Paradise Lost and Found

A prompt about what remains and what's still possible

Hello, dear writers and readers.

I feel lucky and hopeful this week. It could be because I live in a beautiful city, and every now and then, I fall in love with her again. Maybe it’s the warm, sunny, late summer days. Or maybe it’s because I get to write with and be inspired by so many brave, funny, talented writers in my workshops. And actually, that last thought leads nicely into today’s quote. It’s from E.M. Forster, from his twenty-six page essay, “What I Believe,”which was published as a small book in 1938:

I believe in an aristocracy. . . Not an aristocracy of power, based upon rank and influence, but an aristocracy of the sensitive, the considerate, and the plucky. Its members are to be found in all nations and classes, and through all the ages, and there is a secret understanding between them when they meet.

I haven’t read the entire piece (yet), and Forster’s essay is focused on humanism, so he’s most likely speaking of meeting other humanists. He may be speaking in a veiled way about meeting other queer people too, or even about meeting like-minded artists, and writers in particular.

And so, it seems fitting that this week’s prompt is inspired by a like-minded writer I recently discovered, and who seems very sensitive and plucky herself: Lisa Wells. The prompt this week is an excerpt from her book, Believers: Making a Life at the End of the World, and it surprised me (even though I was the one who chose it). The book profiles extraordinary people who are each doing their part to address our changing planet, and the loss caused by climate change.

In one chapter of her book, titled “Restoring Paradise,” Wells highlights the incredible transformation of the Loess Plateau in China, where a team of permaculturists worked for over two decades to restore life to an area decimated by soil depletion. (See the before and after pictures below.)

This prompt produced some fascinating writing about defining what home is, and remembering the kind of world we want to live in. You can find Well’s excerpt below, followed by what I wrote in response. And as always, we’ll close our virtual writing workshop with a poem. This week, it’s by Penny Hackett-Evans.

Enjoy.