withering grass, fading flowers

Elton Trueblood, noted Quaker author, educator, philosopher, theologian, former chaplain both to Harvard and Stanford Universities, and advisor to US Presidents Eisenhower and Nixon, wrote 33 books, including the provocative The Predicament of Modern Man (1944). In this book, Trueblood warned of the dangers of a “cut-flower civilization.” He wrote, “Beautiful as cut flowers may be . . . they…