Book Reviews (Sep 2009)

Irene van Lippe-Biesterfeld with Jessica van Tijn. Science, Soul, and the Spirit of Nature: Leading thinkers on the
restoration of man and creation, Rochester, VT: Bear & Co. 2005.     

This book is an important contribution to appreciating the oneness of all beings and all consciousness. Irene van Lippe-Biesterfeld, princess of the Netherlands, is a strong advocate for reconnecting with nature and manages a nature reserve in South Africa.       

…increasing numbers of people do feel they are a part of nature – and surprisingly, many of them have experienced what I call a 'magic moment:' a moment of unity with all life. I have had such an amazing experience myself, and it changed my attitude toward the Earth. I felt the sense of being one with all life around me – the separation vanished. Perched high up on a Swiss mountain, I saw through everything and felt and heard through it all as well. I was part of the waving blades of grass, the colorful flowers, the trees, the rocks, and the mountains. I was aware of having converged with everything alive and of being united with nature's exuberant, joyful celebration, its powerful yearning toward life.

Since then, my love for the Earth has led me to become a student of life. (p. 4)

The author brings us in this volume a series of twelve interviews with people around the world who have been prominent in exploring and working on ways to help us sense our inter-relationships with the entire world around us.

All those I spoke with emphasized that neglect of our surroundings will lead to neglect of ourselves, and that our acts of destroying will cause our self-destruction. It is a matter of choice. We can choose our actions and our course. Choices become easier once we understand our positions in the web of life. A new mind-set is ascending. (p. 5)

A few of the many inspiring observations shared in response to questions such as, "What is Nature?" "What is healing?" and "What is Love?" provide a taste of the richness of this book.

Sometimes I think that separation is the sin of all sins, from which all suffering originates. (p. 29)
     - Matthijs G. C. Schouten, associate professor of restoration ecology at the University of Wageningen, the Netherlands, and associate professor of nature and landscape conservation at the Universities of Cork and Galway, Ireland

Hans Andeweg teaches eco-psychology in the Netherlands. He has developed 'resonance therapy,' a form of radionics – which is distant healing assisted by various healing devices. Using resonance therapy he has been able to promote restoration in whole forests.  He says,

"I believe that as humans, we have received enormous opportunities to heal the Earth. We now know how to destroy our planet, but we can also learn to nurse her back to health." (p.127)

I feel the connection between heaven and Earth everywhere. To me, helaing means bringing heaven and Earth back together. This wholeness gives rise to a center field. In people, this field is our heart, the middle area: head in the sky, our feet on the ground, and living from the center with our heart and soul. It is our way to restore heaven on Earth. (p. 136-137)

Masaru Emoto developed a method of crystallizing water that demonstrates how consciousness interacts with the water. He observes,

"…nature in this universe consists of the concepts of love and gratitude. I think love is an active energy while gratitude is a passive energy." (p. 153)

Jane Goodall is famous for studying the behaviors of chimpanzees. She also developed a worldwide organization called Roots & Shoots to inspire young people to implement local projects that promote care for animals, the environment, and the human community. She shares:

There isn't a sharp division between humans and animals. I never saw it, but, of course, Western science has traditionally perceived this huge gap – as has Western religion. This misunderstanding is missing from Buddhism, Hinduism, and the Native Americans. It is particularly Western. I think the chimps, more than anything, have forced many scientists to reevaluate their belief systems. And then, once you have a new respect for the chimps, you realize: Well, differences between them and us are not differences of kind, but of degree. And once that line becomes blurred and there isn't an impossibly unbridgeable gap, that leads you to a new respect for all the other animals. (p. 187)

Patricia Mische is cofounder of Global Education Associates, and Lloyd Professor of Peace Studies and world law at Antioch College. In her view:

Peace on Earth cannot be realized without peace with Earth.

We have become so alienated from the larger life community that we forget our integral relationship to other beings in this community. We are alienated from our own true self. We don't know why we are unhappy.

We are not at peace with ourselves because we are not at peace with the larger life community. We don't belong anymore; we don't have a sense of place. We are moving in an alienating and alienated state within the community but not even recognizing the community's existence. (p. 266)

This book is highly recommended to anyone interested in understanding our connections with all of nature.

 

Frank McCourt, Teacher Man, a Memoir, New York: Green Peril Corp/ Scribner 2005.  $26   272pp

Excuses, Excuses: An Excerpt from Teacher ManMy students forged the notes. I turned them into a lesson plan.From Reader's Digest, Originally in Teacher ManI was in my third year of teaching creative writing at Ralph McKee Vocational School in Staten Island, New York, when one of my students, 16-year-old Mikey, gave me a note from his mother. It explained his absence from class the day before:“Dear Mr. McCort, Mikey’s grandmother who is eighty years of age fell down the stairs from too much coffee and I kept Mikey at home to take care of her and his baby sister so I could go to my job at the ferry terminal. Please excuse Mikey and he’ll do his best in the future. P.S. His grandmother is ok.” 

I had seen Mikey writing the note at his desk, using his left hand to disguise his handwriting. I said nothing. Most parental-excuse notes I received back in those days were penned by my students. They’d been forging excuse notes since they learned to write, and if I were to confront each forger I’d be busy 24 hours a day.

I threw Mikey’s note into a desk drawer along with dozens of other notes. While my classes took a test, I decided to read all the notes I’d only glanced at before. I made two piles, one for the genuine ones written by mothers, the other for forgeries. The second was the larger pile, with writing that ranged from imaginative to lunatic.

I was having an epiphany.

Isn’t it remarkable, I thought, how the students whined and said it was hard putting 200 words together on any subject? But when they forged excuse notes, they were brilliant. The notes I had could be turned into an anthology of Great American Excuses. They were samples of talent never mentioned in song, story or study.

How could I have ignored this treasure trove, these gems of fiction and fantasy? Here was American high school writing at its best—raw, real, urgent, lucid, brief, and lying. I read:

• The stove caught fire and the wallpaper went up and the fire department kept us out of the house all night.

• Arnold was getting off the train and the door closed on his school bag and the train took it away. He yelled to the conductor who said very vulgar things as the train drove away.

• His sister’s dog ate his homework and I hope it chokes him.

• We were evicted from our apartment and the mean sheriff said if my son kept yelling for his notebook he’d have us all arrested.

The writers of these notes didn’t realize that honest excuse notes were usually dull: “Peter was late because the alarm clock didn’t go off.”
One day I typed out a dozen excuse notes and distributed them to my senior classes. The students read them silently, intently. “Mr. McCourt, who wrote these?” asked one boy.

“You did,” I said. “I omitted names to protect the guilty. They’re supposed to be written by parents, but you and I know the real authors. Yes, Mikey?”

“So what are we supposed to do?”

“This is the first class to study the art of the excuse note—the first class, ever, to practice writing them. You’re so lucky to have a teacher like me who has taken your best writing and turned it into a subject worthy of study.”
Everyone smiled as I went on, “You didn’t settle for the old alarm clock story. You used your imaginations. One day you might be writing excuses for your own children when they’re late or absent or up to some devilment. So try it now. Imagine you have a 15-year-old who needs an excuse for falling behind in English. Let it rip.”

The students produced a rhapsody of excuses, ranging from a 16-wheeler crashing into a house to a severe case of food poisoning blamed on the school cafeteria. They said, “More, more. Can we do more?”

So I said, “I’d like you to write—” And I finished, “ ‘An Excuse Note from Adam to God’ or ‘An Excuse Note from Eve to God.’ “ Heads went down. Pens raced across paper.

More at http://www.dailygood.org/more.php?n=3781