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Riverwalking, Reflections on Moving Water
by Kathleen Dean Moore. Published in 1995 as a Harvest Book by Harcourt Brace.
193p.
With advanced degrees in philosophy Kathy
Moore serves on the Philosophy faculty at Oregon State University. Having had a
biologist father and now a zoologist husband, she has developed a naturalist’s
sensitivity to our natural world. Thus she wonderfully combines philosophy and
nature writing.
With her family she visits rivers in Oregon, in the southwestern US, and Alaska.
She records events and impressions from camping, canoeing, rafting and hiking
trips on these rivers. The underlying thesis is that nature enormously enriches
human life. She documents the intricate beauty, the completeness, and complexity
of river life. She observes, “Encounters with animals are a gold mine of
interest because the more you learn about an animal, the more improbable it
seems...”
Kathy compares the qualities of human mothers with those of mother Earth. Only
the healthy mother can repair the child’s messes. When we spread poison, deplete
soils, contaminate waters, we weaken the Earth, reducing its resilience. We
diminish its capacity to provide ecological services.
Before her daughter departs for a trip to Greece, she plans family camping on
the Willamette River in Oregon. Kathy wanted the “river to run in her veins” to
connect her daughter to their native place. This river flows through Corvallis,
the family’s home town. As some solitary wasps recognize landmarks such as
pebbles around their nest entrance to identify home, Kathy considers the
Willamette her landmark for home.
As Loren Eiseley floated down a stream with his skin bathed in water in his
classic book, The Immense Journey, in Alaska Kathy floats down the muskeg
(grassy bog) of the Maclaren River in an inner tube. There bluebells bent over
her head and a loon gave the maniacal cry for which it is named.
Thoughtful environmentalists recommend reconnecting to nature. This book
provides an exemplary poetic guide.
Written February 10, 2010
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