“There were no formerly heroic times, and there was no formerly pure generation. There is no one here but us chickens, and so it always has been: a people busy and powerful, knowledgeable, ambivalent, important, fearful, and self-aware; a people who scheme, promote, deceive, and conquer; who pray for their loved ones, and long to flee misery and skip death. It is a weakening and discoloring idea that rustic people knew God personally once up a time — or even knew selflessness or courage or literature — but that is too late for us. In fact, the absolute is available to everyone in every age. There never was a more holy time than ours, and never a less.”
–Annie Dillard, For the Time Being (1999)
January 21st, 2006 at 3:13 pm
Lovely Dillard quote. FYI, I caught up to this via Rob Brezsny
http://www.thesunmagazine.org/359_Breszny.pdf