How to Fly (In Ten Thousand Easy Lessons)
I got my copy of How to Fly (In Ten Thousand Easy Lessons) by Barbara Kingsolver in the mail recently and I can't stop picking it up, flipping to a random page, and leaping off the cliff into it’s deep waters. I turn to it when the stress of Covid-19 overwhelms and my head hurts from problem-solving. The book is both an escape and a lesson at the same time.
I got my copy of How to Fly (In Ten Thousand Easy Lessons) by Barbara Kingsolver in the mail recently and I can't stop picking it up, flipping to a random page, and leaping off the cliff into its deep waters. I turn to it when the stress of Covid-19 overwhelms and my head hurts from problem-solving. The book is both an escape and a lesson at the same time. I usually come away from a passage with a smile and a point of clarity, as if my muddled brain was rewired by an expert electrician.
Her ability to slowly unwrap a message draws you past the end of one poem and into the next. But beyond the beautiful language and compositions, this book of poems speaks directly to our mission at Blue Ridge Discovery Center. It is an incredible combination of humanity and science interwoven through keen observations and creative critical thought. As a whole, the collection is truly a 21st-century perspective, mined from the vast body of knowledge compiled by centuries of forward-thinking scientists and naturalists that came before her.
No doubt the timing of this release is coincidental, but these poems are so fitting for our crazy pandemic times when each of us needs an extended hand to hold. There is something in this book for everyone, no matter your troubles or where you come from. The prose is uplifting, always tapping into positive potentials and even some of the darker-toned poems manage to be supportive in their truth-telling.
If you haven't picked this book up yet, trust me, you NEED to. Thank you Barbara for being a mother to us all and championing the BRDC mission!
-Aaron
PS Check out Ephemera on page 93 dedicated to BRDC!
Gathering Moss: The Natural and Cultural History of Mosses
"Living at the limits of our ordinary perception, mosses are a common but largely unnoticed element of the natural world. "Gathering Moss" is a beautifully written mix of science and personal reflection that invites readers to explore and learn from the elegantly simple lives of mosses."
For October 2017, the BRDC Book Club read and discussed Gathering Moss: The Natural and Cultural History of Mosses by Robin Wall Kimmerer.
"Living at the limits of our ordinary perception, mosses are a common but largely unnoticed element of the natural world. "Gathering Moss" is a beautifully written mix of science and personal reflection that invites readers to explore and learn from the elegantly simple lives of mosses. In this series of linked personal essays, Robin Kimmerer leads general readers and scientists alike to an understanding of how mosses live and how their lives are intertwined with the lives of countless other beings. Kimmerer explains the biology of mosses clearly and artfully, while at the same time reflecting on what these fascinating organisms have to teach us. Drawing on her experiences as a scientist, a mother, and a Native American, Kimmerer explains the stories of mosses in scientific terms as well as in the framework of indigenous ways of knowing. In her book, the natural history and cultural relationships of mosses become a powerful metaphor for ways of living in the world."
(July 2014) 4. The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, Elizabeth Kolbert
"Over the last half a billion years, there have been five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs."
"Over the last half a billion years, there have been five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. This time around, the cataclysm is us. In The Sixth Extinction, two-time winner of the National Magazine Award and New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert draws on the work of scores of researchers in half a dozen disciplines, accompanying many of them into the field: geologists who study deep ocean cores, botanists who follow the tree line as it climbs up the Andes, marine biologists who dive off the Great Barrier Reef. She introduces us to a dozen species, some already gone, others facing extinction, including the Panamian golden frog, staghorn coral, the great auk, and the Sumatran rhino. Through these stories, Kolbert provides a moving account of the disappearances occurring all around us and traces the evolution of extinction as concept, from its first articulation by Georges Cuvier in revolutionary Paris up through the present day. The sixth extinction is likely to be mankind's most lasting legacy; as Kolbert observes, it compels us to rethink the fundamental question of what it means to be human."