Lots to unpack, and different ways to do it. But it isn't the wilderness per se that's being passed down. . Its a particular idea of (about?) wilderness, and while cultures tend to change slowly, they do change. We could amend our understanding of wilderness. The problem is how to do that without losing the good parts John lists here, to which I will add the "ritual" of the stories we tell when we return (does anyone else miss slide shows? sending images from my phone is not the same experience). Are we able to put wilderness into a more inclusive, present tense? Can we present wilderness values as being about the future?
Well, damn! Once again John Clayton's writing has awakened me to my own hypocrisies, false beliefs, and misperceptions that allowed smug satisfaction regarding all things natural and wild. John's current missive, pondering the doe and fawns attempting to cross a highway, instantly evinced in me the memories of rattlesnakes attempting to cross the lawn of my boyhood family farm on the Ohio River in West Virginia. This was a phenomenon of very dry summers; the rattlers were forced to come out of the hills and seek wet environs on the river "bottoms land." We killed them. They feared us more than we feared them and they did all they could to avoid us. But we killed them. Did they represent the "culture" of which John writes? No. This was an instinctive behavior, a matter of survival. But we killed them. Awakening at age 50-plus to the realities of nature, wilderness, and intentional human ignorance is a hard and humbling thing.
Lots to unpack, and different ways to do it. But it isn't the wilderness per se that's being passed down. . Its a particular idea of (about?) wilderness, and while cultures tend to change slowly, they do change. We could amend our understanding of wilderness. The problem is how to do that without losing the good parts John lists here, to which I will add the "ritual" of the stories we tell when we return (does anyone else miss slide shows? sending images from my phone is not the same experience). Are we able to put wilderness into a more inclusive, present tense? Can we present wilderness values as being about the future?
Well, damn! Once again John Clayton's writing has awakened me to my own hypocrisies, false beliefs, and misperceptions that allowed smug satisfaction regarding all things natural and wild. John's current missive, pondering the doe and fawns attempting to cross a highway, instantly evinced in me the memories of rattlesnakes attempting to cross the lawn of my boyhood family farm on the Ohio River in West Virginia. This was a phenomenon of very dry summers; the rattlers were forced to come out of the hills and seek wet environs on the river "bottoms land." We killed them. They feared us more than we feared them and they did all they could to avoid us. But we killed them. Did they represent the "culture" of which John writes? No. This was an instinctive behavior, a matter of survival. But we killed them. Awakening at age 50-plus to the realities of nature, wilderness, and intentional human ignorance is a hard and humbling thing.
Very thoughtful. Kathy, Don's wife
Reminds me of some deep reading I had to do on the word "civilization" last year. Enjoyable read, thank you!
These missives normally go out on Tuesdays at 5pm, but today I accidentally set it for 5am. Apologies for the timing inconsistency! :)