Inspiration: Douglas Style
According to him, he had polio at a very young age. What is not in dispute, is that he was ill.
Somebody, in his Sunday School class told him if he would just get outside. Hike. He would be strengthened and healed.
And so he did. North of town. Hiked. Up a little peak. Next time, he said, he would do it without stopping.
And at the top of that excursion, next time, he said, he would do and whistle the whole way.
And his puniness fleshed out . . . and a passion for the nature and wilderness of those Cascade Mountains made him, an Associate Justice on the United States Supreme Court, have as his client, that unspeaking essence of natural wilderness.
He attended Whitman College. But he was so poor that he had to ride his bicycle to school from Yakima, WA to Walla Walla, WA.
His debut of public outspokenness was in 1954. The "Washington Post" wrote an editorial advocating the building of a road along a local canal. A 189 miles of canal.
Douglas was apoplectic. And as a member of the US Supreme Court, fired a letter back to WAPO and challenged their editors to walk the canal with him. After some haranguing, some did, for a few miles any way. Douglas walked all 189 miles. There is no road.
Whitman College sponsors an annual lecture in Associate Justice William O. Douglas's honor. I listened to that lecture tonight.
If hiking can heal the puniness and disease of a sick kid, hiking can help me reclaim a quickly deteriorating cardiovascular capacity. My doctor yells, pleads, prods. Begs me as as to what he can to do to get me to walk more.
Tonight, in that lecture, a question was asked, "what do you feel when you are out, alone, in the center of a forest?" Invariably, the answer is "God."
For Justice Douglas, that was his answer. For Thoreau and for Muir and Carson . . . that same existential essence. For the Native American . . . for certain . . . it was the Spiritual.
For Messianic Palin, its God's oil and it is his gift to Alaska . . . so by divine right, we must rape the spiritual essence of the Anwar Wilderness for millennia to come . . . so God's materialistic accolades can run their SUVs for a few more months. Today, in Washington, DC, horrified Appalachians protested the Obama Administration's willingness to allow short-term profits to proceed with Appalachian mountain-top-removal. The destruction of ecosystems of life for eternity . . . for the momentary pleasure of profit.
For me, I simply must hike.
There is a Spirit in that Wilderness . . . a soul-mate is waiting for me there.
The Refectory Manager
Somebody, in his Sunday School class told him if he would just get outside. Hike. He would be strengthened and healed.
And so he did. North of town. Hiked. Up a little peak. Next time, he said, he would do it without stopping.
And at the top of that excursion, next time, he said, he would do and whistle the whole way.
And his puniness fleshed out . . . and a passion for the nature and wilderness of those Cascade Mountains made him, an Associate Justice on the United States Supreme Court, have as his client, that unspeaking essence of natural wilderness.
He attended Whitman College. But he was so poor that he had to ride his bicycle to school from Yakima, WA to Walla Walla, WA.
His debut of public outspokenness was in 1954. The "Washington Post" wrote an editorial advocating the building of a road along a local canal. A 189 miles of canal.
Douglas was apoplectic. And as a member of the US Supreme Court, fired a letter back to WAPO and challenged their editors to walk the canal with him. After some haranguing, some did, for a few miles any way. Douglas walked all 189 miles. There is no road.
Whitman College sponsors an annual lecture in Associate Justice William O. Douglas's honor. I listened to that lecture tonight.
If hiking can heal the puniness and disease of a sick kid, hiking can help me reclaim a quickly deteriorating cardiovascular capacity. My doctor yells, pleads, prods. Begs me as as to what he can to do to get me to walk more.
Tonight, in that lecture, a question was asked, "what do you feel when you are out, alone, in the center of a forest?" Invariably, the answer is "God."
For Justice Douglas, that was his answer. For Thoreau and for Muir and Carson . . . that same existential essence. For the Native American . . . for certain . . . it was the Spiritual.
For Messianic Palin, its God's oil and it is his gift to Alaska . . . so by divine right, we must rape the spiritual essence of the Anwar Wilderness for millennia to come . . . so God's materialistic accolades can run their SUVs for a few more months. Today, in Washington, DC, horrified Appalachians protested the Obama Administration's willingness to allow short-term profits to proceed with Appalachian mountain-top-removal. The destruction of ecosystems of life for eternity . . . for the momentary pleasure of profit.
For me, I simply must hike.
There is a Spirit in that Wilderness . . . a soul-mate is waiting for me there.
The Refectory Manager
Labels: Associate Justice William O. Douglas, Health, inspiration, Short story, Spirituality, Wilderness
posted by The Refectory Manager | 1:36 AM
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