Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Notre Jardin



I was listening to NPR this morning while I drove Simon and Jacob to pre-school. They were talking about Voltaire's Candide.

"Il fait que cultiver notre jardin," he said. It may be naive and overly optimistic, in viewing the world's growing litany of nasty perils, to believe that if we'd all tend to our own gardens and pull our own weeds, and let others tend their own gardens, we'd all be better off. There's no way we can fix the whole world.


Voltaire was essentially a pessimist, with a negative world view. Candide almost convinces us that if we'd each focus on our own plot of ground in our own backyard, and do it well, then the larger issues of "Kings and Queens" would simply dissolve.

7 comments:

Tammy Brierly said...

I LOVED the photos and feel we need to help each other.

Joyce Ellen Davis said...

You think that, just because my photo is blocking out my bloglist? I tried and tried to fix it. Nothing I did worked. Okay. What do I do? :(

Mary Bee said...

Yes, I'd like us to get out of the middle east too. Mind our own garden, cultivate our children's future here, cultivate an alternative to oil dependency, our garden is sweet if we'd stick with it and quit knocking down fences and trying to drive our plow over their fields.
Anyway, about ATC's, LOL. Enough rant huh? They are 3.5 x 2.5 and you just make whatever you want out of whatever you want. It is a craft, or it is an art. Each persons style depends on their own idea at the moment. Then you trade them with others (and there are lots and lots of others world wide) and pretty soon you have a whole amazing collection of such a wide variation of styles of art. Need more tutorial go to http://www.lisavollrath.com/pages/69 to learn more or search ATC's on Ebay for a look at the wide variety

slickdpdx said...

Nice pics! I'm a big fan of Candide. Alas, Nick Hornby is not. Funny anyhow. His reading project books aren't at all bad. But he's no Voltaire!

Anonymous said...

WOW!!! just caught up on your blogs - that grand-baby is just so darn cute! (As you Americans say.) Of course as a kiwi I'd say he was just corker - or even (with a nod to my Scottish roots) a bonny wee bairn!
Great to catch up.

AscenderRisesAbove said...

Yes; the photos are very nice.

(I think the width is too wide; there should be a little grab bar in the corner that will let you adjust the size.)

Still; you can practically smell the leaves!

new blog:
http://ascenderrisesabove.com/wordpress/

turquoise cro said...

lol How cute!!! Hey, talking about ATC's, that's what that "Send me 2 stars" is! I've made them but I'd rather work on collages, now a 1" by 1" square is going around, I made a few of these! if You want to trade, just let me know! LOL