Frailty and Impermanence

Granting the frailty, and no doubt the impermanence, of modern technology as a human contrivance, the man who can keep a fire in a stove or on a hearth is not only more durable, but wiser, closer to the meaning of fire, than the man who can only work a thermostat. Wendell Berry Wendell Berry has become a bit of a spirit guide for me, someone whose writing always teaches me something and opens my mind to things I’ve never considered. Although the book’s central theme is a deeply personal meditation on racism and the hurt it inflicts on all of us, this snippet from The Hidden Wound taps into something about that feels relevant not just in the sense of how we place value on one another as humans, but also in how we’ve allowed technology specifically to erode the value of learned skill. My hope is always that common sense will prevail and most people will want to land on the right side of history as the upheaval we’re experiencing now shakes out. Footnotes Berry, Wendell. The Hidden…