Wilderness to the people of America is a spiritual necessity, an antidote to the high pressure of modern life, a means of regaining serenity and equilibrium.
Interpretation
Wilderness offers a vital escape from the stresses of modern life.
In this quote, Sigurd F. Olson emphasizes the importance of wilderness to the American spirit, suggesting it serves as a necessary refuge for the soul amidst the chaos and pressures of contemporary society. By engaging with nature, people can find peace, restore their mental balance, and reconnect with their inner selves.
In practice
During a motivational speech on mental health, one might convey the importance of nature by quoting Olson.
While we are born with curiosity and wonder and our early years full of the adventure they bring, I know such inherent joys are often lost. I also know that, being deep within us, their latent glow can be fanned to flame again by awareness and an open mind.
When a man is part of his canoe, he is part of all that canoes have ever known.
Beauty is composed of many things and never stands alone. It is part of horizons, blue in the distance, great primeval silences, knowledge of all things of the earth. It embodies the hopes and dreams of those who have gone before, including the spirit world; it is so fragile it can be destroyed by a sound or thought. It may be infinitesimally small or encompass the universe itself. It comes in a swift conception wherever nature has not been disturbed.
Simplicity in all things is the secret of the wilderness and one of its most valuable lessons
The way of a canoe is the way of the wilderness, and of a freedom almost forgotten.
One cannot run from a challenge without losing. To flee is signing a death warrant to dignity and character, and, having run, there is no return; one is a weakling forever. Meeting a challenge, though one may be defeated, gives strength, character, and a certain assurance that regardless of outcome, one will survive or go down fighting.
I love New York on summer afternoons when everyone's away. There's something very sensuous about it - overripe, as if all sorts of funny fruits were going to fall into your hands.
I never before knew the full value of trees....What would I not give that the trees planted nearest round the house at Monticello were full grown.
From the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of higher animals, directly follows.
Sometimes from this hillside just after sunset The rim of the sky takes on a tinge Of the palest green, like the flesh of a cucumber When you peel it carefully.
When April winds_x000D_ Grew soft, the maple burst into a flush_x000D_ Of scarlet flowers. The tulip tree, high up,_x000D_ Opened in airs of June her multitude_x000D_ Of golden chalices to humming-birds_x000D_ And silken-wing'd insects of the sky.
Sustainable fishing is a fraud. It's a marketing term that really means 'business as usual.'
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