Anza-Borrego State Park, California, February 2005
“I WishTo Speak A Word For Nature”- Personal Experiences of the Wild Part 4
Further Thoughts and Conclusion In September 2008 my wife and I took a ten-day trip through southern Utah with an add-on to the Grand Canyon, North Rim. She had traveled there as a young girl and I had never been there. We were overcome by the beauty of the area. The endless variety of landforms; the geological strata; theContinue reading ” “I WishTo Speak A Word For Nature”- Personal Experiences of the Wild Part 4″
“I Wish to Speak a Word for Nature” – Personal Experiences of the Wild Part 3
Baxter State Park Around 1960, in late summer, my friend Roger and I drove to Maine to climb Katahdin. We drove to the trailhead for Chimney Pond Campground, obtained approval from the ranger to camp there, hiked the trail and arrived around dusk at the camp site. A number of people were there, waiting forContinue reading ““I Wish to Speak a Word for Nature” – Personal Experiences of the Wild Part 3”
“I Wish to Speak a Word for Nature” – Personal Experiences of the Wild Part 2
The Walden Woods In early 1975, a few years after we had moved back to the Boston area, my wife and I decided to visit Walden Pond and walk around it. With our young daughter on my back, we started on a clockwise perambulation of the pond, making our way down the south side untilContinue reading ““I Wish to Speak a Word for Nature” – Personal Experiences of the Wild Part 2”
“I Wish to Speak a Word for Nature” – Personal Experiences of the Wild Part 1
This essay is based on an address I read to the Thoreau Society Annual Gathering in July 2011. I have divided it into four parts for the blog. “I wish to speak a word for Nature, for absolute freedom and wildness, as contrasted with a freedom and culture merely civil, — to regard man asContinue reading ““I Wish to Speak a Word for Nature” – Personal Experiences of the Wild Part 1”
Life in the Universe and the Copernican Revolution
This is a philosophical musing spurred by a credible observation of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs). In 1543, Copernicus proposed in his book De Revolutionibus that to represent the solar system as planets circling the Sun would be simpler and would explain observations as well as the earlier representations having the Earth at the center. This started aContinue reading “Life in the Universe and the Copernican Revolution”
Reflections on the Why of Things
Who, what, where, when, how, why. These are the basic points of reference to be covered in journalism and detective work. The most important of these is why. Why can explain all the others, and can lead to additional conclusions and insights beyond the particular incident that one is describing or understanding. “Why” is intimatelyContinue reading “Reflections on the Why of Things”
The Rude Bridge Reconsidered
Ralph Waldo Emerson composed the following lines as part of his poem “Concord Hymn”, sung at the completion of the Battle Monument in Concord, April 19, 1836: By the rude bridge that arched the flood, Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled, Here once the embattled farmers stood, And fired the shot heard round the world. NearContinue reading “The Rude Bridge Reconsidered”
Buddhism
What is Buddhism? Life is what it is. I’m siting in a chair, pen in hand, writing these words while glancing out the window at the yews to the west and north of the house. This is life. It seems trivial, but the fundamental aspects underlying our universe are often just simple. I could imagineContinue reading “Buddhism”
Thoughts of Past and Future
I felt, while hiking out of the Baldface Mountains at the northern reach of the White Mountains near the NH – Maine border, that strangeness of our artificial period we call the 20th century. I want a vision of at least 10,000 years, perhaps 100,000 years or about half the time of modern humans on theContinue reading “Thoughts of Past and Future”
The Mementos
My aunt Frances lived her whole life in the family house in Rhode Island. After she died in 1991, we took all the personal papers we could find back to our house. Among these papers was a curious set of books, photographs, letters, etc. that had belonged to Frances’ friend Robbie, most of which wereContinue reading “The Mementos”
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