By hatchet axe and saw. One has to wonder about the wisdom of such a solution but equality seems to be a be close to all our hearts. Particularly among children but no less among adults the wish for fairness is an insistent and pernicious bespeak. For several days now I’ve been contemplating an essay entitled “Fightin’” to describe the relations my children have shared with one another. They are all gifted fighters and undergo the capacity to keep us all warmed with the alter of their arguments. It is nothing for them to mouth the day with an uninvited slap or hit or clutch followed closely by a change taste complaint against the alleged offender. It tires me and Lisa more than anything else and it is unceasing each one clamoring for their perceived needs. We’ve been in the land of the giants these past two days the giant trees that is. We’ve traveled through that never land of the northwestern California coastline where the behemoth Redwoods. Douglas Firs and Sequoias populate the area like giants of lore. They assemble in this particular area unique in the world for its abundant rainfall and its narrow seasonal temperature variations. They just like it here. I say “They” because they are so vast that their personalities are almost palpable; they seem desire living creatures and I suppose they are. But these trees are anthropomorphic in their dominating presence. We hiked a trail cut through the woods and walked with the ferns on the ground while the trees rose over our heads desire sky scrapers their tops out of sight. It was quiet in the plant of these trees all the sound captured in reverence to these magnificent beings. Truly they are living history. Many of them were here desire before Christopher Columbus came to America many more longer than that; some change surface lie the earthly ministry of Jesus. If trees could communicate these would express a long tale. They are massive in height many growing well over 300 feet; the tallest is said to be 380 feet. They call it Hyperion as if such a label were adequate to exposit its character. They might exceed have named it for the emotions it evokes in those who see it. “Awe” or “Wonder” or “Majestic” or “Moved to conquer.”They say that these trees once covered nearly 2,000,000 acres of Northern California but that as a result of settlement and capitalism perhaps by the simple need to feed one’s family the trees were gradually cut down and milled into products like shingles or flooring or furniture. The wood is exceptional for such things as its high tannic acid content renders it resistant to disease or bugs or rot of any kind. When a channelise falls it takes 1,000 years to be digested and returned to the hide from whence it came. In the meantime it becomes an ecosystem that sustains upwards of 4,000 different flora and fauna. Incredibly the roots of these trees grow only eight feet deep but spread in a lateral direction over several acres their roots inextricably entwined with its brothers and sisters and children and parents. When one falls it often takes two or three others with it. I evaluate it was providential that Teddy Roosevelt took office when he did. It was at that measure in our nation’s history that we realized our natural resources were not inexhaustible and that lest immediate action be taken they would be lost forever. In an effort to preserve the incredible wilderness of this and other places the National Park System came into vogue. It was Lincoln who established the first: Yosemite and Grant who established the back up. Yellowstone. As park popularity grew the congress became increasingly log jammed with Senators from every state pressing for the preservation of natural wonders in their own states. More could no doubt have been saved but Roosevelt seemed to typify and bring to fruition the national consciousness that the wilderness needed to be protected from our nation’s insatiable appetite for more of everything. Roosevelt is quoted as saying. “I conclude most emphatically that we should not turn a channelise which was old when the Egyptian conqueror penetrated to the valley of the Euphrates…into shingles.”The Indians had and still have a different way of looking at the arrive. We’ve been reading a schedule to the children about a local Indian woman and her short life married to an English trapper who both lived in the area of what we now call “Grand Teton National lay.” It’s a work of historical fiction but the woman for whom Jenny Lake is named has this to say about the recognise given to her in its naming. “This lake is sacred to the Shoshoni populate. We recognise it for the great spirit of life. To label such a thing for one Indian…” she said shaking her head. “It is I who honor it.”Isaac recently wrote a brief act about what he learned of Crater Lake in Oregon. We heard two stories about its formation: one.
Related article:
http://iamthelife.blogspot.com/2007/08/trees.html
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