last child in the woods

Just finished this wonderful book last night. In light of last week's bombings, shootings, and intense man-hunt in our city...and in celebration of Earth Day today, I'm sharing this little quote that I love on children, nature, fear and peace:

"[Nature] serves as a blank slate upon which a child draws and reinterprets the culture's fantasies. Nature inspires creativity in a child by demanding visualization and the full use of the senses. Given a chance, a child will bring the confusion of the world to the woods, wash it in the creek, turn it over to see what lives on the unseen side of that confusion. Nature can frighten a child, too, and this fright serves a purpose. In nature, a child finds freedom, fantasy, and privacy: a place distant from the adult world, a separate peace."