LM Finale

A. Wendell Berry sees the rational mind as something that is cold and calculating. It has no time to chew over the implications or the effects of its decisions, so long as it can profit, even in a minor way, from the objectives at hand. The sympathetic mind, on the other, attempts to view the world as a whole and as a more organic entity. It looks at the implications of its decisions and refuses to believe that its own individualistic profit is the only measure of gain.

For Reece, he demonstrates this well in the reflection in the August 2004 chapter, in which he argues against those that believe "it's already fucked up anyway" so why not just finish the job. He argues defense of a culture and an area of which he himself is not a native. He shows that while the people in the area have hurt the ecosystem in some ways, they have also contributed to it in other ways.

One thing that I enjoyed was the other way he expresses his sympathetic mind. In Before the Law, he actually goes out and fights for the rights of the people to whom he has no allegiance. I admire that he is not only talking the talk, but actually walking the walk and takes time in order to help, in whatever way possible, save the land and preserve the rich culture of Appalachia.

B. The quote that I found most astonishing in the conclusion was actually the quote of Frank Lloyd Wright that Reece uses. The quote is, "The actual difference between 'individualism' and individuality of a true democracy lies in the difference between selfishness and noble selfhood." (242) This distinction is profound in that Reece, through Wright, is not attempting to express the idea of selflessness, but recognizing that we have a place in the bigger picture. Instead of extracting ourselves from the picture entirely, in the case of selflessness, we must see the role that we play in order our world, our picture, more perfect.

The connection of Lost Mountain the mountain to this idea is that ultimately we come from and are a product of nature. We will inevitably die and we will become food for everything in nature. Essentially, though our human bodies can destroy mountains with our machines, the stuff that makes us who we are is the very same stuff that creates mountains. Or planets. Or galaxies. So in a very literal sense, we are not the overseers and protectors, as our egos try to convince us, but instead, we are nature. We are not extracted from, we are not superior to. We just are. And with that sense of selfhood in relation to everything in our universe, we must realize that our legacy depends upon something much larger than our selfish and destructive quests for comfort. Our legacy depends on those that come after us. In sum, if we fail to insure future generations, then our 'self' becomes irrelevant.

I'm poked and prodded out.