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Dancing on the Shore: A Celebration of Life at Annapolis Basin
Words of nature wisdom and activity gathered from the author's experiences, readings, and discussions
219 pages, Hardcover
First published September 5, 1987
27 people want to read
About the author
Harold Horwood
20 books2 followersBorn in St. John's, Newfoundland in 1923, Harold Andrew Horwood wore many hats: union organizer from 1946-48; political organizer from 1946-52, Member of the Newfoundland House of Assembly from 1949-52, journalist, editor of The St. John's Evening Telegram from 1952-58 and The Examiner from 1960-61, co-founder of the Writers' Union of Canada, for which he served three terms as Vice Chair and one, from 1980-81, as Chair, Writer-in-Residence at the University of Western Ontario and at the University of Waterloo, founder of The New Quarterly and, of course, writer.
Published in China, Japan, and various European countries, as well as Canada, Great Britain and the United States, Harold wrote more than twenty books of fiction, history and travel writing. He died in Annapolis Royal in April 2006.
Published in China, Japan, and various European countries, as well as Canada, Great Britain and the United States, Harold wrote more than twenty books of fiction, history and travel writing. He died in Annapolis Royal in April 2006.
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June 7, 2015
Horwood is a naturalist and a writer who brought his small family from the rocky cliffs of Newfoundland to the quiet shores of the Annapolis Basin in Nova Scotia. He was attracted by the beauty of the land, the fertile soil, the gentle climate, the variety of plant and animal life and the presence of a sea without storms. Here he settled on several acres, built a home and raised his family, enjoying a simple life and fitting himself into the beautiful space that nature had provided.
In this book he writes about his new home, including the shorebirds, the reptiles, mammals and insects that inhabit his land and describes how life has evolved for himself and his family. He also shares his philosophy of life and ponders how the future will evolve.
Horwood does not believe man stands over and above the creatures on this earth. Instead he believes we are all just part of a complex living world. Like Eiseley, he believes intelligence has mistakenly been defined by the man-made phenomenon of IQ, which does not capture the intelligence of creatures who are not human. Who can doubt that it takes some form of intelligence for animals like dolphins who use sonar to navigate the vast oceans of this earth or migrating birds that fly from Alaska to New Zealand without a compass.
Horwood believes the world is so complex, that none of the writings or models proposed by authors such as Darwin, Einstein, Thoreau, Audubon and Carson can fully explain it. It cannot be understood by any single work and it is unlikely we will ever understand the whole. People see the world in radically different ways and many strangely contradictory visions are more or less valid. All have elements of the truth but none have the complete truth. For each new level of understanding we reach presents us with further depths to probe. The world is a great interlocking system and cannot be understood by reducing it to its parts. Horwood's only certainty is that we are not a random irrational universe.
Horwood also believes that man as well as animals have been shaping the world to suit their needs for centuries and that not all these activities are harmful. The earth has also altered itself, with creeping ice sheets, drifting continents and sudden shifts in the earth’s axis. The earth has a marvelous ability to adapt to great assaults and abuse if given half a chance. But we are at a stage in the evolution of the planet when we have to be careful. It is all a question of scale. In former centuries we eliminated individual species but now with the rise of technology, with our ability to alter the very chemistry of the sea or the earth itself, to poison the air or detonate a nuclear bomb, we have become responsible for the whole biosphere. We are living in a period of greatest danger for ourselves, for the earth and all the life we know. For the first time, if we chose to make changes in the world, we must do so with caution, foresight and intelligence, and not leave things to the blind forces of chance.
Horwood closes with musings about the future. Will machines be the next newer and higher life level to come? Will humans as a species pass away as just another step in the evolution of the solar system?
This book which is a product of all the reading and thinking Horwood has ever done is an interesting read, although some of his thoughts about the future are “a liitle out there”.
In this book he writes about his new home, including the shorebirds, the reptiles, mammals and insects that inhabit his land and describes how life has evolved for himself and his family. He also shares his philosophy of life and ponders how the future will evolve.
Horwood does not believe man stands over and above the creatures on this earth. Instead he believes we are all just part of a complex living world. Like Eiseley, he believes intelligence has mistakenly been defined by the man-made phenomenon of IQ, which does not capture the intelligence of creatures who are not human. Who can doubt that it takes some form of intelligence for animals like dolphins who use sonar to navigate the vast oceans of this earth or migrating birds that fly from Alaska to New Zealand without a compass.
Horwood believes the world is so complex, that none of the writings or models proposed by authors such as Darwin, Einstein, Thoreau, Audubon and Carson can fully explain it. It cannot be understood by any single work and it is unlikely we will ever understand the whole. People see the world in radically different ways and many strangely contradictory visions are more or less valid. All have elements of the truth but none have the complete truth. For each new level of understanding we reach presents us with further depths to probe. The world is a great interlocking system and cannot be understood by reducing it to its parts. Horwood's only certainty is that we are not a random irrational universe.
Horwood also believes that man as well as animals have been shaping the world to suit their needs for centuries and that not all these activities are harmful. The earth has also altered itself, with creeping ice sheets, drifting continents and sudden shifts in the earth’s axis. The earth has a marvelous ability to adapt to great assaults and abuse if given half a chance. But we are at a stage in the evolution of the planet when we have to be careful. It is all a question of scale. In former centuries we eliminated individual species but now with the rise of technology, with our ability to alter the very chemistry of the sea or the earth itself, to poison the air or detonate a nuclear bomb, we have become responsible for the whole biosphere. We are living in a period of greatest danger for ourselves, for the earth and all the life we know. For the first time, if we chose to make changes in the world, we must do so with caution, foresight and intelligence, and not leave things to the blind forces of chance.
Horwood closes with musings about the future. Will machines be the next newer and higher life level to come? Will humans as a species pass away as just another step in the evolution of the solar system?
This book which is a product of all the reading and thinking Horwood has ever done is an interesting read, although some of his thoughts about the future are “a liitle out there”.
Displaying 1 of 1 review