An elk bedded down…

“The elk that you glimpse in the summer, those at the forest edge, are survivors of winter, only the strongest. You see one just before dusk that summer, standing at the perimeter of the meadow so it can step back to the forest and vanish. You can’t help imagining the still, frozen nights behind it, so cold that the slightest motion is monumental. I have found their bodies, half drifted over in snow, no sign of animal attack or injury. Just toppled over one night with ice working into their lungs. You wouldn’t want to stand outside for more than a few minutes in that kind of weather. If you lived through only one of those winters the way this elk has, you would write books about it. You would become a shaman. You would be forever changed. That elk from the winter stands there on the summer evening, watching from beside the forest. It keeps its story to itself.”  Craig Childs, The Animal Dialogues, Uncommon Encounters in the Wild

Odd Ramblings: Richard Brautigan, Trout Fishing in America

This, for me, is part of the fun with blogging. Discoveries beyond the sought after. This morning, I was going to post the above image of a beautiful Rainbow Trout my son Tony caught in Oregon. I noted the spotted, olive back and thought to myself I need to find a quote, poem, something about the beautiful topside of a spotted trout. A long shot I figured.

I started perusing the net for ideas and for some reason I repeatedly came upon links to one Richard Brautigan. Not being particularly well read, I wasn’t sure who this writer was but hey he had written something called Trout Fishing in America. I found a link to many of Brautigan’s writings and was beset with a curious assortment of quotes from what had to be the 60’s. A total throw back for my mind to the Tom Wolfe, Tom Robbins…the wildly poetic, fanciful, different way of saying things, imagining things. It certainly challenged my early morning mindset.

Then I came upon an interesting bio piece on Richard Brautigan on the writing process for Trout Fishing in America that involved fly fishing, camping, travel, writing on an old typewriter and found it most fascinating. Check out the links and explore a bit. The bio is particularly interesting regarding the writing process. More Tragic Brautigan

It is interesting how one thing leads to another and a discovery is made that at a minimum gives momentary delight or perhaps opens the door to something more exploratory in the future.

Aren’t those spots on the Trout’s olive back beautiful. Maybe that’s all I had to say.

Writing: Norman Maclean’s Magic

Whether it is just that certain moment in life when events come clear or hindsight that provides wisdom and clarity, Norman Maclean has always resonated with me for those reasons. There, for me, is something quite magical about the man’s ability to paint a word picture that goes beyond the mind and into the heart, the gut, the soul. A few excerpts from A River Runs Through It.

“Each one of us here today will at one time in our lives look upon a loved one who is in need and ask the same question: We are willing to help, Lord, but what, if anything, is needed? For it is true we can seldom help those closest to us. Either we don’t know what part of ourselves to give or, more often than not, the part we have to give is not wanted. And so it is those we live with and should know who elude us. But we can still love them – we can love completely without complete understanding.”

“One of life’s quiet excitements is to stand somewhat apart from yourself and watch yourself softly becoming the author of something beautiful even if it is only a floating ash.” 

“Many of us would probably be better fishermen if we did not spend so much time watching and waiting for the world to become perfect” 

“The hardest thing usually to leave behind, as was the case now, can loosely be called the conscience.” 

Get Busy! ‘100 Things to Do Before You Die’ Author Dead!

“This life is a short journey,” the author wrote. “How can you make sure you fill it with the most fun and that you visit all the coolest places on earth before you pack those bags for the very last time?”

“Author, Dave Feeman, age 47, died Aug. 17 after falling and hitting his head at his home in Venice. Freeman, an advertising agency executive, who co-wrote “100 Things to Do Before You Die,” an adventure-seeking and often unconventional travel guide that personified the way he lived his life…..”

“On Sept. 11, 2001, he was eating breakfast in his sixth-floor New York co-op when the first plane hit the north tower of the World Trade Center. From the roof of his building, he saw the second plane crash into the south tower, just blocks away. Deeply affected by the terrorist attack, Freeman decided to move back to Los Angeles in 2002 to be near his family.”