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Indian Country

Book by Philip Caputo · 2 quotes · Empathy, Humanity, Love

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AllEmpathyHumanityLoveNatureSacredSelfishness

Indian Country Quotes

“Directly overhead the Milky Way was as distinct as a highway across the sky. The constellations shown brilliantly, except the north, where they were blurred by the white sheets of the Aurora. Now shimmering like translucent curtains drawn over the windows of heaven, the northern lights suddenly streaked across a million miles of space to burst in silent explosions. Fountains of light, pale greens, reds, and yellows, showered the stars and geysered up to the center of the sky, where they pooled to form a multicolored sphere, a kind of mock sun that gave light but no heat, pulsing, flaring, and casting beams in all directions, horizon to horizon. Below, the wolves howled with midnight madness and the two young men stood in speechless awe. Even after the spectacle ended, the Aurora fading again to faint shimmer, they stood as silent and transfixed as the first human beings ever to behold the wonder of creation. Starkmann felt the diminishment that is not self-depreciation but humility; for what was he and what was Bonnie George? Flickers of consciousness imprisoned in lumps of dust; above them a sky ablaze with the Aurora, around them a wilderness where wolves sang savage arias to a frozen moon.”

HumanityNatureSacred
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“And there was yet another difference between them. This one only visible to those who watched them keenly, studied the two boys over many moments and over many moons. But of course, no one could do that. Older Brother and Younger Brother were the only two people on earth. The difference was this: The older brother loved all thing, but the younger brother loved only himself. You would think such a thing would be readily apparent in a person, even obvious, but no, it isn't. Such a thing is often opaque and easily masked. And could take a lifetime to see, whether we love ourselves only or everything equally.”

LoveEmpathySelfishness
Book:Indian Country
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