Finding Hope And Beauty In The Dark Places with Terry Tempest Williams

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Terry Tempest Williams has long been a beloved scribe for the timeless beauty of the world we live in, and the tribulations of the humans who too often fail to value it. In this deeply moving interview, she speaks out for some of the most disavowed individuals on the planet: prairie dogs, who are threatened with extinction, and Rwandan refugees. What could the two possibly have in common? She explains, "The plight of the prairie dog, the extermination of a species, and the extermination of a people are predicated on the same impulse: prejudice, cruelty, ignorance and arrogance, circling around issues of power and justice. Until we can begin to see the world whole, even holy, we are destined to this fractured, fragmented, disconnected world that literally creates the seabed of war." Ms. Tempest Williams deftly draws meaning out of the darkest moments of fear and devastation with inspiring stories of rodents who pray at sunrise and sunset and a mother who, after losing her child to the ravages of war, creates a mosaic sunflower out of the rubble. (hosted by Michael Toms)

Bio

Terry Tempest Williams is a naturalist, environmentalist, and award-winning author. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and her work is widely taught and anthologized around the world. In 2014, on the 50th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act, Ms. Williams received the Sierra Club’s John Muir Award honoring a distinguished record of leadership in American conservation. She currently is the writer in residence at Harvard Divinity School and divides her time between Cambridge, Massachusetts and Castle Valley, Utah.

Terry Tempest Williams is the author of many books including:

• Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place (Pantheon 1991)
• Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert (Vintage Books 2002)
• An Unspoken Hunger: Stories from the Field (Vintage Books 1995)
• Leap (Vintage 2001)
• The Open Space of Democracy (The Orion Society 2004)
• Finding Beauty in a Broken World (Pantheon 2008)
• When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice (Sarah Crichton Books: Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2012)
• The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America's National Parks(Sarah Crichton Books, Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2016)
• Erosion: Essays of Undoing (Sarah Crichton Books, Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2019)

To learn more about the work of Terry Tempest Williams go to www.coyoteclan.com. 

Also, regarding the Native American Inter-Tribal Coalition go to www.bearsearscoalition.org.

Topics Explored in This Dialogue

• Why it is important to see the world whole--as in "holy"
• What prairie dogs have to teach us
• Why a mosaic is like a community
• How art can help to heal the ravages of war
• Why it is so important for you to witness both beauty and sorrow

Host: Michael Toms        Interview Date: 12/7/2008          Program Number: 3294

Music Playlist

From Album: Miho: Journey to the Mountain
Artist: The Paul Winter Consort
2010 Living Music #LMU-42

Opening Essay: Track 01 Saxophone (Song of Miho)
Music Break 1: Track 11 Arto (Singing to the Mountain)
Music Break 2: Track 10 Saxophone Reprise
Music Break 3: Track 14 Elephant Dance