Perhaps in taking the world into our bodies we also need to dive into the body of the world, to dive down deep and let it pull us deeper still, until at last we not only consume but are consumed, until at last we are no longer separate—standing alone and lonely on the darksome heights to which only men aspire—but instead, simply living in commune

I thought, of course this is my business. The child doesn’t belong to you; she belongs to herself. She deserves to be treated with respect, honor, love, and tenderness. We all do. I

But the point is pursuing a relationship, not gathering information.”

We would be better off if we were to act in our own best interest. No one benefitted from my childhood. No one benefits from rape. Hitler benefited no one, not even himself. Who benefits from the production of plutonium? Who benefits from the production of weapons of mass destruction? Who benefits from the use of pesticides? Who benefits from the

“Now a question: Pretend we’re children two generations hence, and defend your actions to us. Tell us why we shouldn’t hate you for destroying our world.”

Just as at Auschwitz, or in other situations of perpetual trauma, circumstances can be created in which people are so oppressed and their options so narrowly circumscribed that it pays to exploit others, to make certain that they themselves get the easier job or the last scrap of potato, to make certain they can hop like a frog longer than the

“We need to distinguish between listening and hearing. I believe I listen better than many people, but I still don’t hear very well. I have a lot of friends around the world who are able to actually hear the natural world. Still, whether or not we hear, listening is important. Until we start to listen—and, I hope eventually hear—the natural world

Psalms 8: “Thou madest him [man] to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passes through the paths of the seas.” The emphasis—that beasts of the field are things—is in the original.

But mythologies of all times and all places tell us that those who enter the abyss and survive can bring back important lessons.