Jangle and noise

After a while the United States is simply too much: too much religion and not enough gods, too much news and not enough wisdom, too many weapons of mass destruction -- or, for that matter, of private destruction . . . too much entertainment and not enough beauty, too much electricity and not enough light, too much lumber and not enough forests, too much real estate and not enough earth, too many books and not enough readers . . . too much security and not enough civility, too many humans but not enough eagles. And the worst excess of all: too many wars, too much misery and brutality -- reflected as much in our own eyes as in those of our enemies. So I come here to this spare place.

-- Bill Holm, author of The Windows of Brimnes: An American in Iceland

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