Essays
Philosophical and Political
2022 The Northern Route – Ilulissat Greenland
*13 August: I am in Ilulissat on the west coast of Greenland at roughly 69° latitude, separated from Canada by Baffin Bay. About 60,000 people live in the country, the largest island on the planet, mostly covered with ice rather than humanity. Ilulissat Icefjord, a...
Thoughts From My Journal – Natchez Trace Parkway
*4-23: I was hiking an unfamiliar trail a couple days ago and when it made a sharp turn, I followed it rather than pausing for what looked like an inviting creek spot in the distance; I was focused on the trail, a double-edged sword that seems to obstruct as much as...
Thoughts From My Journal – Sonoran Desert 2
1-28: Last day here and I took off on a trail headed west out of the campground. It crossed three sizable washes, which for me are always evocative and for desert flora are like a magnet that draws them in to make relatively dense populations that follow its path....
Thoughts From My Journal – Sonoran Desert
1-27: I noted that the plants cactus seeds choose to settle next to are called nurse-plants, and I’m beginning to think this whole desert is my collective nurse biome. I just spent another couple hours on the ridge and the trails going to and from it. On the way up I...
Thoughts From My Journal – Desert Seeds
1-26: I have discovered who initiates the intimacy of the close relations I have spoken of. Not surprisingly, it is the cactus; out of the millions of seeds cast to their fates every year only a small minority germinate and grow. Those with the good fortune to land...
Thoughts From My Journal – Organ Pipe National Monument
*1-22: [Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument] I just returned from over an hour’s walk around a lovely trail, one I know I’ve mentioned on earlier visits, the one I always walk several times depending on how long I’m here. I recently downloaded a short essay from close...