The Mushroom at the Edge of the Forest

Shit happens, we say. And sometimes it does. But the fact of the matter is that sometimes, shit doesn’t just happen. Sometimes, human beings deliberately create the conditions under which shit is more likely to occur. Nobody says it’s easy, knowing the difference between right and wrong. Is it what you INTEND that makes all the difference, or what actually HAPPENS as a result of what you do, no matter what you intend? Everybody makes mistakes, nobody can see into the future, and isn’t too great an eagerness to lay blame a moral failing too? I think about this story and wonder what it means. One thing, I think, is clear: I should go on full alert if I hear myself say, “I’m not the one who does harm; harm just happens around me.” Like it or not, I own the consequences of my acts. They’re mine. —  Kathleen Dean Moore, The Pine Island Paradox

“If there is a meaning in the past and in the imagined future, it is captured in the moment. When you have all the time in the world, you can spend it, not on going somewhere, but on being where you are.” -- Robin Wall Kimmerer (Braiding Sweetgrass, 296)  

It took me a long time to decide how to start this post (read: I debated what book, how to talk about it, what book, what style to use, what book, WHAT BOOK!). I scanned my shelves to get inspiration and I started with a book that I have loved for a long while. The cover makes me happy, the contents make me happy, and it just makes me happy. Which seems like a decent place to start. Barbara Kingsolver is an American writer from Kentucky, born in 1955 and she has been writing since 1985. She also has two degrees in biology one from DePauw University and one from the University of Arizona. Small Wonder is the first book I read from Kingsolver and as I’ve already said it is one of my favourites. It is a small collection of stories about all manner of topics (American culture, family, environment, hope, etc.). From the first story about a child rescued by a bear in Iran to the last story about really seeing people and life for what is. Kingsolver offers up tidbits of her life, t...