Making It Simple

[bainbrig]

Wendel Berry writes:

…the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief.

I know what he means, although I've never managed to get there.

B

[Mamyalynne]

It's a beautiful piece and for many of us a hard place to find in our lives.

[Eleena]

As in don't over complicate life, live humble & be happy with what you have Bain/ mamya. Have I read that right?

[ladybirder]

"The peace of wild things". Are they at peace? Terrified of predators every minute of their lives, on the look-out all the time. Scarce food supplies in the winter, little birds freezing to death on a cold winter's night? Rabbits alert for foxes etc etc. Have I got hold of the wrong end of the stick?

[Patsy33]

Don't over think everything..x

[Mamyalynne]

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Wendell Berry

[Eleena]

As in don't go looking for grief in over thinking things? Have I over thought this? ;0)

[Eleena]

My thoughts exactly in the early hours of this morning. That poem says it all doesn't it, thank you.

[hereIam]

I am of the same mind as lb, although that poem is beautiful.

[bainbrig]

Few, if any, ‘wild things’, sit and fret over what tomorrow will bring.

They care, they love... but they don’t dwell.

[Spicerack]

Are you still looking for someone to duff those poles up, Bainbrig?
https://twitter.com/SiddonsDan/status/1102658997138669569

[Zacs-Master]

'Few, if any, ‘wild things’, sit and fret over what tomorrow will bring'

No because they're not sentient in that way. Wendel seems to be stating the bleedin' obvious.

[spathiphyllum]

Zacks you'll often find random animals and things are personified. People can only think from a human perspective.

[Peter Pedant]

// "The peace of wild things". Are they at peace? Terrified of predators every minute of their lives, on the look-out all the time.//

looks back to the Noble Savage idea of Rousseau 1750s who thought that things were better before civilisation

(they werent )

[bainbrig]

The point, as usual (is it just Mondays?), is being studiously missed.

Berry’s point is that non-human creatures to not dwell on their fates, do not worry about their old age or what will become of their loved ones. We do.

And if you define sentience as the ability to perceive or ‘feel’ things, then (Zacs) I think you’re wrong about non-human beings.

B

[Zacs-Master]

I didn't define 'sentience'. I said they didn't posses that 'kind' of sentience.

To wish we could experience life like an animal does is pushing 'poetic license' somewhat as it's impossible.

[bainbrig]

All he wrote was:

"I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief."

He seems a very down-to-earth writer, unusual for an American.

BB

[spathiphyllum]

Humans are animals in their own way.

To experiences life as another wild animal would surely consist of mind altering drugs?

[bainbrig]

Well, if that's true spath, there's a few round here we could usefully ask.

[Old_Geezer]

It means stop worrying and thinking how to avoid the disaster you are, as a result, heading for, but be happy in ignorance until it actually occurs. Your life will be shorter and more accident prone but you'll be in a better mood for not considering it's coming.