Serious warnings can still carry a light touch without any humor

Evidence

I suggest the following inscription for some desert spot, where a welcome remada is surrounded by desert plants. There is no warrant herein for the slightest humor. We wish to tell a story and give a warning. But the touch is light: The desert is a severe mother, bent more on justice than on mercy. Through generations of survival these plants around you have found means of protecting themselves from death by heat and drouth. Note the varied ways. You, too, must learn the wisdom of the desert if you would be safe within it. — Freeman Tilden, Interpreting Our Heritage, 440

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: how this desert-inscription ethos (‘severe mother bent on justice rather than mercy’) plays against eco-justice framings of deserts as places to listen to rather than survive.
• XREF: connects to: Humor differs from wit by adding love to cleverness — Freeman Tilden, Interpreting Our Heritage, 434