“One must live in the middle of contradiction, because if all contradiction were eliminated at once, life would collapse. There are simply no definitive answers to some of the great pressing questions. You continue to live them out making your life a worthy expression of leaning into the light.” IfsLightAnswersMiddleExpressionExcellenceWorthyContradictionCollapse Author:Barry Lopez
“Remember on this one thing, said Badger. The stories people tell have a way of taking care of them. If stories come to you, care for them. And learn to give them away where they are needed. Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive. That is why we put these stories in each other's memories. This is how people care for themselves.” PeopleIfsWayNeedsGivingPersonsSaidSometimesStoriesCareRememberMemoriesAliveOne ThingNeededStaying AliveBadgersStory People Author:Barry Lopez
“Conversations are efforts toward good relations. They are an elementary form of reciprocity. They are the exercise of our love for each other. They are the enemies of our loneliness, our doubt, our anxiety, our tendencies to abdicate. To continue to be in good conversation over our enormous and terrifying problems is to be calling out to each other in the night. If we attend with imagination and devotion to our conversations, we will find what we need; and someone among us will act—it does not matter whom—and we will survive.” IfsNeedsDoeMatterProblemFormNightImaginationEffortEnemyDoubtLonelinessExerciseCallingConversationAnxietyRelationEnormousDevotionTendenciesOur LoveReciprocityGood Conversation Author:Barry Lopez
“If there is a stage at which an individual life becomes truly adult, it must be when one grasps the irony in its unfolding and accepts responsibility for a life lived in the midst of such paradox.” IfsIndividualResponsibilityAcceptingStageInspirational LifeAdultsIronyMidstParadoxUnfoldingIndividual Life Book:Arctic Dreams Source: Arctic Dreams
“One must live in the middle of contradiction, because if all contradiction were eliminated at once life would collapse.” IfsMiddleInspirational LifeContradictionCollapse Book:Arctic Dreams Source: Arctic Dreams
“If I were to offer any advice to young writers, it would be this: be discriminating and be discerning about the work you set for yourself. That done, be the untutored traveler, the eager reader, the enthusiastic listener. Put what you learn together carefully, and then write thoughtfully, with respect both for the reader and your sources.” IfsWritingDoneWould BeTogetherYoungAdviceSourceReaderOffersListenersTravelerEnthusiasticDiscerningYoung Writers Author:Barry Lopez
“If stories come to you, care for them. And learn to give them away where they are needed. Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive.” IfsNeedsGivingPersonsSometimesStoriesCareAliveNeededStorytellingStorytellerStaying Alive Author:Barry Lopez
“People think that if you've written a book and somebody's given you a pat on the back then, you know, it's all - you're all settled, you know? You're going to be fine. I know that if I'm not confused, and really afraid, my work isn't going to be any good.” PeopleIfsThinkingKnowsBookGivenWrittenFineConfused Author:Barry Lopez
“When we enter the landscape to learn something, we are obligated, I think, to pay attention rather than constantly to pose questions. To approach the land as we would a person, by opening an intelligent conversation. And to stay in one place, to make of that one, long observation a fully dilated experience. We will always be rewarded if we give the land credit for more than we imagine, and if we imagine it as being more complex even than language. In these ways we begin, I think, to find a home, to sense how to fit a place.” IfsThinkingWayGivingPersonsLongHomeLanguageNaturePayAttentionImagineLandFitConversationApproachIntelligentComplexesCreditOpeningObservationLandscapePay AttentionIntelligent Conversation Author:Barry Lopez
