Chatham University

"I am often asked what I think (Rachel) Carson’s final estimate of the future of the stream of life would be. Her particular remedy for entitlement was to instill in our children a ‘sense of wonder’ by which she meant awe in the face of nature’s mystery and majesty. To kindle a regard for its wild beauty and a comprehension of our intimate connection to it. She hoped that such a sense of wonder would make us care. This sounds like an ephemeral cure, but it is the basis of attitudinal change.

Rachel Carson (Chatham ’29) understood, as St. Exupery wrote in The Little Prince, that caring assumed involvement and responsibility. She insisted that our ‘obligation to endure’ makes it imperative for us to be active. We are part of the stream of life, and our future cannot be considered apart from the future of the whole."