“I must tell you of the Dreaming….These are and were a people with no notion of linear time. Theirs was one of the great experiments in human thought. The notion that the world existed as a perfect whole, and that the singular duty of humanity was to maintain through ritual activity the land precisely as it existed when the Rainbow Serpent embarked on the journey of creation. The logos of the Dreaming was constancy, balance, symmetry. In the moment there is deductive logic, on a hunt for example, when the men pay attention to signs with a perspicacity that would put Sherlock Holmes to shame. But in life there is only the Dreaming, in which every thought, every plant and animal, are inextricably linked as a single impulse, the inspiration of the first dawning. Had humanity followed this track, it is true that we would have never placed a man on the moon. But we would most certainly not be speaking of our capacity to compromise the life support of the planet. I have never in all of my travels been so moved by a vision of another possibility, born literally 55,000 years ago.”
Wade Davis spoke at my high school when I was a senior. He was an amazing public speaker. He did not pause to long, stutter, or even give a small “um” to gather his thoughts. The quote that I remember is “to have that powder blown up your nose is rather like being shot out of a riffle barrel lined with baroque paintings and landing in a sea of electricity…”
(I had to look it up, although I am sure Jimmy knows it off the top of his head.)
