Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr. In His Own Words

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Frederick Law Olmsted Papers "this is an age in which we grow more and more artificial day by day, and see less and less worthiness in those pleasures which bring with them no marked excitement...a parallel movement was an increased appreciation of nature in the broad combining way of scenery as evidenced by the amount of time and money expended on tourism to areas of strikingly beautiful natural scenery.

I've skimmed all 614 pages of my book, "The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted Supplementary Series Vol. 1 Writings on Public Parks, Parkways and Park Systems." He never advocates for or mentions dog parks.

Olmsted Papers page 155: "I want you to see that when people ask for a park, it may be perfectly possible to please them very much with something which is not a park, or which is a very poor and much adulterated kind of park and that it would nevertheless be dishonest, quackish, to do so. A park is a work of art, designed to produce certain effects upon the mind of men.

Olmsted Papers page 190: " Nor can I think that in the park proper (italic), what is called gardenesque beauty is to be courted. These may have places, but they do not belong within a park."

Olmsted Papers page 190-191: "The question now comes up: How can a community best take this work in hand? It is a work in which private and local and special interests will be found so antagonistic one to another, heated prejudices are established, and those who would be disappointed in their personal greeds by whatever good scheme may be studied out, are so likely to combine and concentrate force to kill it..."

Olmsted Papers page 538: Take for instance the operations of roads and walk making, the dressing of ground surfaces with herbage, the building of objects. To those who do not see the very different way in which they are intended on the [Niagara] reservation will always be thought that the introduction of decorative detail would be an improvement..."

Olmsted Papers pg. 538 continued: " Once the reason for excluding decorative detail is lost sight of, there is nothing to hinder the introduction of any amount to it, thus bringing the about the gradual transformation of the [Niagara] Reservation into a flower-garden order, than which nothing would be more deplorable."

Olmsted Papers on Niagara Reservation page 539: [what] for many years have passed under the name of improvement, and especially of "landscape" or of "park" improvements has been presenting objects for admiration calculated to draw off and dissipate regard for natural scenery."

Olmsted on Niagara Reservation page 540: What was the organic purpose of these improvements? To draw visitors by any means to a particular piece of ground where money could be made out of them, and to so occupy them when there that they should not wish to go elsewhere. Some of them left without having looked for a single moment at anything beyond the filed of its artificial improvements."

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Lou Gold Discusses Wendell Berry

For readers unfamiliar with his works, here are a set of precepts that convey the perspective and purpose of Mr Berry's work:

1. Beware the justice of Nature.

2. Understand that there can be no successful human economy apart from Nature or in defiance of Nature.

3. Understand that no amount of education can overcome the innate limits of human intelligence and responsibility. We are not smart enough or conscious enough or alert enough to work responsibly on a gigantic scale.

4. In making things always bigger and more centralized, we make them both more vulnerable in themselves and more dangerous to everything else. Learn, therefore, to prefer small-scale elegance and generosity to large-scale greed, crudity, and glamour.

5. Make a home. Help to make a community. Be loyal to what you have made.

6. Put the interest of the community first.

7. Love your neighbors--not the neighbors you pick out, but the ones you have.

8. Love this miraculous world that we did not make, that is a gift to us.

9. As far as you are able make your lives dependent upon your local place, neighborhood, and household--which thrive by care and generosity--and independent of the industrial economy, which thrives by damage.

10. Find work, if you can, that does no damage. Enjoy your work. Work well.

There's an excellent summary of the canon of Wendell Berry at:

http://spider.georgetowncollege.edu...

lou

http://lougold.blogspot.com

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Wendell Berry Stands Behind His Writing - Takes Back Papers

Arts Beat Blog reports Wendell Berry Takes Back Papers. Article HERE.

For decades the Kentucky poet, critic, and farmer Wendell Berry has advocated personal activism on behalf of the environment. There should not be a “split between what we think and what we do,” he has written. “Once our personal connection to what is wrong becomes clear, then we have to choose: we can go on as before, recognizing our dishonesty and living with it the best we can, or we can begin the effort to change the way we think and live.”

Mr. Berry is living up to his own standards. The Lexington Herald-Leader reported on Wednesday that Mr. Berry decided in December to withdraw personal papers he had donated to the University of Kentucky, where he spent time as both a student and teacher. According to a letter obtained by the Lexington paper, Mr. Berry objected to a decision to name a basketball-players’ dormitory the Wildcat Coal Lodge.

“The University’s president and board have solemnized an alliance with the coal industry, in return for a large monetary ‘gift,’ granting to the benefactors, in effect, a co-sponsorship of the University’s basketball team,” he wrote. “That — added to the ‘Top 20’ project and the president’s exclusive ‘focus’ on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics — puts an end to my willingness to be associated in any way officially with the University.”


The university’s Board of Trustees approved the new $7 million Wildcat Coal Lodge in October. Joe Craft, head of Alliance Coal, proposed the name and helped to raise the money for it, according to the Herald-Leader.

Mr. Berry intends to transfer his papers to the Kentucky Historical Society in Frankfort. A statement released by a university spokesman expressed disappointment with his decision.

http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&pub=sciencedaily

http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&pub=sciencedaily

Nine Quiet Leaders' Commandments And Nine Ways To Distinguish Yourself

Nine Quiet Leader Commandments
1. Always learning, always improving, always practicing.
2. Stay balanced.
3. Be resourceful, be a problem solver.
4. Show vision.
5. Be nice, be decent, be fair.
6. Serve.
7. Show gratitude.
8. Communicate well.
9. Listen always.

Nine Ways to Distinguish Yourself
1. Learn
2. Laugh
3. Look
4. Leave a Lasting Impression
5. Love
6. Leverage
7. Likability
8. Listen
9. Lead
Source: Lead Quietly

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