"Something was dreadfully wrong. What was wrong was that I was a fool. Like so many of us I was a part in an abstract idea-machine called "progress"; like an accountant I measured success by the bottom line of things gotten out of the way, finished, terminated. That's how a computer might be set to keep track of work, but the pleasure of being real lies in the process, not the mere product, primarily in "being" and only peripherally in "doing". In the world we've fashioned built on our envy of machines we've arranged things to reverse the natural order of importance; somewhere deep down everyone understands this, but in avoiding the truth we assign ourselves a miserable destiny trying to be machines. Those who succeed best at this lead horrible lives regardless of appearances. Watching and being part of the natural world and understanding it is the great domestic challenge- without success at this we never have a home - what Nature can give stops giving when it is over-regulated, or exploited with agricultural school technology and bulldozers. We all need the wildness of the non-human planet to restore our spirits, not parks and beaches where the human element is still the central focus and regulation runs rampant. Instead, we collect evidence of our domination by mapping it, scheduling it and controlling it. And all that gives us is a green imitation of city life and some square tomatoes. (84)" "When I used to schoolteach, my kids and I would discuss style a lot, getting a style of your own and how that must be done. I gradually came to feel it was very difficult unless you were alone a lot, had time and space to yourself, were free of the need to attend other people's urgencies all the time - or the urgencies of a commercial world. How can you expect to be unique if every minute you draw models from other people and the shadows of other people drawn from television? How can the unique destiny that is in every one of us exercise itself if you always submit to the scrutiny and judgment of authorities? Authorities on what? Certainly not on you unless you have been diminished into something predictable, tamed by regulation, simplification and rationalization. A steady diet of that will waste all your time. Compelling evidence exists that we are meant to be unique individuals who live in harmony with other unique individuals: think of the harmony of snow falling, but the brilliant oneness of each snowflake; think of the harmony of beach sand, but the brilliant oneness of each sand grain; think of the harmony of a field of grass, but the brilliant oneness of each blade in shape, and even hue. Are we that way, too? Consider your own fingerprint, unlike any on earth, your unique signature - can you think of a reason for evolution to produce such a signal unless the organism is one of a kind? And if you think of God instead of evolution it will be even easier to deduce a purpose in all of this. If people are inherently sortable into a few categories - as industrial civilization makes them out to be - then the fingerprint is a crazy detail. It only makes sense as a guide to the individual experiment that each of us is. (86)." "The original meaning of the word "school" (schola) was a place that afforded solitude, silence and freedom from duties so the student would have maximum opportunity to open himself to the universe and learn. It's difficult to find such a school. Our institutions are too occupied in watching us for signs of unacceptable deviation, in regulating each minute of the year according to expert prescriptions. As the quality of life imposed by our politically progressive regimen declines steadily into frightening sub-regions of the soul it makes sense for prudent people to go in search of personal solutions. It's only human to invite other people to save themselves, too, but if no one listens there is still a world that will, out there to be found; there is still a world inside yourself and your loved ones to protect and enjoy. Personal solutions exist. Out of personal solutions great social solutions can be put together. The one I've described just now is within reach - wild land, the less road-accessible and "improved" the better, is available in abundance within an easy drive of every metropolitan area in America, much more so today than it was a hundred years ago. Get some as soon as you can, the wilder and scruffier the better. Then do nothing,. It will be your school. And it will become your home (87)."