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Thank you to everyone who tuned into my Bottom Reader Book Club conversation with Martha Park on Wednesday. I appreciated your thoughtful questions and comments. Martha is a writer and illustrator from Memphis, Tennessee, and the author of the recently released World Without End: Essays on the Apocalypse and After, a collection of essays that deal with climate crisis, faith and doubt, motherhood, and more. I decided to share some highlights from the conversation below. Please let me know if you’ve read the book and if you have a favorite essay!

Solutions vs. Surprise

I asked Martha about the significance of the roseate spoonbills on the cover (which she designed and illustrated). She described how the birds’ presence in a restored wetland area that was initially intended for ivory-billed woodpeckers represented less of a solution to the climate crisis than a moment of unexpected surprise and wonder. There’s so much we can learn when we let go of expectations of a specific outcome, especially when nature is involved.