Words&Dirt

“To exist is for all people something choiceworthy and lovable, and we exist by means of activity (for this consists in living and acting).  And in his activity, the maker of something somehow is the work; he therefore feels affection for the work because he feels affection also for his own existence.  This is natural, for what he is in his capacity [or potential], the work reveals in his activity.”

––Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, trans. Robert C. Bartlett and Susan D. Collins, Book 9, Chapter 7

“Our own yards can allow us to reduce our incessant pressure on the planet’s health.  The techniques of permaculture and ecological design allow us to easily, intelligently, and beautifully provide for some of our own needs.  We can create landscapes that behave much like those in nature but tinker with them just a bit to increase their yield for people while preserving the native habitat.  And in so doing we can allow some of those factory farms and industrial forests to revert to wild land.”

––Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture, by Toby Hemenway, loc. 507