Page 5 - Introducing The Gratitudes

I NT R O D U CT I O N 5
■ Investigations into ■ Enduring Social and ■ Spiritual Values
“To be surprised, to wonder, is to begin to understand. This is the sport, the luxury, special to the intellectual person. The gesture characteristic of his tribe consists in looking at the world with eyes wide open in wonder. Everything in the world is strange and marvellous to well-open eyes. This faculty of wonder the one which leads the intellectual person through life in the perpetual ecstasy of the visionary. Hence it was that the ancients gave Minerva, the Goddess of Wisdom, her owl, the bird with ever-daz- zled eyes.” – José Ortega y Gasset, The Revolt of the Masses
The Gratitudes is a series of books – we call them Field Guides – that explore and encourage the role of values in our lives. Each
book in the series explains an individual enduring social and spiritual value: what it is, how it became part of our character, what role it plays in society, and why it to a large extent can determine, enable and enhance the qual- ity of life we experience.
“By these, my son,
be admonished: of
making many books
there is no end.”
Wherever and however you are reading this – wel-
come. We encourage you to engage with us on the website, as we expand and enrich the narrative with additions from literature and folklore, editorial amendments and arguments, articles and commentary, pictorial and personal contributions, and puzzles and frivolities.
■ Roots and Branches
This is a project of Wood Lake, a media enterprise of kindred souls scattered over the globe, with its base in the unique and beautiful Okanagan valley of British Columbia, Canada, the unceded and ancient ancestral home of the Syllik people. Nestled among the orchards, lakes, and vineyards, surrounded by verdant mountains and valleys, backed up against still-virgin wilderness, between desert and rainforest, primordial and protective, Wood Lake has a 35-year history of developing resources for faith formation and social justice, and publishing books that probe and provoke the intellectual, social, moral, ethical and spiritual landscape.
What you hold in your hands, print or digital, is a curated pub- lication, bringing together hundreds of voices, living and dead. Our editorial curators were inspired to create engaging reading
– Ecclesiastes
INTRODUCING
THE GRATITUDES
Field Guides to Learning and Living Everyday Values