That civilisations fall, sooner or later, is as much a law of history as gravity is a law of physics. What remains after the fall is a wild mixture of cultural debris, confused and angry people whose certainties have betrayed them, and those forces which were always there, deeper than the foundations of the city walls: the desire to survive and the desire for meaning.
– The Dark Mountain Project Manifesto
I didn’t do nearly as much reading this week as most – busy with work, in bed early a few nights because I needed the sleep and, most significantly perhaps, I’m feeling burned out on politics. I’m presently much more interested in science and – it being May – in planting. Here are a few things on those themes and other ones:
- The Dark Mountain Project, The Humbling
- Bill McKibben, Being Good Enough
- dr24hrs, An Engineer’s Argument for Basic Research
- Ken Johnson (NYT), Richard Serra’s Steel Behemoths Get Into Your Head
Several weeks ago it was “Music Sunday” at church. In lieu of a sermon the choir performed Mozart’s Requiem. It was amazing. Their performance of it isn’t up on YouTube yet so here’s one that is:
(Lyrics and English translation of Requiem here.)