Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 December 2009
Summary
The hardness and smell of the oakwood began to speak clearly of the slow and lasting way in which the tree grew. The oak itself proclaimed that all that lasts and bears fruit is founded on such growth alone; that growth means to lie open to the span of the heavens and, at the same time, to have roots in the dark earth, that everything real and true only prospers if mankind fulfills at the same time the two conditions of being ready for the demands of the highest heaven and being safe in the shelter of the fruitful earth.
Martin HeideggerPlace is of profound environmental importance. Indeed, if we all acted well towards our individual places on Earth, from our bodies to the earth beneath our feet, the Earth would not be experiencing global devastation. We in the modern West have all but forgotten that many of our peasant ancestors were once so thoroughly bonded to their places on Earth that separation from place seemed a fate worse than death. To a people who, on average, transplant ourselves and our households twice a decade, emphasis on place may seem altogether misguided. But along with this idea of being rooted in the earth comes a deep commitment to place and to the Earth. In what I find the most moving lines of Paradise Lost, when a confused Eve learns that she is to be exiled from her place (the Garden), she cannot help but emote the bond she has with her place: “O unexpected stroke, worst than of Death! / Must I leave thee Paradise?”
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- Information
- Milton and Ecology , pp. 1 - 8Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2003