Sincerity in society is getting in shorter supply, making it all the more important that we have available great amounts of unspoiled Nature. As the watercolorist Charles Burchfield put it:
People invariably love the artificial more than the natural. They respect superficiality more than deeper feelings. Most are content with a paper rose. Most buy their perfume in bottles. Rather than real friendship, they are content with superficial expression. They do not care if their acquaintances are sincere, as long as they pretend to be. I would rather have ten sincere enemies than a hundred palaverers.
So I go to Nature when I want sincerity. In nature we not only find sincerity but also innocence. And when, on all sides I am beset with palaver and artifice, I feel the need of drawing a long breath, I ramble the fields. (Journal entry of December 25, 1914; page 60 in Charles Burchfield’s Journals: The Poetry of Place. J. B. Townsend, ed. State University of New York Press. 1993.) For a brief biography of Charles Burchfield, click here. For images of Charles Burchfield’s paintings, click here.
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