wilderness issues lecture series
David James Duncan and the Language of Eternity
By Matthew Frank, 3-07-07
 |
|
 | |
|
Author David James Duncan says if in the Bible, the words “heaven and earth” were replaced with “environment,” the book would be out of print.
It’s the word’s “soullessness,” he says. It’s not big enough and lovely enough. It lacks “the language of eternity” to affect the whole of a human.
And the inadequacy of the word is reflected in the inadequacy of the environmental movement, whose outward work has not been balanced by, and not informed by, the divinity in each of us, that interior kingdom, the wild within, Duncan says.
The Wild Outside, The Wild Within was the title of Duncan’s talk Tuesday night at the University of Montana as part of the Wilderness Issues Lecture Series. The Montana novelist and essayist spoke of the earth’s holiness and of those who speak of it and write of it so well—the work of “exposing matter to spirit,” as he put it.
Duncan shared passages with the audience from the likes of Tolstoy, Leopold, Hawken, Blake and Darwin. He called them “the deepest, highest, most loving descriptions” of our world—language with that necessary eternity. Among the words Duncan read aloud were those of Mother Teresa, who said, “We can do no great things, only small things with great love.”
A passage that struck this listener was a poem written by William Stafford called “Why I am happy.”
“There is a lake somewhere / so blue and far nobody owns it…That lake stays blue and free; it goes / on and on. / And I know where it is.”
Nobody owns this lake, Duncan added, “least of all reason.”
Duncan’s speech was solemn, enough to make him pause to collect himself once or twice, but at the same time, like his writing, hilarious and irreverent. In between talk of the wild within Duncan addressed the spiritual deficiencies of the Bush administration, which he likens to “cave trolls.” There’s no more a chance of global climate change being solved by the administration’s big oil men, he said, as the crystal meth problem being solved by addicts and tweakers.
But “I am my brother’s keeper,” Duncan said, “and George W. Bush is my brother.”
To hate the sin but not the sinner has been a struggle for Duncan. Help, he said, has come from Tolstoy, who wrote in War and Peace that a king is the “slave of history.” Duncan read, “The more connections he has with others and the more power he has over them, the more conspicuous is the predestination and inevitability of every act he commits.”
Toward the end, the audience still completely honed in, Duncan shared anecdotes about his own inward spirit effecting outward change—small things done with great love. He talked of a loon he sped past on a Montana highway that had mistaken the slick pavement for calm water and lay there, inches from barreling semis, lame with a chipped beak. Duncan threw his car into reverse and carefully scooped up the loon as it warbled into his chest. He raced to the house of a bird-loving friend who placed the loon in a tub of water, and dropped in gold fish that swam below. The loon floated in circles, content, gobbling up gold fish, minutes after inevitable death.
“Life itself,” Duncan said, “sometimes hangs by a thread made of nothing but the spirit which we see.”
[End of article]Anyone else who attended want to weigh in? I couldn't make it, and I'd be very interested to hear what others thought of it. Is there any way to listen to it online?
Comment By George, 3-07-07I remember the word "environment" coming into conversation in 1966, and it took some getting used to. The word it replaced was "conservation." The trouble with "conservation" was that it described a narrower field, mainly about lands and waters that are not where we actually live. "Environment" helped to get the point across that it's about where we live, right down to the air we breathe. That was far from obvious 40 years ago. A new and more apt word would help the movement.
Comment By Tim, 3-07-07I like the words ecology and conservation because they have less of negative connotation attached to them by the Rush Limbaugh worshipers. But I can't count how many times I've heard an over the top, "God gave me the right to take and pollute as much as I want for my own profit" developer describe themselves as an "environmentalist" or "conservationist".
Another term that has great meaning but is little understood it sustainability. In reality nothing is sustainable unless it can co-habitat with the environment in the long term. Of course economists use the term sustainable and refer to money making potential of an industry with no consideration of the environment so I guess it depends on who your talking to.
I intended to go, but it was so gorgeous out; I ended up with my butt planted on the concrete slab of the "M" watching the sunset instead. I think DJD would have understood my absence. . . .
Comment By Moabite, 3-08-07Dave Foreman is touting the word "resourcism," which has a broad meaning. See http://www.rewilding.org for some pretty interesting (and deep) discussion.
Comment By Laurie, 3-08-07Duncan's lecture will be aired on KUFM in the next 1-2 months. We'll also make the lecture available on Wilderness.Net in the next few weeks. To listen online soon go to: http://www.wilderness.net/index.cfm?fuse=multimedia. If you have any questions contact us at the Wilderness Institute at 243.5361 or .
Comment By Greg, 3-08-07Count me in as someone who really wishes he could have been there and who's thankful for this brief report... and who's looking forward to the audio being available on Wilderness.net. :)
Thanks!
(And who also wishes Duncan would venture to Minnesota sometime.)
Thank God, Mother Nature and All the All in Ones that David James Duncan knows his soul and gives it voice in his beautiful writings and occasional chats with us. He's becoming the St. Francis and Walt Whitman of our time and more. David, I hope this gives your cheeks a little pink glow. You deserve every gush you get. Thanks from the rest of us wave riders.
Comment By mlu, 3-11-07Sounds peaceful. I wonder whether it really was.
Though I was enthralled with Duncan's first novel, I've stopped reading him, or even attending events where he will be. His narrowly partisan worldview expressed as though he's seen eternal truth, combined with his contempt for standards of propriety and his hatred toward people who see differently, have moved him to the bottom of my list. . .
He has wit and a gift for language, but he's not particularly profound--though he certainly does lust after sounding wise.
smart ceo's controlling the oil man in the white house and he's slow.....
Comment By stan, 3-19-07Ya Bush is slow--big executives won't solve the problem, have to wait for the next president. Duncan is great with words I agree. The Brothers K was awesome.....
This article was printed from www.newwest.net at the following URL: http://www.newwest.net/city/article/david_james_duncan_and_the_language_of_eternity/C8/L8/