“I watched prairie dogs every day, rise before the sun, stand with their paws pressed together facing the rising sun in total stillness for up to 30 minutes, and then I watched them at the end of the day take that same gesture 30 minutes before the sun goes down they would press their palms together in perfect stillness.
“I don’t mean to anthropomorphize, but when you look at a creature that has survived over the millennium begin and end each day in that kind of stance, it causes one to think about one’s own life and speed and rapidity in which we live.”
“The world given over to ignorance and egotism is like a valley shrouded in darkness. Only up on the peaks is there light.
“All must live in the darkness. Only one creature can escape and catch a glimpse of the light: the highest creature, man. He is permitted to achieve the knowledge of reverence for life. His is the privilege of achieving the knowledge of shared experience and compassion, of transcending the ignorance in which the rest of creation pines.
“And this understanding is the great event in the evolution of life. Through it truth and goodness appear in the world.” Light shines above the darkness.”
— Albert Schweitzer, from a 1919 sermon
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