For Beauty of the Earth: Birding, Opera and Other Journeys

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Summary: In praise of simple things
Review: Thomas Urquhart is a 'rara avis' - a true intellect who has used his skills in scholastic research, personal avocations of reading great literature, studying languages, the many faces of music and poetry, and bird watching to create a book that defies description. FOR THE BEAUTY OF THE EARTH: BIRDING, OPERA AND OTHER JOURNEYS is not a memoir in the dictionary sense of the word. Yes, these are shared observations by a Naturalist who has visited his native England, Mali, Provence, Italy and America (now his home) and simply absorbed all the natural, at times rapidly disappearing, beauty of nature. For the reader who must have linear writing to enjoy a book, then this beautifully written volume is still accessible by reading only a chapter at a time. All of Urquhart's 'journeys' are descriptive of place, of people, of customs, of history, of local and universal mythology, of all the music in the songs of birds and the symphonies of natural wonders. While he celebrates and guides us a fellow travelers to embrace the wonders of the earth, he gently encourages us to heed his warnings. "...we have yet to internalize our recent discovery that the earth is fragile and finite. Although our ancestors understood how to live in nature far better than we do, they had not discovered this important fact...The scale of the disconnect between how we have conceived of the earth in cultural memory and just how much we need it now to support our species for the future is beginning to sink in. It is a chasm we must cross before we are pushed over the edge by the demons we have unleashed in our wake." "..our natural systems are at once source, symbol and symptom of our quality of life; their wise stewardship must be the standard by which any government is judged." Yet Urquhart, for all his convictions that we must preserve our natural resources, does not preach to us in this book. His primary concern is to awaken in us a renaissance of the wonder of nature. Walking the Provencal countryside he muses, "The play of pagan and Christian, nature and man is finally distilled into pure delight, a whimsical descant that decorates the physical testimony of the timeless dance of man and the earth." Along his travels he has many diversions into his appreciation for the symphonies and songs of Gustav Mahler, the Ring cycle of Richard Wagner, Schubert and other composers whose music holds evidence of the naturalist's view, poets and writers. Urquhart's knowledge of the density of history, language, mythology, botany and ornithology of his visited places is astonishing. There is more to learn in this volume of musings than in libraries of dry reference books. Why? In his words, "I have searched all my life for a practice that would allow me to celebrate Earth and nature as they deserve, to penetrate their wonders in the least branch, pool or leaf. It is a personal quest for something ecstatic or revelatory, something that will make my cheeks tingle or bring tears to my eyes." This lovingly and eloquently written diary of the earth is a joy to read and is food for thought as our society continues to chomp large bites out of hte earth's crust and atmosphere. Thomas Urquhart is a poet, a philosopher, and a simple birdwatcher with a profound message. Everyone should read this treasure!