Tragedy Is When Man Is Nobler Than The Forces That Destroy Him.

(Rescue crews carry a woman to safety after she was pulled out of the rubble of a market in Sichuan province.)

A tragic situation exists precisely when virtue does not triumph but when it is still felt that man is nobler than the forces which destroy him.

- George Orwell

More than 200 relief workers have been buried by a mudslide in China's Sichuan province, a week after a massive earthquake devastated the country.

- Picture Above: Reuters, Story/Picture below: Daily Mail Online.

( An elderly woman mourns as her grandson is buried under the debris of a collapsed building)

It often happens that the real tragedies of life occur in such an inartistic manner that they hurt us by their crude violence, their absolute incoherence, their absurd want of meaning, their entire lack of style.

- Oscar Wilde

There is often no answer for tragedies. But there must always be compassion. If we need reasons before we can have compassion for the sufferings, than that is a greater tragedy for mankind.

- Ghostwise

We Drove Our Gentle Mother From The Land.

(Today I tried to get closer to Nature. Morning mist in Lucky Valley, Pahang.)

Nature, the Gentlest Mother
-Emily Dickinson

Nature, the gentlest mother,
Impatient of no child,
The feeblest or the waywardest,
Her admonition mild

In forest and the hill
By traveller is heard,
Restraining rampant squirrel
Or too impetuous bird.

How fair her conversation,
A summer afternoon,--
Her household, her assembly;
And when the sun goes down

Her voice among the aisles
Incites the timid prayer
Of the minutest cricket,
The most unworthy flower.

When all the children sleep
She turns as long away
As will suffice to light her lamps;
Then, bending from the sky

With infinite affection
And infiniter care,
Her golden finger on her lip,
Wills silence everywhere.

~~~~~~~~~~"

We drove our Mother
From the valley to the sea,
From the forest to the hill,
Till there was no place she could go.
She shed bitter tears on the barren land
And drowns us all.

- Ghostwise

In War The Fathers Bury Their Sons.

(Today I was challenged to an imaginary war. I don't like war - imaginary or real).

There's a graveyard in northern France where all the dead boys from D-Day are buried. The white crosses reach from one horizon to the other. I remember looking it over and thinking it was a forest of graves. But the rows were like this, dizzying, diagonal, perfectly straight, so after all it wasn't a forest but an orchard of graves. Nothing to do with nature, unless you count human nature.

- Barbara Kingsolver


Maybe we should visit the grave before starting a war.

- Ghostwise

~~~~~~~~~~"

In peace the sons bury their fathers, but in war the fathers bury their sons.

- Croesus

When will we ever learn? When will we ever learn?

- Ghostwise

Man and Nature.

Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence.

- Hal Borland

Trees teach me endurance. Grass teaches me perseverance.

- Ghostwise

~~~~~~~~~~"

Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.

- John Muir

Because there is no man around.

- Ghostwise