View of Bouquet River falls from the Wadams library
Our pleasant holiday in the Adirondacks is drawing to a close.
One especially pleasant day was Essex Day (we live in Essex NY when staying up here). A local bookseller was touting “Wondering Home”, by Bill McKibbon, because it celebrates our very neighborhood here in the wonderful North Country as these parts are called.
Wandering Home tells of the author’s journey mostly by foot across the wilds of Vermont and New York, where the author makes his home. He tells of the wilds and how the modest and rampant developments are altering our nearby and earthly environments with eloquence, humor, and seriousness. I would be happy to loan that book to my friends.
Bill McKibbon made his mark as a writer for the New Yorker and as author of the revered and disparaged 1989 “End of Nature”. I borrowed a copy of the book from the local Wadams library with the author’s inscription. The book defines nature, the various ways we value nature, and how the nature we love is ending. The book draws from the author’s rich background in literature and the essay quoting Abby, Thoreau, Muir, and others, and of course adding his own insights. Viewing the book through the lens 2009 lends special significance, especially as he leaves us with this question: "If the next twenty years see us pump ever more [global-warming] gas into the sky, and if it sees us take irrevocable steps into the genetically engineered future, what solace then?"
