Pre-Post for week 3
Respond to the readings in The Sand County Almanac, Leopold bio in Wekipedia, and the essay “Thinking like a Mountain”
The pictures in Sand County Almanac added significantly to Leopold’s essays. I’m thinking of Draba, the glowing fireplace inside the shack, and the compass flower, just to name a few. My response is Wow and Wow again!
But their beauty and evocative nature served me in an unexpected way this past weekend. I had the book with me on my trip to visit family in Niceville, Florida. I was reading it early on Monday morning when a tornado siren went off and woke Rickey’s mom. She is 88 years-old and suffers from dementia. She came to the table shaken up by the loud thunder, heavy rain and continued screaming of the siren. After I fed her, I sat beside her and opened my Sand County Almanac. Together we looked at the pictures and talked about them. She told me stories about places she remembered that were full of flowers and trees. The pictures and storytelling worked to connect her to strong memories, and she was significantly more peaceful as we focused on turning the pages to see what was next. Wow and wow again!
To get back to the book--I was particularly struck by the long February essay. I enjoyed the history--good things and bad—recorded as he and sawyers cut through the old oak. And the refrain was especially effective. “Rest! Cries the chief sawyer, and we pause for breath.” I, too, needed to pause for breath so I could have time to absorb and reflect on the list. (Thanks for letting me put together Leopold's words for a choral reading of his essay "February"--I think it worked well to hear everyone's voices.)
In “Thinking like a Mountain,” Leopold does a fine job of helping us understand the consequences of interrupting the cycle of life for our own misguided purposes. I appreciated his admission of guilt by accepting and participating in the killing of the wolf. I thought it telling that when he got up close and could look at the light fading from his victim’s eyes, he felt differently.
After reading his bio in Wikipedia, I understand how much he was able to think through the accepted views of nature at his time and present a healthier (holier) view--care and preservation of wilderness. Given the stunning eloquence of The Sand County Almanac, I can't help thinking he would have written other impressive books if he hadn't died fighting a fire at 61 years old. But it made me smile to discover all his biological children shared his love of nature and our environment, even becoming contributors as teachers and researchers.
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