During four years of active service in World War I, Teilhard de Chardin served as a stretcher-bearer. Writing in 1917 from the front lines to his cousin, he speaks of “the conviction of the necessary effort”
One of the things I have acquired this year is the conviction of the necessary effort, the effort without which some part of being will never be achieved. Only a fortnight ago, at Verdun, when I was seeing and experiencing the astonishing effort made by thousands of active units to mount an attack whose success was still in the balance, I had a profound impression of the contingency of any success in this world, and of its subordination to our own tenacity, to our own diligence. In fact, the sound principle is that of action that tackles everything resolutely and energetically, without wasting too much time in fruitless discussion. ‘Don’t chat, but try!’ That’s always true. (Quoted in The Life of the Creative Spirit, p.174.)
We have here a truth applying to winning all kinds of campaigns: the campaign to end cruelty to animals, the campaign to save the species, the campaign to preserve great areas of wilderness, the campaign to save the night skies from light pollution, the campaign for pure air, . . . .
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For a brief biography of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, click here.
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