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pldean's review against another edition
4.0
I highly enjoyed this book. Safina, a marine biologist whose Song for the Blue Ocean I also liked, gives the reader hard truths -- about our economy, our society, and our planet. He also, however, gives beautiful vignettes of his life on the Atlantic coast and on excursions to the Arctic, the Caribbean, and other places hot and cold. Importantly, he also offers hope -- cautious, tentative hope -- that the human race can figure things out before it's too late. Highly recommended.
kae76's review against another edition
5.0
Ok so it's taken me far to long to complete - I needed up getting an audio book to play while doing simple house chores. This is a marvelous price of writing - epic, moving, detailed, painful to hear the atrocities we humans have done to this beautiful plant. Some very lovely and passionate words baboon what it means to be spiritual in this day and age, and how we are all connected
mhannahm's review
5.0
I loved, loved, loved this book so much. I can't remember the last time something shook me so deeply and left me thinking about how I live and what I consume- all the choices I make, and their costs.
Can't underline a library book so keeping a running tab of quotes here:
"The compass of compassion asks not "What is good for me?" but "What is good?" Not what is best for me but what is best. Not what is right for me but what is right. Not "How much can we take?" but "How much ought we leave?" and "How much might we give?" Not what is easy but what is worthy. Not what is practical but what is moral. With each action we decide whether to sow the grapes of wrath or the seeds of peace.
The compass of compassion suggests that very few things, each simple, are needed. We shouldn't hate people for the group they were born into, or because we hold conflicting beliefs about things that cannot be proven, seen or measured. We can't infinitely take more from- or infinitely add more people to- a finite planet. While living in a world endowed with self-renewing energy, we can't run civilization on energy that diminishes the world. If we can get these simple things under control, I think we could be okay. Simple does not mean easy. Yet more than ever before in history, we can now understand what's needed. But nations need to act boldly and soon. Time runs short at an accelerating pace."
___
"The world is changing because we're changing it. And that makes me understand, at least, what kind of person I'd like to be. A person can seek ways, whether big or small, to heal the world. That, to me, is spirituality and one's 'soul.' Not some disembodied wishfulness but a way of being that, most days, I can work on. Life is like walking with a flashlight on a dark night. You can't see your destination, but each step illuminates the next few steps, and, taking one after another, you can get where you need to go. Only now, we'll need to quicken our pace if we are to avoid major upheaval in this century. It's up to us not just as individuals but as citizens of nations and of the world."
__
"America is a world power of expanding wealth and shrinking spirit, enlarged houses and broken homes, engorged executive pay and low worker morale, increased individualism and diminished civility, obesity and what Robert Lane calls "a kind of famine of warm interpersonal relations." We slave for prosperity but shirk purpose, cherish individual freedom but long for inclusion and meaning.
Simply put, more is better up to a point; after that, more is worse. When you're hungry, eating is good for you; when you're overweight, it isn't- but you want to eat more. The continuing appetite for more stuff, after emotional well-being stops increasing, is a psychic disease of the developed world. You can be right on track until you pass your destination; then- without changing course- you're headed in exactly the wrong direction What makes people happy: working on relationships. So maybe one stepping stone on the path to happiness has the word "Enough" engraved into it."
__
"A morning like this makes me feel happy. And I don't mind knowing that the feeling will be temporary. Happiness, like everything else in this rhythmic realm, comes and goes in waves, and it's good to savor it when the wave rises and, when the wave recedes, understand that another wave will come. Sometimes you ride the wave; sometimes you ride out the trough. A wave's height is measured by its depth, anyway.
My father, a schoolteacher who suffered from real depression, used to say, 'Those who know they have enough are rich.' I'm not sure he believed it. But I did. When I was young my friends and I would sit around with a fish on the grill and a beer in hand-very low-budget- and joke, 'I wonder what the poor people are doing.' A dry roof, a cold fridge, a hot shower, wheels, and climbing into any boat- even when the roof wasn't mine, nor the fridge, nor the shower, nor the boat- that's always felt like incredible riches. I'm not knocking money, but it's got its limitations. It can make many things easier, but it doesn't guarantee that you'll choose the right things and ask the right questions, and a lot of people with money remain (or become) unhappy. Anyway, I've seen what real poverty looks like. So my middle-class life and my connection with the sea have always seemed amazing luck. I've never thought that having more stuff would solve all my problems or make me happier- and that's proven true."
__
"Relationships are the music life makes. Context creates meaning. Asking, "What is the meaning of life?" is the wrong question; it makes you look in the wrong places. The question is, "Where is the meaning in life?" The place to look is: between. Neither the Red-wings nor Kenzie need to be taught that what's crucial is that we be mindful of the relationships."
__
"Saving the world requires saving democracy. That requires well-informed citizens. Conservation, environment, poverty, community, education, family, health, economy- these combine to make one quest: liberty and justice for all. Whether one's special emphasis is global warming or child welfare, the cause is the same cause. And justice comes from the same place being human comes from: compassion."
"Anyone looking for a country with low taxes; no funds wasted on social programs; no government regulation of business, health worker safety, or the environment; and no gun control might consider moving to Somalia."
"Rather than focusing on growth and the (increasingly unlikely) possibility of further development, we could focus on development with the (increasingly implausible) possibility of growth."
"I wasn't the problem, but we're always only part of the problem. At some point one confronts the question of right and wrong in private, with the door closed. We can do the right thing. Right things maintain a community.... We each make our solo voyages to deep, expansive waters. Alone in our contest with the wider world, we test our mettle and seek our trophies, promotions, compliments, and accolades. We strive to be needed and thereby to know that there is a reason for us. We seek to be told we are good because we're too unsure of ourselves to know. Yet often we remain so focused on our neediness that we forget the creatures- human and otherwise- we're drawing into the vortex of our own passion play. All of us have compulsive loves we must forbear. We forget to see that we can engage the world without harming it. And although we fish for approval, the challenge is: to capture our prizes while bringing more to the world than we take."
"Passing along a world that can allow real children to flourish, and the cavalcade of generations to unfold, and the least to live in modest dignity would be the biggest pro-life enterprise we could undertake... Children yet to come will be the cleanup crew to our festivities. Because we know they won't be coming to the ballroom until we've all waddled off, we've granted ourselves permission to party like there's no tomorrow."
Can't underline a library book so keeping a running tab of quotes here:
"The compass of compassion asks not "What is good for me?" but "What is good?" Not what is best for me but what is best. Not what is right for me but what is right. Not "How much can we take?" but "How much ought we leave?" and "How much might we give?" Not what is easy but what is worthy. Not what is practical but what is moral. With each action we decide whether to sow the grapes of wrath or the seeds of peace.
The compass of compassion suggests that very few things, each simple, are needed. We shouldn't hate people for the group they were born into, or because we hold conflicting beliefs about things that cannot be proven, seen or measured. We can't infinitely take more from- or infinitely add more people to- a finite planet. While living in a world endowed with self-renewing energy, we can't run civilization on energy that diminishes the world. If we can get these simple things under control, I think we could be okay. Simple does not mean easy. Yet more than ever before in history, we can now understand what's needed. But nations need to act boldly and soon. Time runs short at an accelerating pace."
___
"The world is changing because we're changing it. And that makes me understand, at least, what kind of person I'd like to be. A person can seek ways, whether big or small, to heal the world. That, to me, is spirituality and one's 'soul.' Not some disembodied wishfulness but a way of being that, most days, I can work on. Life is like walking with a flashlight on a dark night. You can't see your destination, but each step illuminates the next few steps, and, taking one after another, you can get where you need to go. Only now, we'll need to quicken our pace if we are to avoid major upheaval in this century. It's up to us not just as individuals but as citizens of nations and of the world."
__
"America is a world power of expanding wealth and shrinking spirit, enlarged houses and broken homes, engorged executive pay and low worker morale, increased individualism and diminished civility, obesity and what Robert Lane calls "a kind of famine of warm interpersonal relations." We slave for prosperity but shirk purpose, cherish individual freedom but long for inclusion and meaning.
Simply put, more is better up to a point; after that, more is worse. When you're hungry, eating is good for you; when you're overweight, it isn't- but you want to eat more. The continuing appetite for more stuff, after emotional well-being stops increasing, is a psychic disease of the developed world. You can be right on track until you pass your destination; then- without changing course- you're headed in exactly the wrong direction What makes people happy: working on relationships. So maybe one stepping stone on the path to happiness has the word "Enough" engraved into it."
__
"A morning like this makes me feel happy. And I don't mind knowing that the feeling will be temporary. Happiness, like everything else in this rhythmic realm, comes and goes in waves, and it's good to savor it when the wave rises and, when the wave recedes, understand that another wave will come. Sometimes you ride the wave; sometimes you ride out the trough. A wave's height is measured by its depth, anyway.
My father, a schoolteacher who suffered from real depression, used to say, 'Those who know they have enough are rich.' I'm not sure he believed it. But I did. When I was young my friends and I would sit around with a fish on the grill and a beer in hand-very low-budget- and joke, 'I wonder what the poor people are doing.' A dry roof, a cold fridge, a hot shower, wheels, and climbing into any boat- even when the roof wasn't mine, nor the fridge, nor the shower, nor the boat- that's always felt like incredible riches. I'm not knocking money, but it's got its limitations. It can make many things easier, but it doesn't guarantee that you'll choose the right things and ask the right questions, and a lot of people with money remain (or become) unhappy. Anyway, I've seen what real poverty looks like. So my middle-class life and my connection with the sea have always seemed amazing luck. I've never thought that having more stuff would solve all my problems or make me happier- and that's proven true."
__
"Relationships are the music life makes. Context creates meaning. Asking, "What is the meaning of life?" is the wrong question; it makes you look in the wrong places. The question is, "Where is the meaning in life?" The place to look is: between. Neither the Red-wings nor Kenzie need to be taught that what's crucial is that we be mindful of the relationships."
__
"Saving the world requires saving democracy. That requires well-informed citizens. Conservation, environment, poverty, community, education, family, health, economy- these combine to make one quest: liberty and justice for all. Whether one's special emphasis is global warming or child welfare, the cause is the same cause. And justice comes from the same place being human comes from: compassion."
"Anyone looking for a country with low taxes; no funds wasted on social programs; no government regulation of business, health worker safety, or the environment; and no gun control might consider moving to Somalia."
"Rather than focusing on growth and the (increasingly unlikely) possibility of further development, we could focus on development with the (increasingly implausible) possibility of growth."
"I wasn't the problem, but we're always only part of the problem. At some point one confronts the question of right and wrong in private, with the door closed. We can do the right thing. Right things maintain a community.... We each make our solo voyages to deep, expansive waters. Alone in our contest with the wider world, we test our mettle and seek our trophies, promotions, compliments, and accolades. We strive to be needed and thereby to know that there is a reason for us. We seek to be told we are good because we're too unsure of ourselves to know. Yet often we remain so focused on our neediness that we forget the creatures- human and otherwise- we're drawing into the vortex of our own passion play. All of us have compulsive loves we must forbear. We forget to see that we can engage the world without harming it. And although we fish for approval, the challenge is: to capture our prizes while bringing more to the world than we take."
"Passing along a world that can allow real children to flourish, and the cavalcade of generations to unfold, and the least to live in modest dignity would be the biggest pro-life enterprise we could undertake... Children yet to come will be the cleanup crew to our festivities. Because we know they won't be coming to the ballroom until we've all waddled off, we've granted ourselves permission to party like there's no tomorrow."
expendablemudge's review
2.0
This two-star rant has been revised and can now be found at Expendable Mudge Muses Aloud.
Really. Someone this August A Personage can afford a ghostwriter.
Really. Someone this August A Personage can afford a ghostwriter.
clarel's review
5.0
I wrote a review here: http://www.learntodivetoday.co.za/blog/2014/06/30/bookshelf-the-view-from-lazy-point/
satyridae's review
5.0
Heart-wrenching, eye-opening and exquisitely written. Safina has been compared to many of the giants in the natural history world, but he's a better writer than the lot of 'em. In this latest book, he waxes a bit more philosophical than he's done before. His philosophy fits my belief system like a glove, and his conclusions are breathtaking. One trembles to think that we are on the razor's edge, that our window to ameliorate our planet's distress is closing rapidly- and that if we don't do it, it will be done for us with a heartless finality that will brook no arguments. As we say where I live, "The mountain don't care if you live or die."
I love this passage:
"So I guess what I'm trying to say is that, though I'm a secular person and a scientist, I believe that our relationship with the living world must be mainly religious. But I don't mean theological. I mean religious in the sense of reverent, revolutionary, spiritual, and inspired. Reverent because the world is unique, thus holy. Revolutionary in making a break with the drift and downdraft of outdated, maladaptive modes of thought. Spiritual in seeking attainment of a higher realm of human being. Inspired in the aspiration to connect crucial truths with wider communities. Religious in precisely this way: connection: with a sense of purpose."
And this, which is purely brilliant:
"If there is a God, then all things natural are miraculous. If there's no God, then all things natural are miraculous. That's quite a coincidence, and ought to give people holding different beliefs a lot to talk about. People who see the world as God's and people who sense an accident of cosmic chemistry can both perceive the sacred. Let's not be afraid to say, to explain- and, if necessary, to rage- that we hold the uniqueness of this Earth sacred, that the whole living enterprise is sacred. And that what depletes the living enterprise always proves to be, even in purely practical terms, a mistake."
I'm still reeling from Safina's descriptions of hunters who still (still!) kill ducks and toss them into the bushes because they are there for the sport (sport!) of duck hunting and have no interest in duck eating. I'm still encouraged by his reports of some of the species that have come back, once we humans gave them a little space and time. And I'm very, very frightened about what my grandchildren will have and hold.
I can't buy everyone a copy of this book, as much as I want to. But I can encourage you, in the strongest possible terms, to read it. And soon. As Safina says in his closing passage, "Time runs short at an accelerating pace."
I love this passage:
"So I guess what I'm trying to say is that, though I'm a secular person and a scientist, I believe that our relationship with the living world must be mainly religious. But I don't mean theological. I mean religious in the sense of reverent, revolutionary, spiritual, and inspired. Reverent because the world is unique, thus holy. Revolutionary in making a break with the drift and downdraft of outdated, maladaptive modes of thought. Spiritual in seeking attainment of a higher realm of human being. Inspired in the aspiration to connect crucial truths with wider communities. Religious in precisely this way: connection: with a sense of purpose."
And this, which is purely brilliant:
"If there is a God, then all things natural are miraculous. If there's no God, then all things natural are miraculous. That's quite a coincidence, and ought to give people holding different beliefs a lot to talk about. People who see the world as God's and people who sense an accident of cosmic chemistry can both perceive the sacred. Let's not be afraid to say, to explain- and, if necessary, to rage- that we hold the uniqueness of this Earth sacred, that the whole living enterprise is sacred. And that what depletes the living enterprise always proves to be, even in purely practical terms, a mistake."
I'm still reeling from Safina's descriptions of hunters who still (still!) kill ducks and toss them into the bushes because they are there for the sport (sport!) of duck hunting and have no interest in duck eating. I'm still encouraged by his reports of some of the species that have come back, once we humans gave them a little space and time. And I'm very, very frightened about what my grandchildren will have and hold.
I can't buy everyone a copy of this book, as much as I want to. But I can encourage you, in the strongest possible terms, to read it. And soon. As Safina says in his closing passage, "Time runs short at an accelerating pace."
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