The Way of Imagination: Essays

Sanders (Dancing in Dreamtime) casts a powerful spell with this fine collection of mostly previously published essays. Recurring themes throughout include the toll of violence and environmental devastation—he asks, in the title essay, if people can be imaginative enough to try more sustainable ways of life, either at the individual or societal level—and his reasons for being a writer. About the latter, Sanders states, in “A Writer’s Calling,” that one of his driving motivations is to make something durable, concluding that if he succeeds, it will be because his works “faithfully embody the choices I made, the causes I championed, the stories I told.” In “Useless Beauty,” he ponders the patterns on a nautilus shell, discovering that while beauty may not appear to have an immediate purpose, it nevertheless “calls us out of ourselves” and inspires gratitude for living in a “world overflowing with such beauty.” In another selection, “Kinship and Kindness,” Sanders invites readers to open themselves to a sense of being a part of “all living things,” since the “feeling of kinship is the source of kindness.” Much like Wendell Berry and Thomas Merton, Sanders urges readers to discover the inextricable connections between nature and humanity. (Aug.)