My cathedral is in an isolated wilderness, away from contemporary blight. After several years of marriage my wife describes me as odd. I prefer eccentric. She calls me a cheapskate. I am frugal.
I also choose to be different; we put way too much emphasis on the words; Hall of Fame, legend, glamour, champion, celebrity, and famous. I may admire but never idolize, Heroes aren't on golf courses nor in stadiums but in the uniforms of our firefighters, military and police officers. There are no idols in my life. Stars are to be revered only in the night sky, not in Hollywood.
Rather than sit in a night-club involved in inane conversations I would rather see hummingbirds performing aerobatics, canoe a rogue river, watch a moose cavorting with her calf in a turbulent stream, see the Aurora Borealis fire streamers of color across a darkening sky, study undulating lines of snow geese, buffeted by lofty winds, honking their way to their mysterious destinations. There are yet unseen wonders in nature.
My adventurous nature was established when I lived for a month on a Chipewyan reservation in Manitoba hunting seal and bear from a dog sled, using harpoons and bow and arrows, living the way of their ancestors. Frogs in a well have a limited view of the limitless sky. Beyond every horizon there is a horizon.
I have canoed the Mackenzie River in Canada's Northwest Territory, the Churchill in Manitoba, Fraser River in British Columbia, the Deschutes in Oregon and the Wolverine in Nunavut. I lust to explore each wilderness on earth where overpopulation has not contaminated the environment.
Time away from the fallacies of civilization is regenerative.
