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Quotes of the Day on Flowers
“I cannot say exactly how nature exerts its calming and organizing effects on our brains, but I have seen in my patients the restorative and healing powers of nature and gardens, even for those who are deeply disabled neurologically. In many cases, gardens and nature are more powerful than any medication.”
“I have a number of patients with very advanced dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, who may have very little sense of orientation to their surroundings. They have forgotten, or cannot access, how to tie their shoes or handle cooking implements. But put them in front of a flower bed with some seedlings, and they will know exactly what to do—I have never seen such a patient plant something upside down.”
—Oliver Sacks, Everything In Its Place: First Loves and Lost Tales
“[The toy garden] made me aware of nature—not, indeed, as a storehouse of forms and colours but as something cool, dewy, fresh, exuberant.”
“[The Castlereagh Hills] made me for good or ill, and before I was six years old, a votary of the Blue Flower.”
–C. S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy
“That is not easy to envision while standing in the dark shadow of the viaduct . . . . But it becomes clearer on the deck, where trees, weeds and wildflowers among rusting tracks and switches create a verdant swath through Hell’s Kitchen, Chelsea and the Gansevoort Meat Market.”
–David Dunlap writing on the High Line in the New York Times here
Obviously the world needs a good essay analyzing these quotes. It should also cover some G. K. Chesterton, don’t you think? And, for good measure, some Alexander Schmemann. And, of course, it ought to talk about the biblical gardens of Eden and Gethsemane.
No, I didn’t write it. Good grief, do I look like I have that kind of time? Not to mention that I would have done a terrible job writing that essay. No, I’m just an editor. The essay will be a chapter in my next book project. We’ve got three other editors, and I haven’t even counted the writers, maybe 15-20.
Why are we writing the book, and what exactly is the book as a whole supposed to be about? And who wrote the lovely essay on gardens?
All in good time, all in good time. It’s a bit hush-hush for now. But it’ll be good, and it should be pretty affordable, and it should be available later this year. Meanwhile, here’s my new Augustine book again.
Published in Religion & Philosophy
Shhh… Be vewy, vewy kwiet. I’m hunting woses! Heheheheheheh.
Ah, Ricochet! You disappoint me, you provoke me, you mock me, you disappoint me again, and then…
…you are once again the beautiful, scarce Ricochet, and I re-enlist, your loyal subject after all.
(But it isn’t always your reliable rescuing cavalry of St. A’s and that lot, as in this case. Sometimes you surprise me with posts by what had seemed, to my bigoted, small, quick-to-judge mind, to be quarrelsome drudges, when they show their hidden facets.)
Is Mike Bloomberg familiar with that quote from Sacks?
Dear someone,
No worries. I take it exactly as you meant it ;-)
M.
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You know, after reading this, I may try to get outside more this summer. I’ve never been much of an outdoors person (mostly because of the bugs and pollen), but I did study outside some in college and those are good memories. So thanks for the inspiration!
Also, this post made me think of Romans 1:20:
The answer: