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A small photograph of the author Chris Jones

Book: Embrace Fearlessly the Burning World: Essays

Embrace Fearlessly the Burning World: Essays

By Barry Lopez with Rebecca Solnit
Published in 2022 by Random House Publishing Group
Finished reading: March 20th, 2023
Rating: 5.0 / 5

Description:

An ardent steward of the land, fearless traveler, and unrivaled observer of nature and culture, Barry Lopez died after a long illness on Christmas Day 2020. The previous summer, a wildfire had consumed much of what was dear to him in his home place and the community around it — a tragic reminder of the climate change of which he’d long warned.

Quote:

In this trembling moment, with light armour under several flags rolling across northern Syria, with civilians beaten to death in the streets of Occupied Palestine, with fires roaring across the vineyards of California and forests being felled to ensure more space for development, with student loans from profiteers breaking the backs of the young, and with Niagaras of water falling into the oceans from every sector of Greenland, in this moment, is it still possible to face the gathering darkness and say to the physical Earth, and to all its creatures, including ourselves, fiercely and without embarrassment, I love you, and to embrace fearlessly the burning world?

Review:

There’s not much to add to what has already been said about this wonderful collection of stories, stories gathered from a life full of living, searching, wondering, and questioning. A meditation on life, the natural world and our place in it, with heartbreaking revelations of abuse and recovery, this is a collection of experiences to keep returning to when the world feels too difficult to comprehend, when there seems to be no hope left.

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