According to Wendell Berry, the rational mind is focused mainly on survival by any means possible. It is very straightforward and focuses on making money in this case. It solves problems in an analytical manner, using only the facts. The sympathetic mind thinks about all sides. It thinks about how its decisions will affect the people involved. It comes to conclusions after finding the most honest and well supported claims. Reece uses his sympathetic mind all throughout the book. In the chapter “September 2004”, he uses his sympathetic mind when imaging the mountain side before and after the mining. He looks over the mountain and all he sees is grey fields and wastelands. The rational mind would have just seen it for what it is, a wasteland, but Reece thinks about how it was before and is able to look beyond the obvious and think about how it will grow back eventually as a grassy area that will be pretty again. He understands that the coal needed to come out, and he looks pass the money made from the coal to think about how to make the land beautiful again. He also uses his sympathetic mind when talking about creation and evolution. He talks about each topic while giving his opinion. He allows himself to come to his own conclusion and allows the reader to make his or her own conclusion based on information from both arguments. He doesn’t just suggest one side to be true without explaining why the other side could also be true.
Reece says, “It has been well documented, most recently by psychiatrist Peter C. Whybrow, that while Americans are four times more affluent than during the 60’s, we have shown no measurable gains in happiness. In fact the opposite is true: We are more depressed, more medicated, more frazzled than at any other time in our short history.(pg 241)” I think Reece includes this to show us that we may have more material things, and we may be more advanced but we are not making our lives any better in terms of making ourselves happier. I think he would say that we need to be more in touch with nature and the free things in life. This would make for a happier life. We wouldn’t worry so much about what is on TV, or what new thing we need, we would just be able to relax and reconnect with ourselves. I think it is important for people to take time away from our busy lives to just take a walk, relax, and enjoy nature because it is a very soothing thing that people take for granted, and I think Reece would agree with me.
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Good job at making Berry's distinctions. Also you picked a great quote that really picks up the essence of the final section of the book. Enjoyed your perspective on the quote as well for people to relax and take time away from our busy lives.
ReplyDeleteI agree that we need to spend more time to relax, reconnect and enjoy life/nature. If we weren't so caught up in dumb reality shows that show dumb morals and idolize stupid thing "Jersey Shore" we would see the damage humans are doing. If we spent time outside we may grow fonder of nature, care more about its destruction and maybe even try to stop polluting it.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Reece agrees that the coal must come out. If he did, he'd be on the 'rational' mind side. Do you think the term, 'rational' is accurate in depicting short term, profit motive thinking?
ReplyDeleteI like how you described the rational and sympathetic mind and I agree that Reece attempts to show different sides of the story in order for the readers to come to their own conclusions. I think that the quote you chose is really interesting and it sticks out because it pretty much describes how backwards our thinking is and the more we have materially the less we appreciate nature and we take what we have for granted.
ReplyDeleteI agree, the tasks in our lives today are way more than what the everyday person can handle. Even if there was an extra couple hours a day, our schedule would still be full and still have hardly any time for leisure. I found that if i write out my schedule for every hour in every day of the week, I can see how much time i really have open from sleeping, class, studying, and spending time with my friends. Maybe I could substitute some time with friends for some leisure time to relax or take a walk. If people could be more aware of the time they spend doing things in our everyday life, maybe we could fit in some time for leisure. I feel as though people don't think that they are ungrateful of the earth, but they just need to be reminded that its a blessing to have nature around us.
ReplyDeleteThe problem sort of lies on the fact that our society is money based. Coal=Money=Materialistic things=Happiness. In this book Coal = happiness, so to the coal companies nothing else really matters because in the rational mind, the coal isn't getting anyone anywhere as it sits there in the mountain, so they get it out of there by any means. Unfortunately there are too many people profiting from coal mining to stop it. In order to appreciate the sympathetic mind, one must not equate money with happiness, and simply enjoy life for what it is and be conscience of others.
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