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Rachel Carson: A Fairy Godmother For Artists & Writers During Tough Times

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A Valuable Teaching for Artists from Scientist Rachel Carson

Rachel Carson's study at her Maine cottage.
Rachel Carson’s study at her Maine cottage. Photo courtesy of Bob Musil.

by Thea Fiore-Bloom, PhD.

Rachel Carson was a marine biologist who penned wondrous words at a small, wooden, built-in writing desk overlooking a remote piece of the rocky coast of  Maine.

What Carson created at that humble desk (and the one in her historic home in Maryland) literally changed the world.

Despite writing with the burden of aggressive cancer, Carson managed to complete and promote Silent Spring in the nick of time.

She finished it before she herself was whisked off this watery planet in 1964.

Vintage laden green book cover for Silent Spring by Rachel Carson

Silent Spring ignited the environmental movement and is considered Carson’s most important work.

Rachel Carson conducting research of the Atlantic coast in 1952 with Bob Hines.

But Carson’s obscure and arguably “least important” work is my personal favorite.

It was published posthumously in 1965.

The Sense of Wonder is a thin volume inspired by and dedicated to Carson’s youngest nature exploring buddy;  her orphaned  grand-nephew Roger (whom she was fostering .)

Before she got ill Carson and young Roger spent many moonlit nights exploring wonders together outside her Maine cottage.

If you are struggling today: feeling overwhelmed in the midst of our current political chaos or lacking the confidence to achieve a dream or just make it through work — I hope this passage about fairy godmothers from Carson’s book on wonder will be a little lamp at the end of your tunnel.

 

Passage from The Sense of Wonder by Rachel Carson

“A child’s world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement.

It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful and awe-inspiring is dimmed and lost before we reach adulthood.

Fairy godmothers from Disney's animated film Cinderella

If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of children I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantments of later years, the sterile preoccupation with things that are artificial, the alienation from the sources of our strength.”

 

 

Lesson for Artists and Writers

Let Rachel Carson’s wish wash over you.

Let it reconnect you to your source of strength and renew your wonder.

Wonder is a kind of superpower of artists and scientists.

Unlike most adults, we still have full access to wonder because we refused to officially “grow up.”

At times we face some ridicule and judgment for our “childlike” ways but the upside is this; wonder is always just beneath our surface, waiting for us to call on it and access its restorative magic.

 

 

A Wish, Courtesy of Rachel Carson

tree in forest glade
“Lie Down Close the Eyes,” Photo by SpiritofDarkness, 2017. Used with permission of the artist.

My wish for you today is that you be able to remember to tap into and cloak yourself in “a sense of wonder so indestructible that no sterility, negativity, or disenchantment can get through.”

Keep believing in beauty.

Look at all it’s given you already in your creative life.

Try to get outside for five minutes today to clear your cache and restart the wonder machine within you.

"Fledgling" by artist and Charmed Studio subscriber <a href="http://www.denisecerrostudio.com">Denise Cerro</a>. Mixed Media Abstract. Acrylic with frottage. 36"x48." Used with permission. Art featuring a raven.
“Fledgling” by artist and Charmed Studio subscriber Denise Cerro. Mixed Media. Acrylic with frottage. 36″x48.” Used with permission.

A city park tree or even a sidewalk elm can be a great gift when we need to just hang on. Because as Carson wisely said:

 

“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.”

                — Rachel Carson (1907-1964)

 

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 Here’s a beautifully written essay on “Silver Ledges,” Carson’s windswept, magical seaside cottage in Southport Maine.

Rachel Carson's official black and white emloyee photo of The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 1940
Rachel Carson’s official employee photo of The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 1940.

Have you read Silent Spring?

What do you think about Rachel Carson?

Has she been an inspiration or hero to you too?

Has she touched your heart in some way?

 Let me know in the comments please, I would love to hear.

Thanks for reading and caring about Carson’s important work.

If you liked this post you might like to read my post on O’Keeffe, Dali, Vincent van Gogh, Hopper & Matisse, Beatrice Wood, Diane Arbus, or Frida Kahlo.

 

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2 minute Video version of this Rachel Carson article from The Charmed Studio Youtube Channel

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Comments

  1. Thank you so much for this well thought out post about Rachel Carson. I am especially interested to learn she authored 10 books, incl. your favorite: The Sense of Wonder. I will definitely look into reading it. Also, I will share this post with a friend who is just as you say “overwhelmed with her life” right now.

    Reply

    • Kathy you are kind to write and tell me you enjoyed the piece and passed it on. I wanted to ask you about your experience of first reading Silent Spring? Where were you at the time and how did it make you feel?

      Reply

  2. Wonderful, Thea – thanks for drawing my attention to Carson’s “The Sense of Wonder.” I am invariably comforted by wandering among the trees and shrubs, along the paths made by deer through the ravines nearby. To look up into the marvelous, intricate matrix of branches, to be delighted by the patterns in the leaves, and watch the many birds whirl and dash among them, is to be not only comforted, but – as Carson wisely observes – strengthened in ways I did not know. Some of the trees are more than 150 years old, and I like knowing they were here long before me, and will be here long after (and their offspring will carry on much farther, of course). Such a knowing gives me perspective, reminds me that life is not about me, but that I am about Life. It reminds me to do my work, to act out my responsibilities with joy, and determination, to play, create, and (perhaps above all) be grateful.

    Reply

    • When will you believe me that you are a wonderful writer??? Thanks so much for taking the time to leave this jewel of a comment, I was right in that ravine for a minute as I read your words. What a nice mental holiday. Tree matrixes are some sort of sacred geometry, they are like perfect mandalas of chaos yet bring a ton of peace into your nervous stream if you take a minute to look up into them, especially when you lay on the ground and do so!
      I wanted to ask you if you have a favorite writer who lived or wrote about time outside?

      Reply

  3. That was just lovely, Thea, as I find all of your posts. It reminded me of a conversation my grandson and I had a year ago or so. There are times I find it difficult to put into words some of my beliefs so the younger generation can understand what the heck I want to convey. I remember saying that I believed “we” were all interconnected, every living thing on this beautiful planet. He tilted his head to one side, squinted and said, “really”. He still refers to that conversation on occasion. He is a deep thinker and I enjoy giving him things to ponder.

    Reply

    • What a great story! Thank you for taking the time to write and tell me. I just spent the day with my young teen niece today and was feeling the same. I honor her and our conversations so much that I weigh my words carefully out of respect for her and the topics themselves. It’s great to have to kind of check yourself before you speak and go deeper, reconfigure, ponder and then let out some words, right? Kids can help you figure out what your personal philosophy or religious philosophy actually is, on the deepest level. You remind me of Carson. Carson spoke a lot in the book about how she strove not to teach TO her nephew Roger but rather she tried to explore WITH her nephew and answer any questions he asked. I bet your grandsons are just crazy about you.

      Reply

  4. So beautiful, Thea. I always enjoy your posts and save them to read when I have a quiet moment. Thankyou for opening my eyes to Rachel Carson. I felt like I was there in Maine too, with her. I even fantasize about staying in that cottage. Wonder is one of the blessings of humanity. Of being human. I hope I never lose my curiosity and sense of wonder. Thankyou for acknowledging that it is so hard to retain it in this current world.

    Reply

    • Thanks for your kind words, a balm to the heart. I actually fantasized about staying in the cottage too, it would be a pilgrimage and retreat wrapped into one. Here is how you can rent it. They make no mention in this ad of it being her former summer home. It’s on the down low I suppose, perhaps out of respect or maybe just low drama people. I will post a picture of her writing desk soon if I can get permission.

      Reply

  5. Beautiful piece! Two parts that resonate for me: One being the Silent Spring concept that she brought into consciousness. In my remote parts, summer nights are a festival outside my windows. I have no idea what is going on out there in Nature, but there is certainly a lot of activity. LOL. Probably the mating rituals of all the critters. Come Fall and into Winter, everything goes quiet, or at least relatively so. When Spring comes, the Concerto of Nature returns.

    Which brings me to my second point. The constant WHY question my 5-year old daughter has. WHY is there so much noise out there? WHY? Which leads into so many potential roads of inquiry.

    If I loose that WHY question, my sense of wonder with the world starts to fade as I fake myself into believing I know everything or have figured it all out, or that it’s all hopeless. But the WHY question brings me back. To wonder. To beauty. To the harmony that does exist all around us.

    At the current time, certain PTB are determined to divide. Make people believe the ugly is beautiful. That chaos is so the new order. To overturn a civilization and structure of morality and goodness that has been time tested for thousands of years. One must ask the WHY question even in the face of this evil. As this is the only way to get to the root of the illness of our time.

    Wonder and WHY and Beauty and Harmony. They are all there for us to take in and heal and grow with. Never loose them.

    Reply

    • I remember a lecture I heard on Buddhist psychology where the speaker was saying not to be afraid to utter these 3 words: I DON”T KNOW. They said it was a timeless and important zen answer. We don’t need to pretend to know everything. Lifelong curiosity (like Carson had) is more productive and soul-sustaining over a lifetime, than the momentary ego boost of having the right answer. Would you agree?

      Reply

      • Whenever my daughter is doing the `drill down’ with her `why’ quest, she is only satisfied when she gets the answer she intuits is correct OR I say I don’t know. It’s amazing to witness.

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  6. I started crying halfway through this post. Not because I felt sad, but because it made me remember that there is still beauty out there. It was a sense of relief. I realize that I have become way too immersed in this horrible political circus and I think it might be partially to blame for the sudden resurgence of daily panic attacks. It’s become so bad that I have felt uncomfortable leaving the house, let alone go somewhere to be in nature. I have to take some steps back and do something to put it all in perspective.

    I have not felt inspired to create anything new and have started having nightmares. I had a dream the other night where my daughter, Ella, and I ran into Barrack Obama on the street. I told him he was still my president and that I missed him. He put his arms around Ella and I while we walked alongside him. He said, “Believe me, I am far from gone.” In the dream, I started sobbing uncontrollably to the point where I woke up gasping for air. I wake up startled a lot lately. Or I have complete insomnia and can’t fall asleep at all, often getting out of bed without sleep to fix breakfast (at around 6:00 a.m.). Then I go to sleep for a couple hours and get up and try to function. I know that I am suffering from constant worry. I have never had such politically-motivated issues before.

    I really need to work at fixing this.

    Reply

    • There is still beauty out there I swear! One of my favorite movies is The Thin Red Line. Its a war film. Not my usual favorite genre. But I love it because Malik depicts the intense, sublime unfolding of the natural world as keeping on, despite the horror of the violence the soldiers on both sides of the Vietnam war are enduring.
      Ours is such a strange civilization/world rife with beauty and love and miracles alongside cruelty and the seeming indifference of fate. Hang on Shawn! We can and will do something to stay awake and awaken others before this is done. But in order to have focus we need to keep wonder and hope and art and love alive within. And as my friend John said in the comforting comment below, we need to keep looking for beauty, keep asking why and keep listening an being interested in the answers we receive to that question.
      PS Your dream was so moving. Why not paint it??

      Reply

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