The Park Service Quotes

“I don’t see books. I see doors into other worlds. Windows into minds. The life of man spinning beyond time.”
― Ryan Winfield, The Park Service

“Caterpillar dun' become butterfly-caterpillar die so butterfly can be. A new thing. We all must let ourselves die to be what we will be. But we cling to what we know.”
― Ryan Winfield, The Park Service

“Mistakes can be very beautiful. Mistakes lead to surprises. Even joy. And joy makes life worth living.”
― Ryan Winfield, The Park Service

“Dead leaves scatter, caught and swirling in smoky exhaust. Now the hiss of hydraulic brakes, the ticking blinker, the whine of straining gears as the bus disappears down the city hill like some mechanical land-whale sounding in a concrete sea. A young soldier stands alone on the curb. She thumbs her earbuds in, cranks her music up, slings her service pack on and walks the empty morning sidewalk toward home. Passing a pawnshop, she spots her reflection in the glass and stops to look—Taller, broader, her hair shorter than before—she isn’t sure who she is, who she has become. All she knows for sure is she isn’t who she was when she left. Nobody is, and nobody ever will be. The streets are quiet, even for the early hour. A digital clock on an unfinished bank building behind her blinks mindlessly, the red numbers reversed in the glass. She’s turning to read the time when she’s caught by the flash. A bright magnesium burn in the corner of the gray sky. Bright and then brighter. Then the heat hits. She stiffens, her skin crawling with searing pain. Weightless now, she’s floating above the blinding street, a garbage can suspended beside her, its contents already aflame. When she hits”
― Ryan Winfield, The Park Service

“We all must let ourselves die to be what we will be. But we cling to what we know.”
― Ryan Winfield, The Park Service

“was five.”
― Ryan Winfield, The Park Service

“traumatic events every time we begin a new test.”
― Ryan Winfield, The Park Service

“Yes, the worst parasites. We reproduce with no internal limitations. We consume and destroy and make war. We have no predator except ourselves, and left unchecked we destroy ourselves every time. And we destroy the planet along with us. Humankind is the thing that must be contained. Man must be checked. We were nature’s mistake—the only species worth extinction is our very own.”
― Ryan Winfield, The Park Service