Lightly Child, Lightly. The earth is beautiful beyond all change.

~ Live & Learn

No matter the circumstance, human suffering matters. Our attending to it matters. Acts of tenderness are not morally trivial. […]

For as Naomi Klein has reminded us, our demise isn’t all or nothing, at least not for the next few centuries. “There are degrees to how bad this thing can get,” Klein says. “Literally, there are degrees.” As we struggle to figure out how to notch back the degrees, so as to mitigate the suffering that a warming planet is going to bring, we also need to figure out forms of relationality—both to ourselves and to each other—that won’t make things worse.

By the time I finished 10:04, I felt like I understood some options: not being ashamed of the desire to make a living doing what we love, while also daring to imagine “art before or after capital”; paying as intense attention to our collectivity as to our individuality; demanding a politics based on more than reproductive futurism, without belittling the daily miracle of conception, nor the labor and mysterious promise of childbearing and -rearing; attempting to listen seriously to others, especially those who differ profoundly from ourselves, no matter how precontaminated the attempts; spending time reading and writing poetry; and more. Far from despair, I felt flooded with the sense that everything mattered, from meticulous descriptions of individual works of art to kissing the forehead of a passed-out intern to analyzing our political language to documenting the sensual details of our daily lives to bagging dried mangoes to the creation of the book I was holding in my hand to my deciding to spend time writing a review of it. “The earth is beautiful beyond all change,” Lerner repeats in 10:04, quoting the poet William Bronk. The inspired and inspiring accomplishment of his novel makes me want to say that sometimes, art is too. And maybe—if incredibly—so might we be, ourselves.

— Maggie Nelson, from “Beyond All Change. On Ben Lerner’s 10:04” in “Like Love: Essays and Conversations..” (Graywolf Press, April 2, 2024)

Notes:

  • Photo: DK 5:11 am this morning at Cove Island Park. For more photos from this morning, click here for birds and here for landscape.
  • Thursday Posts inspired by Aldous Huxley: “It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.
  • Book Review from The Guardian: “Like Love by Maggie Nelson review – music, passion and friendship“

13 thoughts on “Lightly Child, Lightly. The earth is beautiful beyond all change.”

  1. Oh, I loved this, DK. (That’s what you’re called in our house – “Did you read DK today?”)

    “Far from despair, I felt flooded with the sense that everything mattered, from meticulous descriptions of individual works of art to kissing the forehead of a passed-out intern to ….”

    It all matters. All of it. I feel keenly aware of it this week as we get ready for our daughter’s wedding in a few days. And not just the details matter, but how every last thing is interrelated.

    (But then again, I’m especially sensitive these days.)

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  2. I love this! This is constantly on my mind as I navigate very far extremes between my professional life and my personal everyday, ordinary preferences.

    I need to sit with this later tonight. I really need to.

    Do you recommend the book?

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    1. I do not (yet). I’m about 1/5 in and up to this point, while there are nuggets it’s a struggle. Amazon reviewers land it a 3.5 stars out of 5, feels about right so far. But let’s see.

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  4. Oh, I loved this, DK. (That’s what you’re called in our house – “Did you read DK today?”)

    “Far from despair, I felt flooded with the sense that everything mattered, from meticulous descriptions of individual works of art to kissing the forehead of a passed-out intern to …”

    It all matters. All of it. I feel keenly aware of it this week as we get ready for our daughter’s wedding in a few days. And it’s not just the details that matter, but how every last thing is interrelated.

    (But then again, I’m especially tuned in and sensitive these days.)

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  6. …maybe it’s just my own limitations, but I’m not drawn in. I feel a skittering around relating and not the genuine caring that goes into relating. I have always appreciated Naomi Klein, and Ralph Waldo Emerson (my father sent letters to me in college quoting Emerson), Prince from the get-go on MTV, and Aldous Huxley! but not Maggie Ellis.

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