[Trees-list] Summer Reading

[Laura-Hummingbird]

Hello All: 
     I'm in the beginning chapters of _A Language
Older Than Words_, a most A-mazing book by Derrick
Jensen. I highly recommend it to everyone because it
     deals with the psychology/spirituality that
allows people to commit violent acts on each other and
non-human nature. It is
     stunningly written and held in high regard by the
likes of Daniel Quinn, author of _Ishmael_ , Frances
Moore Lappé, author
     of _Diet for a Small Planet_, and Thomas Berry.
The language that is older than words is interspecies
communication, body
     language, etc. There are wonderful and terrible
stories and I imagine that our ability/willingness to
read/listen to them is
     probably equal to our to level at which we
participate in the make-believe world. It is a HARD
book to read and it is the most
     necessary book to read because, (in the words of
Frances Lappé): "If any book can help us break free of
this culture of denial,
     this is it. ...Jensen has achieved the
impossible: a book that is simultaneously horrifying
and uplifting, terrifying and
     beautiful." 

     Here is one quote that exemplifies the book's
nature, for me: 
     "Certainly it would be a step in the right
direction if our culture as a whole could accept the
notion of listening to the natural
     world -- or listening at all, for that  matter --
even if they thought that 'listening' was merely a
metaphor. I once heard a Diné
     man say that uranium gives people radiation
poisoning because the uranium does not like to be
above ground. It wants to
     remain far beneath the surface of the earth.
Whether we view this statement as literal truth or
metaphor, the lesson is still the
     same: digging up uranium makes you sick. " (pg.
25) 

     I particularly love the relationship Jensen makes
between the exploitation of humans (women, children,
people of lower socio/economic classes, and
     minorities) and all the inhabitants of the earth
in terms of how exploitation can happen and why. 

     I pray that everyone who has not already done so
will read this book ASAP. 

     Blessings and Fierce Peace, 
     Laura-Hummingbird

=====
Laura-Hummingbird Frazier, M.Div.

"Only after the last tree has been cut down, only after the last river has been poisoned, only after the last fish has been caught, only then will you find that money cannot be eaten."
     --- Cree Indian Prophecy

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