Let's remember

"What a pleasure it is to spice the world with things like moonlore and weatherlore....To wonder about the moon is an unending pleasure of life. If every man should find his way there and learn everything about the moon, would the loss be greater than the accomplishment?" So asks Eric Sloane in the 1960's but his passion led him to become a collector of wood tools and to describe early American life in the 19th century. Back then, there existed a "reverence for wood." Then women swept dirt floors which they inscribed with designs for special occasions like Christmas. Then, a tree was the symbol of God-given independence. Then a tool was the extension of a man’s hand and words, an honest extension of a man’s mind. Every aspect of pioneer living then depended upon wood. Prior to 1865, wood was at its height, for houses, mills, sleds, tools, roads, wagons, furnishing, furniture, equipment, sleighs, boats and bridges - all hand-made. An alchemy of reverence for wood and freedom of an individual made America great back then. Apply Sloane’s question to today, when technological advancements have taken the wonder out of nature and her resources. Is our loss greater than what we have gained?

So as to not loose wonder for something past, here’s a word mistress’s sonnet, from Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

You see this dog. It was but yesterday
I mused forgetful on his presence here
Till thought on thought drew downward tear on tear,
When from the pillow where wet-cheeked I lay,
A head as hairy as Faunus thrust his way
Right sudden against my face,-two golden clear
Great eyes astonished mine,-a drooping ear
Did flap me on either cheek to dry the spray!
I started first as some Arcadian
Amazed by goatly god in twilight grove,
But as the bearded vision closelier ran
My tears off, I knew Flush, and rose above
Surprise and sadness - thanking the true Pan
Who, by low creatures, leads to heights of love.