Variations on a Theme
A Composition of Weekend Sights
I spent many hours on a plane this weekend. And so I’ve prepared a composition of some of the things I saw on my flights and elsewhere— variations on a certain theme that I’ve been playing with over the past month.
(1) Strange World: This is an animated Disney film about a family on a quest to save their home. The grandfather is a famous explorer, the father is a successful farmer, and the son is caught in the middle trying to figure out who he wants to be. For much of the movie, the father and grandfather fight because of opposing views on how to best build a legacy: farming or exploring? Also, it turns out the family lives on the back of a giant turtle in the middle of the ocean. Hmm, that sounds familiar.
(2) Dune: So I guess this is what happens when you mine a land to the absolute extremes.
(3) Wendell Berry on “soil conservation”: I am making my way through The Need to Be Whole. In chapter 2 “Equality, Justice, and Love,” he writes about his concern for the keeping of the land:
My theme now requires me to take thought of my long advocacy, which began in love and fear for my own home country and community… its human community was taking respectable care of itself and of the local countryside that supported it. It was clear to me that this good keeping, if it could survive and be cherished, held the possibility of better keeping.
My concern might reasonably have made me an advocate for “soil conservation”… It has become even clearer to me that you cannot conserve the land unless you can conserve the people who depend on the land, who care for it, and who know how to care for it— the people on whom the land depends.
Yep, that sounds about right.
(4) Tatte: In March 2019, I submitted my college thesis, and this bowl of muesli was the only thing that brought me joy when I was typing up the manuscript. Four years later, it still looks and tastes just as I remembered.
The concluding sentence of my thesis:
I end this thesis with a greater appreciation for the developers who spend their time perfecting open-source tools and admiration for the researchers who work on the cutting-edge of this rapidly evolving field.
And these words ring true and even louder today.
Some things never change!