Many Indians Have Told Me That The

So Many Indigenous People Have Said To Me That The Fundamental Difference Between Western And Indigenous Ways Of Being Is That Even The Most Open-minded Westerners Generally View Listening To The Natural World As A Metaphor, As Opposed To The Way The World Really Is. Trees And Rocks And Rivers Really Do Have Things To Say To Us.

Forests Precede Us And Deserts Dog Our Heels.

If You Only Had A Limited Time To Life (which Is Of Course The Case), How Would You Spend Your Time?

Question Four: What Book Would You Give To Every Child? Answer: I Wouldn't Give Them A Book. Books Are Part Of The Problem: This Strange Belief That A Tree Has Nothing To Say Until It Is Murdered, Its Flesh Pulped, And Then (human) People Stain This Flesh With Words. I Would Take Children Outside And Put Them Face To Face With Chipmunks, Dragonflies, Tadpoles, Hummingbirds, Stones, Rivers, Trees, Crawdads. That Said, If You're Going To Force Me To Give Them A Book, It Would Be The Wind In The Willows, Which I Hope Would Remind Them To Go Outside.

Yes, It's Vital To Make Lifestyle Choices To Mitigate Damage Caused By Being A Member Of Industrialized Civilization, But To Assign Primary Responsibility To Oneself, And To Focus Primarily On Making Oneself Better, Is An Immense Copout, An Abrogation Of Responsibility.