Review of Crow Planet, Essential Wisdom from the Urban Wilderness, by Lyanda Lynn Haupt
Reviewed by FMN Stacey Remick-Simkins
(2009, 229 pages) This is a masterpiece that I recommend to all, but particularly those grappling with the most difficult questions of how to live meaningfully in this challenged environmental milieu. Crows are the purveyor of the wisdom and carry us to the places of wonder that Haupt seeks to take us. Specifically, she portrays her relationship with the injured crow Charlotte.
Crow science and lore engage us to consider our humility and courage as we live out our life of responsibility and care for the wild world. Haupt uses references to some of the great known writers and scientists, including Leopold, Thomas Eisner (Cornell professor and biologist), and Rachel Carson, that offer us ways and tools to challenge many of our naturalist assumptions and potentially revising our thinking. She suggests tools for further exploration such as nature journaling, Buddhist practices of Mindfulness, the Benedictine Rule of Life and Lectio Divina, as they can be transformed for our observations of nature. She recognizes science as critically important to understanding where we are now, but demands that we do not lose our ability to see the wonder that exists quite apart from data gathering and naming only. She provides us the tools, the questions and the insights that challenge us all to be reverent co-inhabitants and all the profound responsibility that entails.
I have made it part of my life library which contains books that have had an extraordinary impact on my thinking or influenced me in ways that are life-changing.
(Included is a reading group guide which includes an interview with the author, study questions and her list of must-read texts)