Animal, Vegetable, Radical

Radical, before it meant a person who advocates strong political reform, meant getting to the root of things, the origin.  It comes from the Latin radix, radicis, meaning radish, a root vegetable.  That’s what this section is about: roots, change, food (and beware: I have a different take on food than most progressive-minded people these days).  It’s also about animals, wildlife in particular.  It’s not about animal activism, which is a noble pursuit but one I am not directly involved in.  It’s simply about what I believe to be the “other world,” what Christians might call “eternity.”  Because wilderness (and wildlife) is that, to me.  It’s the place where things continue and evolve, where they will keep continuing and evolving long after humans destroy themselves.  The earth will heal and survive.  I always thought that I did not have a formal religion, but I realized this year that I do. I believe I am a born again animist.

When I was a kid my mother told me I would be so afraid if I ever saw God.

“But God is good,” I told her.  “Why would he scare me?”

“Because he’s so beautiful,” she said.  “You would be frightened by the intensity of his beauty.”

Well, that’s how I feel every time I enter the wilderness.  Mountain lions terrify me.  They are stunningly beautiful. The mountains themselves, fourteen-thousand feet of granite that has pressed itself up from the core of the earth in a massive tectonic shift, that scares me.  Rogue waves along the ocean terrify me.  And I walk the ocean shores whenever I can. I hike the mountains. I seek out lions (and tigers and bears).  And when I see them, their beauty takes me so far aback that I am in stunned and in awe.   It feels, sometimes, like fear.

I experience the same thing when I sit down to write a story.  Fear.  Utter fear.  And intense beauty.  Not because what I write will be beautiful.  But because the act of writing itself is just that beautiful, to me. Like wilderness.  Like wildlife.  Like roots.  Like a radish. Bright red, nourishing.  I’ll take it all in.

This, too, is the section where I’ll post updates on the Mexican grey wolf, and other matters that are part of the novel Theft. So keep checking back.  I’ll keep it newsy, up to date, and with a little luck, entertaining, too.