Lost Mountain pg, 162-243

A.) When examining the difference between the "rational" and the "sympathetic" mind it is easy to simply look at the terms and build your own idea from there. This is useful and generally the idea behind what Wendell Berry is discussing when he achieved these terms, but he means more than rational when he discusses the "rational" mind and he means more than sympathetic when he discusses the "sympathetic" mind. The "rational" mind is the mind that controls the ideas of things like science, industry or technology. The "rational" mind can come upon conclusions by conducting test or experiments and is more involved with the idea of wrong and right. The "sympathetic" mind is not entirely different from the "rational" mind, but it is less concerned with the strict limitations that the "rational" mind is concerned with. The "sympathetic" mind is more focused on all things presented in order to come to a conclusion. A test or experiment would not fully satisfy the "sympathetic" mind. The "rational" mind would conduct a test to determine the overall health of lab rats, while the "sympathetic" mind would be concerned with the findings and ask further questions like: What is the mental health of the rats? Would the rats be happier in different surroundings? The "sympathetic" mind is more concerned with emotions and overall well-being.

It is easy to find examples of Reece using his own "sympathetic" mind in many parts of "Lost Mountain". In the chapter titled, "Which Side Are You On? (Part 3)", Reece is reporting on a protest in front of a bank building. The conclusion to the protest was, "It would all get reported on the six-o'clock news, and then the miners-many of whom suffer from black lung disease-would go home and start trying to figure out how they would pay for doctor visits and prescription drugs" (181). A "rational" mind would simply state the facts and how these facts came to a conclusion, the "sympathetic" mind of Reece also reports on the health status of the miners and how their personal lives, their quality of life is being effected. Another example of Reece's "sympathetic" mind at use is when he is reflecting on the year that passed and what has come from his observations of Lost Mountain. "The ancient Chinese poets wrote out of deep identification with their own mountains, one so strong that many of those poets are now remembered not by their own names but by the names of the mountain they ranged across. Here there is little left to identify with, nothing that seems the proper subject of poetry" (210). Reece's "sympathetic" mind is able to understand that Lost Mountain is not being loved or valued in the way ancient Chinese poets valued their own mountains. A "rational" mind you be able to see Lost Mountain as an industrial success. The "sympathetic" mind sees a wounded landscape. A place that has been raped of its natural value.

B.) Upon reading the "Conclusion" to "Lost Mountain" I was astonished with the eloquence in which Reece concreted his thoughts. I felt like someone was writing what I had been thinking for a long time, but was unable to form into words. Reece states, "One seventeenth-century philosopher . . . Baruch Spinoza . . . set out to reconcile all religious and philosophical dualism that formed the basis of Descartes's thought. The first divide Spinoza bridged was that between God and the natural world. He reasoned that because God was infinite, there could be no substance outside of God. God was self-created and self-creating. And because nothing existed outside of Him, and all being was of a single substance, then God was Nature. Thus, when Spinoza refers to God in his great work Ethics, he uses the phrase Deus sive Natura-God-or-Nature. Not only does God exist, God exists right here" (238). This quote does not exactly incorporate my exact way of thinking about nature or god, but it bridges a gap that I have always thought never existed in the first place. I have always been able to feel some sort of spirituality when it comes to being out in the natural world. There is something about realizing just how small you are when standing in an open landscape that has always been profound for me. People spend their whole lives trying to grasp the concept of god and religion. There is nothing wrong with this quest, it has been fruitful and fulfilling for millions throughout time. For me I find that I would rather spend my quest in a tangible realm; I can touch, hear, smell and see nature all around. Perhaps that is why the people of Lost Mountain (and other mountain top removal sites) are so devastated. Their tangible world is being destroyed, they are living in a type of "damnation". They are watching all that they know be decimated and taken away from them. I can see how this could be interpreted as a living hell.