Last Third of LM

In the last 1/3 of Lost Mountain, Erik Reece uses Wendell Berry's comparison of the "rational" and "sympathetic" minds to explore differences in the ways people think. Rational minded thinkers think mostly in absolutes. They see issues as black and white matters. There is no ambiguity in the world of the "rational" thinker...they dismiss the "grey area". Rational minds often make decisions based on the best possible outcome for themselves, leaving others in the wake of their choices. They pay little attention to how their choices might affect anyone or anything other than themselves.

On the other hand, "sympathetic" thinkers embrace the "grey area" and often heavily consider the implications that are carried in the ambiguous areas of complex issues. Sympathetic thinkers significantly weigh the affects of their actions on others. They consider how their actions and choices will effect others both directly and indirectly. Their prime concern is still to reach the best possible decision for themselves, but they want to reach the best possible decision with the least amount of negative affects on those around them.

In a large way, the entire book Lost Mountain is an example of Reece applying his sympathetic mind to strip mining and mountain top removal in the Appalachians. He examines how this practice negatively affects the inhabitants of the area, both human and animal. He looks at how it negatively affects the mountain itself.

In the final chapter Reece wraps up his account with a lot of statistics and more examples and a general summary of mountain top removal and the many reasons why it's a practice in need of significant remedy. But, my favorite part of Reece's conclusion was when he was talking about writers and their accounts of the nature they fell in love with and ultimately, how, as a culture, we've fallen out of touch with that sort of connection to nature.

"What is disturbing and destructive is that our ethical values, our spiritual values, and our aesthetic values have not kept pace with science. A scientist can explain the exchange of atmospheric vapors that give color to a sunset, but only a poet like William Wordsworth can convey the aesthetic, the spiritual, the inexplicable value of the same sunset. The poet understand the natural world not as a machine, but as an organism with intrinsic values and laws more mysterious than we might have otherwise accounted for."

I know that is a long quote, but I found it profoundly moving and exceptionally convincing. My personal beliefs are a lot on par with the wording in this quote. So many things in nature are mysterious far beyond our comprehension. Its possible our scientists can regurgitate formulas attempting to explain it, but explanation does not always demonstrate understanding. In our many times over active and over industrial world, we too often forget about the mysteries that surround us in nature. We lose touch with the real value of the things around us and when that happens, I believe, we lose small pieces of ourselves.

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