Words of Wisdom Wednesday - On Utopia/Monasticism

"Utopias are built best in isolation. In the filthy modern world you can't make a thing that's not at once smirched; but here in these glens loveliness can be ringed round and protected by the mountains."

"That's the monastic ideal," said Judy, "and I've always thought it rather selfish - a creeping away from life."

"Then you have misunderstood it. The monastic idea is a core of sanity in a loathsome world, a core of sanity that spreads. Again and again men have gone into solitude to create beauty, and the beauty, created, has revolutionized a whole country."

Judy was still unconvinced. "But if nothing can get through the mountains to contaminate your Utopia, how can the beauty you create get out into the world?"

"If you light a bonfire in a sheltered valley the protection makes such a huge blaze of it that those outside see the whole sky lit up."