... the traffic to smother ...

Today is Thursday, 4 February 2010.

When I read the following story from BBC News, regarding the loss of another ancient language in the Andaman Islands, I was put in mind of lines from Stephen Spender’s great poem, “I think continually of those who were truly great:

“Never to allow gradually the traffic to smother
With noise and fog the flowering of the spirit.”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8498534.stm

So often we allow the true treasures of humanity to expire into dust, while we exult that we can choose from myriad brands of laundry detergent, each essentially hardly different from the others.

I had the same feeling when I read the following story about the tragic suicide of a dairy farmer.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/04/nyregion/04towns.html?ref=nyregion
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On this date in 1906 was born Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the great German Lutheran theologian. He was murdered on 9 April 1945, for his part in the resistance against Nazism.

On this date in 1913 was born Rosa Parks, the great civil rights activist. She died on 24 October 2005.