“In such a world of conflict, a world of victims and executioners, it is the job of thinking people, not to be on the side of the executioners.”- Camus
In the novel Varina , Charles Frazier, author of Cold Mountain , tells the story of Varina Davis, wife of Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederate States of America. Varina is a formidable woman – well educated, perceptive, strong minded, and one who struggles against a whole array of patronizing and threatening men. She is compassionate and principled, but she also was married to the leader of a rebellion who fought a […]
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We are almost at the end of the green light time, that space in spring when the forest has not reached full canopy, when you can still see a ways into the trees, when the unfolding leaves are so fresh the air in the stretches in between feels soft. Almost simultaneously, the songs come at you, these the first of the season, one call from high up and 50 or […]
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Loving a dog means cultivating an acceptance of hair by the bushel basket, shite by the kilo, and taking on an unwavering dependence that may stretch for over a decade. It means the necessity for training forever, and plowing thousands and thousands of dollars into animals who will never speak and who even at their brightest remain pretty dim bulbs. It means, barring tragedy, agreeing to help them die easily, […]
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In the woods and fields, the residue of events we have not witnessed is there, but so often we cannot see them. The dogs know more than I do. They find the trails, know which burrows hold life, hear the near silent stir among trees that I miss until I see their heads go up, their ears tick forward, watch quietness inhabit them. But this I saw first and what […]
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