{"id":117,"date":"2005-10-07T18:52:25","date_gmt":"2005-10-08T01:52:25","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=117"},"modified":"2005-10-07T18:52:25","modified_gmt":"2005-10-08T01:52:25","slug":"for-the-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ourhousehaswheels.com\/?p=117","title":{"rendered":"Poetic Wisdom"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When I read this poem by Gary Snyder, I understood it to be about the times we face now. War, natural disaster, economic crisis, hard times.  A seemingly hopeless downward spiral. Then I realized that when he won a Pulitzer Prize for <em>Turtle Island<\/em>, I was 14 years old. This poem is about then. But it speaks to me now.  Whichever&#8201;&#8212;&#038;#8201then or now&#8201;&#8212;&#038;#8201his advice resonates. &#8220;Go light&#8221;&#8230; he says. I  had already been thinking this. Surprisingly difficult to actually do, the idea feels right. In the context of my addictions, putting this wisdom to practical purpose, my course seems clear in at least one respect&nbsp;&#8230; my next computer should be a laptop. It&#8217;s doubtful that this was quite what Gary Snyder had in mind but it&#8217;s necesary to dose my ideals with a bit of realism. And everything&#8201;&#8212;&#038;#8201absolutely everything&#8201;&#8212;&#038;#8201is relative.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>For the Children<\/p>\n<p>The rising hills, the slopes,<br \/>\nof statistics<br \/>\nlie before us.<br \/>\nthe steep climb<br \/>\nof everything, going up,<br \/>\nup, as we all<br \/>\ngo down.<\/p>\n<p>In the next century<br \/>\nor the one beyond that,<br \/>\nthey say,<br \/>\nare valleys, pastures,<br \/>\nwe can meet there in peace<br \/>\nif we make it.<\/p>\n<p>To climb these coming crests<br \/>\none word to you, to<br \/>\nyou and your children:<\/p>\n<p>stay together<br \/>\nlearn the flowers<br \/>\ngo light<\/p>\n<p>~ Gary Snyder ~<\/p>\n<p>(Turtle Island)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When I read this poem by Gary Snyder, I understood it to be about the times we face now. War, natural disaster, economic crisis, hard times. A seemingly hopeless downward spiral. Then I realized that when he won a Pulitzer Prize for Turtle Island, I was 14 years old. This poem is about then. But [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ourhousehaswheels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ourhousehaswheels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ourhousehaswheels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ourhousehaswheels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ourhousehaswheels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/ourhousehaswheels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ourhousehaswheels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ourhousehaswheels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ourhousehaswheels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}