Essays
Philosophical and Political
Thoughts From My Journal – Stillwater II
11-17: Yesterday Twig and I walked what’s called the Canyon Trail (at StillWater Cove) along the creek eastward to its terminus at private property. (The distinction between a canyon and a valley is, even in dictionaries, very loose, which allows plenty of room for...
Thoughts From My Journal – Stillwater Cove
11-15: I walk the trail out of the campground [on the Pacific coast now at Still Water Cove a hundred miles north of San Francisco] and can make a left when I reach the valley bottom and find myself in a small cove a quarter mile to the west. A right takes me along a...
Thoughts From My Journal – Non-Attachement
*9-13: Since I wrote previously about nonattachment, I read this: “A certain recluse monk once remarked, ‘I have relinquished all that ties me to the world, but the one thing that still haunts me is the beauty of the sky.’ I can quite see why he would feel this.” The...
Thoughts From My Journal – The River’s Patter
9-11: We walked again today, this time west until we crossed the bridge and turned east and eventually found a fallen pine a hundred yards from the River where we sat in silence for a while. Twig seems an unusual dog in that she can sit still as long as I am observing...
What Matters
An action is right when it respects the integrity and vital needs and interests of others. It is wrong when it does not. Many readers will recognize the above ethical declaration as a paraphrase of Aldo Leopold’s well known “Land Ethic.” I came to know and...
Thoughts From My Journal – Age and Rapid Change
9-9: The Sierra and Yosemite were never only Nature, beauty, wonderment, and the place I most liked to go. They were experiences of physical engagement, of combining exertion and sweat with the dust of a trail and the sights along them. Now I see how crucial that kind...
