Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Still trying to figure it out...


Why is it that some people don't give a hoot about the environment?

I was going to whine about it, but I don't want to whine on this blog. I'll just say one thing for now:

I think it would be great if we could go up to a lake or stream and drink from it. It's not recommended in MN--even in the BWCAW. We have 15,000 lakes in MN. I wish we could make it a goal to be able to drink from lakes and streams without having to purify the water first.

Willa Cather

Just finished reading her book, O Pioneer. It was pretty good. I picked the book up after seeing a PBS special on her. I think she was maybe the first female Pulitzer prize winner. The book was about a turn-of-the-century woman who inherited a farm and made a go of it in tough times. I might want to read one of her other books...

I like that era--late 1800s early 1900s. Probably shouldn't be this way, but I wish I could go back in time and live in that era for a while. Before high tech took over. It probably was no picnic, but I'd still like to visit.

What spurred my interest in that era was several years ago reading a book by Elizabeth Cady Stanton. What I liked most about her story was her recollections of telling stories and playing with friends growing up in her childhood. She was competitive with the boys in probably every way and was dismayed when it came time for higher education and she was not expected and even discouraged from pursuing it. Of course, she wound up later in life on the speaker's circuit...