Into the Maw

The novelist and sometime fishing writer W.D. Wetherell said that the difference between hunting and fishing is that hunters seek their prey while fishermen try to become prey; they do their best to make their lures look attractive and vulnerable so that fish will attack them. They succeed when they momentarily reverse the flow of the food loop.



Anglers become prey in another way. In winter, thoughts of the season to come swallow or at least nibble at hours of what should have been productive time. My professional life has tooth marks on its belly and a few shredded fins, like a trout fry that narrowly escaped the jaws of a larger cousin. We're a little over sixty days from the next trout season, and it's already sucking me in like a brown sipping crippled mayflies. I'm not putting up much more resistance than the insects.

Tag:Fishing

Correction; They Pay Me for This!

When it comes to spruces, my ID skills are shaky once you get beyond blues or balsams. Blues are blue, but whites are not white and blacks are not black. But with a little online digging today, I determined that the ones growing in the park across the road are whites, not blacks as I said yesterday.

So the benefits of Saturday's walk continue to accumulate. Interesting that I often think about what I see on walks for hours or even days after I return, whereas little I see while jogging makes a lasting impression on me. I guess I don't get to look at anything closely or long enough to sink in.

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Today in one of my classes, a student asked me what the word "flatulence" meant. The question arose out of a discussion in a research group he was in. Not exactly sure why it came up, and I didn't probe.

Woodpeckered! and, A Walk in the Park

Friday, while working at my computer, I heard a loud bump against the window beside me. A downy woodpecker was hovering there, having flown into the window. He quickly retreated to branch on the adjacent bush, still looking toward the window with what looked to me like confusion, perhaps wondering "what the hell happened?" For all the birds that hang around that bush (which offers safe cover just a few feet from the feeder), I'm surprised one hadn't flown into the window before.



Between a crummy schedule, crummy weather, and a sore knee, I haven't jogged since last Monday. Tired of sitting around, I decided yesterday to walk a five mile loop along nearby dirt roads. About a quarter mile from home, I knew I wasn't going to make it. It was bitter cold yesterday with a stiff wind blowing from the north. By the time I reached the first road heading off the pavement, my face was nearly frozen. Seeking shelter, I turned into a forest preserve whose edge I had arrived at.

This park consists of about 80 acres of mature woods, being rapidly overrun by pink honeysuckle. There are a few trails, but when I go there I usually wander cross country. With the exception of a few areas, the forest is generally open enough for easy rambling. It seems to be getting more open too. There are many tall red pines in the park, and nearly all of them are dying off. They looked that way when we moved here six years ago, and they have grown noticeably worse since. It appears that quite a few have finally fallen over this winter. Good cover for birds and squirrels, I suppose.

Other evergreens do better. There are fewer white pines, but those all look healthy, and they do have some reproduction. There are tall (black?) spruces that thrive and scatter hosts of progeny aroud their bases. I like to enter the thickets of spruce. Though there are comfortable passages between them, the young trees screen out all views except up and down, but the effect is not claustrophobic. Going inside them, you find an intimate, sheltering part of the woods.

While out yesterday, I visited one of my favorite spots in the park, a rockpile standing next to a tall oak in the middle of one of these spruce thickets, quite a ways off any trail. There are many rockpiles in the park, though I have no idea who assembled them or why--perhaps farmers of earlier generations who hauled them away from fields to make plowing smoother. This one appears more deliberately constructed than most. It consists of a flat layer of stones with a large, oblong rock pointing up from the center. It looks like an altar of some sort, though not one regarded with any special reverence. A heavily used deer trail passes through the opening where the altar stands, and the four-legged travellers appear to make a habit of desecrating it with their droppings. Or sanctifying it, perhaps. I'm sure the oak and the young spruces appreciate the offerings.

Yesterday's walk in the park may have been less strenuous than my planned five-miler, but it was good to revisit a favorite but recently neglected place. I found some satisfaction in the sight of certain things holding together as others slid into a long-expected demise.

Tag:Nature

The Red Ink of the Soul

Speaking to Congress today, Condi Rice employed an intriguing neologism:

Rice said it was wrong to imply the Middle East had been stable before the Bush administration launched its democracy push, arguing that 60 years of U.S. foreign policy caused a "freedom deficit" that was difficult to fix in a couple of years.

"Freedom Deficit" has been circulating for at least a year, as far as I can tell, and used the way Condi did, is a typical piece of bureaucratic distortion. It makes the difficulties in the middle east sound essentially technical and quantitative, matters that can be solved by little belt tightening and imposing a fee or two. But when applied to personal life rather than geopolitics, it stirs some interesting speculations.

How exactly do you determine you are running a freedom deficit? By what metric can you ascertain that your freedom balance is insufficient?

How does one incur a freedom deficit? What kind of profligate living or shoddy accounting brings one to that point? Can you cook the books to create an appearance of freedom that you don't actually have?

I occasionally get the feeling that a lot of us run freedom deficits, for reasons totally unrelated to the government under which we happen to live.

On the flip side, is it possible to run a freedom surplus? And if you do, are you obliged to return the unused freedom to someone? Can you bank it in the event of freedom famines?

Is someone taxed to fund my freedom?

I think that, in many senses, the answer to the last question is "yes."

Your National Forests--Own a Piece Today!

Last Friday, reports surfaced concerning a Bush administration proposal to sell approximately 300,000 acres of land in the national forest system to help fund rural school districts. The Forest Service web site has more information about the sale, including a table of the lands on the block. They include roughly 6,000 acres in the Hiawatha and Ottawa national forests in upper Michigan.

Efforts to boost school funding are laudable, but cannibalizing another resource isn't the way to raise the cash. Undersecretary of Agriculture Mark Rey defended the proposed sale saying "education of rural school children, that's an investment in the nation's future as important as any other investment we could make. That purpose justifies the approach we're proposing." I disagree. Education is more important than many other investments being made by this administration, such as the earlier Bush tax cuts that are coming up for renewal. And when the the rising federal budget deficit is under constant discussion, you have to wonder why, on the watch of the man who vowed to leave no child behind, all that spending is missing school budgets.

Rey also said that the sales will help fund the Forest service, whose budget has also been on the decline. And what's the reason for that decline??? Republicans of the Bush/Rove stripe used to say "starve the beast!" Now apparently they want to dismember it at the same time.

Forest Service officials reassure skeptics of the sale that the proposed parcels are not scenically or ecologically significant. There may be truth to that, but it's still land where people can go to stretch their legs, and see something other than tract houses and parking lots. They point out too that this is only a fragment of NF holdings, and they have a point. The Ottawa alone comprises about 1 million acres. 6,000 acres may not represent a large chunk of that but those acres do contain some people's hunting spots, or berrypicking spots, or simply the spots where they found some space to sit quietly, away from the din of traffic. Withdrawn from the public domain, they represent a reduced opportunity for others to find those things. I fear that this sale would grease the slide for further ones, which would reduce those opportunities further. With projections of budget deficits into the future, where does it stop?

Before the sale can go ahead, it needs congressional approval, and representatives from many of the affected states, Republican and Democrat alike, have spoken out against it. On an outdoor discussion board I frequent, even die-hard Bush supporters felt he was out of line with this one. We can pray they represent a large swath of public opinion. A 30 day comment period begins on Feb. 28th, and hopefully that will generate a groundswell of resistance. To add your voice to that, write to your senators and representative. Thousands of your fellow Americans will thank you. As will generations to come. As will Smokey.

Remember: Only you can prevent forest Fire Sales.

Tags: Conservation; Politics

Be (All) There

I've been thinking quite a bit this week about the
article on "moral disengagement" that ran in the New York Times this past Tuesday. Moral disengagement refers to the process by which people put aside the moral convictions they profess and otherwise live by to do things which are disagreeable but required or felt to be necessary--executing a prisoner, say, or working for a weapons manufacturer, laying off employees, or cheating in school to improve chances for admission to a top graduate program.

The process of moral disengagment can operate both psycologically and institutionally . People construct justifications of their behavior ("these people have lost their right to live"; "everyone else is doing it"; "I just work here"), and procedures or enterprises may be organized so that responsibility is either spread out or, as in the case of the firing squad where each member can reasonably believe that his was the blank round, plausibly deniable.

Instinticively, it's easy to view this as one of humanity's more regrettable habits, though some of the researchers of the phenomenon see survivial value in such behavior.

The crude codes of behavior that evolved to hold early human societies together — taboos against killing, against stealing — would have been psychologically suffocating if people did not have some way to let themselves off the hook in extreme situations, some experts argue. Survival sometimes required brutal acts; human sacrifice was commonplace, as were executions.

At this point in time, though, faced with spawling economies built on toxic enterprises, the slaughter of innocents for righteousness' sake, and global wars in the name of peace, one has to wonder if this reflex is posting negative returns.

On this subject, the newspaper isn't actually giving us news. We've all seen how people can do what they will themselves tell you no one should do. And we've all done it. For me, the article's descriptions of people telling themselves what they're doing is not so bad, that it's necessary, that someone doesn't deserve their compassion, strike very close to home. They also summon up the voice of my Christian Doctrine teacher from high school lecturing on Innate Depravity. I have to admit I find him rather convincing as I survey the daily headlines.

But I don't think it explains much to simply say "in the long run, everyone's rotten." The people profiled in the article aren't cruel, callous, or purely selfish. Addressing moral disengagement as a form of immoraility, or failing to behave ideally, only gets at the problem is a broad and roundabout way. The problem is that they--and I--are sometimes just not all there.

According to the article, fabricating self-justifications for objectionable acts is hardly proof of moral collapse, psychologists say. Rather, they say, moral disengagement is evidence that a sound moral sensibility is trying to assert itself, warning against a situation it finds suspect.

The warning just goes unheeded. Some part of oneself that might make a regrettable scene is sent packing to the cellar when the boss arrives for dinner. But, once people stop doing what is consciously or unconsciously upsetting them, the research suggests, they engage their conscience more fully. The impertinent rascal is allowed back in to the parlor.

It is just this pattern of behavior, I think, that is addressed by the Buddhist injunction to "Be here now" or Jesus' admonition to "remain awake." At least, in light of the research discussed in the Times article, it follows that when one absents one's heart or conscience, or allows it to go silent, suffering falls on oneself and others.

What would happen if more people brought their full moral sense to bear on their daily tasks and on their social and political decisions? If, in other words, people allowed the same voice that teaches their children or denounces corruption and terrorism in front ot the TV to speak while at work, or while sizing up the new kid in school, or while planning budgets for that school?

It could get ugly, not least at the individual level. People could lose their jobs, face social ostracism, make themselves vulnerable to those who might hurt them (and, just to be clear, I don't think moral engagment demands one renounce the right to self-defense). Beyond that it's hard to say, given lack of empirical evidence on which to speculate.

Perhaps that's what defines those we call saints. Maybe they aren't more good or more pious that the rest of us; maybe they're just more present.

Tag: Spirituality

Good Blogging (No Fooling); Lazy Thursday

A cyber-aquaintence of mine recently launched a blog called Time's Fool. Good stuff on nature, spirituality, the mind, and other topics that occasionally pop up here. And others that don't. Nothing about fishing, but then none of us are perfect (heh). Check it out.

After I finished breakfast this morning, I was struck with the uncanny recognition that I had nothing to do. I could find things to do, of course, but nothing immediately demanded my attention. During the school year, this almost never happens. When it does, I'm caught off guard. I'm always planning to do more writing or reading, though usually I don't have a set agenda for that. As soon as some spare hours appear, several equally worthy projects begin tugging at my attention. Sometimes after deliberating about them for a while, I don't have time for any. Maybe I ought to spend a few hours mapping out contingency plans for future outbreaks of leisure.

I have been working on a story for FTR that I could plug ahead with. However, out of professional anxiety, I think I'll go to the local community college library and read a few journals. It could be that the scheme of the conventional workday has become imprinted in my neurons, but for whatever reason, personal pursuits feel most suited to the nighttime hours.

Rule of Laws

"Rats and cockroaches live by competition under the laws of supply and demand. It is the privledge of human beings to live under laws of justice and mercy."

--quote by Wendell Berry, made known to me by a friend's email signature.

Where the Coasters Roam (in a chemical foam?)

Yesterday, various news outlets reported that the state of MIchigan had finalized rules for sulfide ore mining, clearing the way for Kennecot Minerals to proceed with a proposed copper and nickel mine in the Huron mountains in Marquette county. We could be seeing a lot more of this. The vein of ore targeted extends into lower Michigan as far south as Ann Arbor.

The state's rules have been described by environmentalists and Kennecot officials alike as some of the toughest in the country, and some of those who opposed the mine are satisfied that they will prevent the mine from doing significant damage to the adjacent lands and waters. "''If they do meet the regulations," said Sierra Club representative Marv Roberson, "I think they're going to be running about the safest mine possible." However, a spokeperson for the Michigan Environmental Council, speaking on Michigan Public Radio, expressed concerns that a tight state budget might prevent effective enforcement of the new rules.

Whatever the strengths or weakenesses of these regulations, a lot of people have to be disappointed. A broad network of people had worked hard for the last several years to prevent the mine from going forward. The proposed mine site lies within one of the ruggedest and wildest regions in the state, or in the eastern US, for that matter. It borders the Salmon Trout river, home to the last breeding populations of Coaster brook trout on the south shore of Lake Superior. Coasters are lake-dwelling trout that return to rivers to spawn, and may reach a size of ten pounds or more. Once common, they hang on in the Salmon Trout, and in a few rivers along the Canadian shore. Michigan's DNR has attempted to reestablish Coaster populations in several other rivers, with limited success. Should the new rules prove inadequate, the Marquette county mine may be the final nail the the coaster's coffin, since in other areas, acid drainage from sulfide ore mining has wreaked havoc on land, water, and fisheries. According to the Environmental Mining Council of British Columbia, a mining watchdog group, acid leached from sulfide ore (and other) mines "can effectively sterilize an entire water system for generations to come - turning it into a biological wasteland and a huge economic burden."

Had history gone a bit differently, this never would have been a concern. During the 1950s, the federal government considered establishing a national park in the Huron Mountains. It's hard to imagine a place in the state more worthy of one, but the plan met stiff opposition from members of the Huron Mountain Club, the fabled northwoods playground of heirs to the industrial fortunes of the midwest. Fearing some of its lands (along with adjacent public acreage) might be appropriated by the federal government for inclusion in a park, the club argued that it could be a better steward for the property than the government, and that "casual visitors or tourists unaccustomed to such conditions (wilderness) would generally speaking, not enjoy these woods” anyway. Eventually, the National Park Service agreed, and set its sights on the Sleeping Bear Dunes. In one of the pages linked above, you may have noted that among the names of groups opposed to the sulfide mine along the Salmon Trout was--the Huron Mountain Club.

Tags: Conservation; Michigan

Quiet here lately

Usually if I go silent for a while it means I'm fishing. Not the case this week. Work has been a killer, with nearly every spare moment spent grading, often till after midnight.

I may post less over the weeks to come. Partly because of work, but partly because I would like to concentrate on writing some stories about experiences on the water, or elsewhere in the outdoors. These may take a while to become fit for public consumption, but I will try to get out at least a few in the coming months, along with anything else that strikes my fancy. However, one thing I'm sure of is that the web really doesn't need another half-assed self appointed political pundit. I'll stick to what I know and like best. Mostly.

Had another session of Zen study last night. One thing that stands out about the teachings there are how direct and practical they are (e.g. "Accept what is. Don't chase after what is gone."). Some of the sayings are susceptible to caricaturization as simplistic or or unrealistic, but I think most of them get at genuine truths about the good life. Many of them seem like analogues to Christian ideas, and this has made me think about how much these teachings have been blunted by habit and social convention, or simply diluted by abstraction. Systematic theology and historical criticism of the Bible are fascinating to intellectually inclined people like me, though they have to potential to be distractions from a genuine spiritual life, too.

Of course there are those tortuous meditation postures we're taught at the Zen temple. Next to those, the mental gymnastics involved in comprehending the Trinity are a breeze.