The Everglades is a test. If we pass it, we may get to keep the planet.
Marjory Stoneman DouglasRead
The wealth of south Florida, but even more important, the meaning and significance of south Florida lies in the black muck of the Everglades and the inevitable development of this country to be the great tropic agricultural center of the world.
Interpretation
The essence of south Florida's identity and value is rooted in its natural environment, particularly the Everglades.
Marjory Stoneman Douglas emphasizes that the true significance of south Florida is not only its wealth but more importantly its unique ecosystem, particularly the Everglades, which represents the potential for the region to become a leading agricultural hub. This highlights a profound connection between the area's natural resources and its future development, suggesting that preserving its ecological heritage is crucial for sustainable growth.
In practice
In a speech about environmental conservation.
The Everglades is a test. If we pass it, we may get to keep the planet.
Life should be lived so vividly and so intensely that thoughts of another life, or of a longer life, are not necessary.
Whoever wants me to talk, I'll come over and tell them about the necessity of preserving the Everglades.
To be a friend of the Everglades is not necessarily to spend time wandering around out there.
The hardest thing is to tell the truth about oneself. One doesn't like to remember unpleasant details, but forgetting them makes one's life seem disorganized.
Conservation is now a dead word.
For here the religion that languishes in crowded cities or steals shame-faced to hide itself in dim churches, flourishes greatly, filling the soul with a solemn joy. Face to face with Nature on the vast hills at eventide, who does not feel himself near to the Unseen?
What is a country without rabbits and partridges? They are among the most simple and indigenous animal products; ancient and venerable families known to antiquity as to modern times; of the very hue and substance of Nature, nearest allied to leaves and to the ground.
But more wonderful than the lore of old men and the lore of books is the secret lore of ocean.
I think part of the appeal of Antarctica is experiencing some sort of power, the forces of the natural world.
Trees have a curious relationship to the subject of the present moment. There are many created things in the universe that outlive us, that outlive the sun, even, but I can't think about them. I live with trees.
Sometimes since I've been in the garden I've looked up through the trees at the sky and I have had a strange feeling of being happy as if something was pushing and drawing in my chest and making me breathe fast. Magic is always pushing and drawing and making things out of nothing. Everything is made out of magic, leaves and trees, flowers and birds, badgers and foxes and squirrels and people. So it must be all around us. In this garden - in all the places.
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