It’s time to select my ‘Quote of the Month.’ I’ve selected one of my favorites. This one’s been on my Quotations page ever since I first launched my website. And yet, surprisingly, I just did a Google search, and as beautiful as this quotation is, it appears nowhere else on the internet. Just my Quotations page. That’s it.
Well, there is one other result that came up. Something that was posted on Facebook back in 2016.
But that Facebook post also includes four references to God and faith. Including this one: “Things always turn out better, BY FAR; if I just trust more in God (…).” Ugh. Prayer and faith in an all-powerful, benevolent, loving deity isn’t anywhere on my list of ideas and strategies for saving the planet; and never will be. You can count on that.
One interesting thing I learned from reading that Facebook post is that today’s ‘Quote of the Month’ is “painted on a divider” (if that’s still the case), inside the Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum. A Google search indicates the museum is in Utah.
Coincidentally, a few hours ago, while reading today’s news, I saw this headline on The Guardian’s website: ” ‘Irresponsible’: backlash as Utah approves datacenter twice the size of Manhattan / Facility would require more power than entire state uses and suck up vast amounts of water in drought-stricken area.”
“Backlash” might be an exaggeration. The article states: “Nearly 4,000 people have lodged objections to the project being approved (…).” Sounds impressive. But that’s in a state with a total population of over 3.5 million.
Oh, and in case you’re wondering how I originally discovered this quotation — great question! — quite a few years ago, I stumbled upon a website with quite a large collection of good quotations of an ecological bent. But ironically, that website itself, has gone extinct. If I come across the domain again (I’m pretty sure I have it somewhere), I’ll share that information so you can look it up using Wayback Machine.
And now, without further ado, here is my May 2026 ‘Quote of the Month’:
“If we love our children, we must love our earth with tender care and pass it on, diverse and beautiful, so that on a warm spring day 10,000 years hence they can feel peace in a sea of grass, can watch a bee visit a flower, can hear a sandpiper call in the sky, and can find joy in being alive.” — Hugh H. Iltis
I feel far more of a connection to those people I will never know, than to an afterlife I will never see. Truthfully, whenever I revisit that quotation, my eyes get a little watery. Not like Niagara Falls or anything like that. More like the ‘Crying Indian,’ in that iconic Keep America Beautiful commercial (1971).