Our blue tents are pitched at the edge of a fossil-bearing cliff

From a letter in Teilhard de Chardin Album by the Father. Attending a Jesuit University, one of my religious studies classes focused on Teilhard de Chardin. I was interested in the man himself and his times but found his theology too dense for my 20 year old self. I recently came across this book and am enjoying leafing through it, a collection of pictures from his travels and snippets from his letters, diaries and publications.

All interesting but what strikes me is a very specific type of nostalgia. The world was so open then, and still so comprehensively varied. As we become more assimilated across the world into a democratic classical liberal free trade model (all of which is good), we are losing some of that novelty and mystery that emanates from this text.

Our blue tents are pitched at the edge of a fossil-bearing cliff, looking out over the immense flat surfaces of Mongolia: the terraced levels, uniformly grey with a tinge of delicate green, have a look of magic when the rays of the setting sun skim over them. There is nothing in sight but a few yourts beside the streams, and we work in absolute solitude, our only companions the wolves, eagles, and gazelles, which alst always provide the bulk of our diet, The same gaiety and family spirit prevails in the camp.

The work goes well. We have got hold of some authentic mastodon deposits - strange mastodons with an elongated jawbone rounded into a huge spoon. For my own part I am managing to link together satisfactorily the geologies of China and Mongolia (my principal objective) and I am vastly extending the horizons I include in my vision.

- Letter, 29 June 1930 while on an expedition in the Gobi Desert