Darling, I love you. The wind, the sea, the woods, our favorite spots, even the moon compounded to bring you very close this afternoon. You walked with me in the woods. And I thought of what you would have said if you were there.
Dorothy Freeman, in a letter to Rachel Carson, December 23, 1960
With the spring semester’s grades turned in, the second book manuscript off my desk and in editorial hands, and, dare I say it, tenure earned and now officially granted, I enjoyed not one but two walks in the woods last week. (Though not with my own darling there, alas.)
Both walks were high points in their own ways.
On Wednesday, my friend and colleague Josh and I started our usual weekly writing session with a wildflower walk in the woods. We took a side trail off the lower portion of Musser Gap, where he’d seen wildflowers the week before. We saw Mayapple, Fringed Polygala and Rue Anemone now in bloom, and Coltsfoot gone to seed. Plus a cute little snail.
Fringed PolygalaColtsfootSnail
Then we parked our butts and wrote. It was a perfect writing day.
On Friday, I hiked with my friend and colleague Lib, who is also training for the Homestead Challenge on the Rachel Carson Trail. We did our longest training hike thus far, 13.4 miles!
View from the Midstate Trail
We climbed up Spruce Gap, walked on the Midstate Trail, and then passed through Bear Meadows in order to take Longberger back. By hike’s end, I felt confident I can cover the 17 miles during the Homestead Challenge, though managing the prescribed pace with the Rachel Carson’s elevation is going to be challenging indeed.
We must talk about [Albert Schweitzer] sometime. I think he is an extremely significant figure–his Reverence-for-Life philosophy is of course somewhat like my own.
Rachel Carson, in a letter to Dorothy Freeman, November 13, 1954
In her acceptance speech for the award, as recounted by Maria Popova, Carson offered her own understanding of the Reverence-for-Life philosophy. “We [humans] are not being truly civilized if we concern ourselves only with the relation of man to man,” Carson said. “What is important is the relation of man to all life…By acquiescing in needless destruction and suffering, our stature as human beings is diminished.”
The suffering Carson referenced here was “against the natural world.” In her and Schweitzer’s view, a Reverence-for-Life philosophy was about revering all living beings, both human and not, as well as all human life. (Schweitzer enacted the latter ethic quite imperfectly, especially where racism was concerned.)
Having read Popova’s references to Carson and Schweitzer’s ethical philosophies just last week, I couldn’t help but think of them as news broke about the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade. I’m no expert on the history of abortion or, more importantly, reproductive justice writ large. But I can’t stop thinking…
What if the so-called “pro-life” people and movements who have devoted millions of hours and millions of dollars, who have taken lives in the name of their cause, actually redirected this energy to an all-encompassing reverence for life?
For the lives of African Americans of all genders who are disproportionately killed by police in this country? Or the use of police force and violence against autistic people? For the butterflies and insects that can only live if their host plants are not killed off by pesticides? For the people who sacrifice their savings accounts and mental health in pursuit of fertility treatments only to find out they can’t create a child? Or who don’t have the means to even try these treatments? For the children in foster care or institutions with no forever families stepping up to care? Or the adults suffering with active addiction who are incarcerated but not offered the treatment, recovery, and/or harm reduction options they need? For people detained at borders, in detention centers without trial? For people being subject to war and rape?
This isn’t a “pity list” (nor a complete one). This is life. Messy, imperfect, precious life. I know I’m not the first or last to say this. But I wish people so worked up about abortion–which takes many forms and is needed for many reasons–would redirect their energies to something more like a reverence for all life.
I’ll keep thinking about my own part in doing so as I keep walking with Carson’s letters.
My miles on foot this week were adapted to fit family life–some run/walks with my spouse, who had a single week off from class, and our weekend Mother’s Day hike with the two-year-old.
He walked to the first stream at Musser Gap, but getting him back to the car required carrying him. I might look into getting another pack after all. Though ours broke last spring, and I’d thought he was getting too heavy for one, it may be the best bet if I am carrying him anyways 🙂
Walking with Rachel Carson's Letters 