’t Go Home Again” as an assignment for an American Literature class, and this excerpt has stayed with me ever since:
And great Goethe, accepting the inevitable truth that human growth does not proceed in a straight line to its goal, had compared the development and progress of mankind to the reelings of a drunken beggar on horseback.
What was important, perhaps, was not that the beggar was drunk and reeling, but that he was mounted on his horse, and, however unsteadily, was going somewhere.
I grew up near Lake Erie, which was probably the leading symbol of water pollution in America. Those of us who remember the pollution in the U.S. prior to the first Earth Day know that the work and dedication of a lot of people have made things better than they were.
They still have a long way to go, but they’re getting somewhere.
David said,
Thu 19 Apr 2007 at 13:56
Just curious … did you see when Lake Erie caught on fire?