Natural Acts
O'Brien, Tom
CORRESPONDENCE (Continued from page 338) tion asserts that it takes its criteria for what can be done not only from its notion of man and woman's nature but also from its notion of their...
...It is because of this vocation that "marriage possesses specific goods and values in its union and in procreation which cannot be likened to those existing in lower forms of life...
...Often his essays begin with an anecdote that quickly delivers the feel of nature, or a provocative one-liner that drags a reader into the center of an issue...
...Other essays contain similar oddities...
...CORRESPONDENCE (Continued from page 338) tion asserts that it takes its criteria for what can be done not only from its notion of man and woman's nature but also from its notion of their vocation...
...It grows to provide a taut, economical account of one of nature's worst killers: hypothermia (recall the dead high-school campers last year in Oregon...
...A Deathly Chill" opens with a powerful synopsis of how some Boy Scouts managed to freeze themselves to death at Banff...
...Doubleday printed them in hardcover two years ago...
...TOM O'BRIEN 364...
...When his guide finds one and plays with it, Quammen confesses, "My face bore the contemplative expression of two eggs sunny side in a white Teflon skillet...
...The author, who lives in Bozeman, Montana, first published these essays in outdoor magazines...
...Each piece is stylish and accessible to the general reader...
...David Quammen writes in a style at once incisive and graceful, with a sure sense of the ring of English sentences and the value of stunning images...
...This means that something that could be done by following natural, biological processes is not to be dona in humans — because of their vocation to share in God's work...
...Quarrelsomeness now Las Vegas, Nev...
...Unlike the writings of more famous natural historians like Stephen Jay Gould, one does not have to pretend to understand or like them...
...To the Editors: The editorial, ["What Comes Naturally," March 27] is fascinating, confusing, and confused...
...In this third-life form, they deserve the wide audience which they are sure both to inform and delight...
...If Rome cannot honestly approach a question of faith and morals, and too often — here for example — the evidence shows it cannot, the time to be filled with quarrelsomeness is now...
...Laurel Books (Dell), $6.95, 221 pp...
...lifejacketed, they jumped off the boat into a tranquil sea, only to freeze to death, npt drown...
...Throughout history the results of this type of action have been painful to the church, driving many away from the home that should be theirs, driving a wedge between man and his love of God...
...How so...
...The essays are also highly informative...
...Amazingly, Quammen recounts, it was hypothermia that killed most victims on the Titanic...
...Lawrence and his love for desert cleanliness...
...Try especially "The Last Bison...
...But it does have a single word "quarrelsomeness' ' which it hopes not to be and would have been more forceful if it had been...
...This collection of essays on nature and natural history is among the best of its kind...
...Vocation is a key idea in the document as it is in natural moral law...
...They provide vibrant, exciting reading...
...Forthis reason one cannot use means and follow methods which could be licit in the transmission of the life of plants and animals...
...The essays are alive with both passion and humor, and a keen appreciation of nature's beauty and danger...
...In "Rumors of a Snake," Quammen recounts his adventures looking for anaconda, offhandedly beginning with "What the world really needs is a good vicious sixty-foot-long Amazon snake...
...You write, "Those who are dissatisfied with the Vatican 'Instruction' are under the obligation to develop an alterIN BRIEF Natural Acts: A Sidelong View of Science and Nature, by David Quammen...
...The essay "Desert Sanitaire" begins with a beautifully ironic evocation of T.E...
...This line of reasoning is certainly not relying on a "notion of biological nature," as the editorial states, but on a much fuller notion of the human person, who is touched "in the body and through the body," and who is also called "to share in a special way in his mystery of personal communion and in his work as Creator and Father.'' JERRY BRACKEN, C.P...
...There is no longer room in our church for prelates who act and decree in secrecy...
Vol. 114 • June 1987 • No. 11
