Rides, ramblings and rants on a motorcycle.
- We are scientists, too!
1.04.2015,11:24 AM
Retirement Career
My life has taken on a new meaning since volunteering at the national wildlife refuges. A new mission that is more productive, rewarding and self-satisfying. I'm broke, homeless, and I love it.
For the past six years, our current global trends have depressed me. The rapid loss of natural diversity and the spiraling decline in connections between humans and their environment, the lack of compassion between people themselves and with other creatures, a prevailing disconnect and abuse of power by public officials and policies. The growing corporatization of higher education and science while sacrificing quality teaching and research was the final clincher.
I fled from the Empire. I left academia to fight at the grassroots level.To lend a voice to those creatures whose plights are disregarded by humans. And to help people become aware and more appreciative of the intrinsic and moral values in their environments. My mission is to help people better understand their environment and to establish meaningful connections with nature.
My life is very now different from the last several decades. In some sense, it is reminiscent of my years in Maine when connections with the land and wildlife were the strongest. Shedding most of the personal burdens that anchored me like a chain the past ten years has simplified and lightened my life. The sacrifice of personal possessions and commitments for a nomadic and simpler lifestyle suits me well. Indeed, I haven't been this happy in almost 10 years.
Now I travel around the country to live and work at the national and state refuges. I share my interests and knowledge of natural and cultural history with visitors. I also help the ecologists and biologists with my varied skills in the life sciences. My reward is spending time with the wildlife and visiting natural areas, and sharing many wonders of natural science with visitors.
Traveling offers opportunities to experience not only a large diversity of wildlife, but also meet a wide diverse sampling of our own species. What amazes me is the people that come to the refuges from all over the world. I've met people from Canada, Argentina, Switzerland, Netherlands, Israel, England, Scotland, South Africa, Italy, Australia, and France.
Additionally, people from my past have resurfaced in many places, such as a woman from my hometown 44 years ago and a former colleague from 17 years ago. I have also had the opportunity to reconnect with old friends and spend time with family members.
The most precious experiences are those gained from immersing myself in the surrounding wild nature of life. I had an eye-to-eye encounter with a juvenile bald eagle twelve feet from
me, chats with ravens, songbirds sit on my shoulder, frequent sightings of a local cougar, delight at the play of an otter family, and watching behavior of many birds as they live out their lives. What they share with me, I try to share with others.
Opportunities to spend time in fantastic wild areas frequently fills my free time. Camping for days on Steens Mountain in eastern Oregon, hiking miles in the painted deserts of Oregon and Arizona, spending two nights at the base of towering cliff and alkaline lake with no humans within miles, and smelling the musky scent at my feet of bighorn sheep was I stood on a rim gazing thousands of feet below. I gladly trade the conveniences of cafes and supermarkets for these experiences.
The world is fantastic, marvelous and beautiful out there. I am glad to break out of the small, trivial and many times petty world that was chocking and suffocating me.
For the past six years, our current global trends have depressed me. The rapid loss of natural diversity and the spiraling decline in connections between humans and their environment, the lack of compassion between people themselves and with other creatures, a prevailing disconnect and abuse of power by public officials and policies. The growing corporatization of higher education and science while sacrificing quality teaching and research was the final clincher.
I fled from the Empire. I left academia to fight at the grassroots level.To lend a voice to those creatures whose plights are disregarded by humans. And to help people become aware and more appreciative of the intrinsic and moral values in their environments. My mission is to help people better understand their environment and to establish meaningful connections with nature.
My life is very now different from the last several decades. In some sense, it is reminiscent of my years in Maine when connections with the land and wildlife were the strongest. Shedding most of the personal burdens that anchored me like a chain the past ten years has simplified and lightened my life. The sacrifice of personal possessions and commitments for a nomadic and simpler lifestyle suits me well. Indeed, I haven't been this happy in almost 10 years.
Now I travel around the country to live and work at the national and state refuges. I share my interests and knowledge of natural and cultural history with visitors. I also help the ecologists and biologists with my varied skills in the life sciences. My reward is spending time with the wildlife and visiting natural areas, and sharing many wonders of natural science with visitors.
Traveling offers opportunities to experience not only a large diversity of wildlife, but also meet a wide diverse sampling of our own species. What amazes me is the people that come to the refuges from all over the world. I've met people from Canada, Argentina, Switzerland, Netherlands, Israel, England, Scotland, South Africa, Italy, Australia, and France.
Additionally, people from my past have resurfaced in many places, such as a woman from my hometown 44 years ago and a former colleague from 17 years ago. I have also had the opportunity to reconnect with old friends and spend time with family members.
The most precious experiences are those gained from immersing myself in the surrounding wild nature of life. I had an eye-to-eye encounter with a juvenile bald eagle twelve feet from
me, chats with ravens, songbirds sit on my shoulder, frequent sightings of a local cougar, delight at the play of an otter family, and watching behavior of many birds as they live out their lives. What they share with me, I try to share with others.Opportunities to spend time in fantastic wild areas frequently fills my free time. Camping for days on Steens Mountain in eastern Oregon, hiking miles in the painted deserts of Oregon and Arizona, spending two nights at the base of towering cliff and alkaline lake with no humans within miles, and smelling the musky scent at my feet of bighorn sheep was I stood on a rim gazing thousands of feet below. I gladly trade the conveniences of cafes and supermarkets for these experiences.
The world is fantastic, marvelous and beautiful out there. I am glad to break out of the small, trivial and many times petty world that was chocking and suffocating me.
This is my new life as a nomad. And this is my new retirement 'career': to help foster and nurture connections between people and wildlife, to rejuvenate compassion. My optimism is encouraged by the dedication and commitment of those people working in wildlife services, especially with dwindling budgets. I am glad to see the growing number of academic and field ecologists and biologists finally speak out in kind. I hope this is a growing strength. We need more on the side of nature.
And for me, e non ho amato mai tanto la vita.
Labels: Adventures, essays, Traveling, wildlife refuges
5.30.2014,7:58 PM
FREEDOM!!!!
"Out of sight, out of mind.......
since I've been gone,
I can breath for the first time!"
Labels: Adventures, Oregon, Traveling
12.05.2013,8:06 PM
Remembrances of Christmases Past
My last Christmas (2012) was probably the worst one I remember. For several personal reasons, which will remain silent. As the season grows nearer, I find myself lapsing into a subtle state of "No, please. Not again." Little Voice under the covers wants to poke the bad memories and I try to keep it in a box with the cover pressed tightly down.
Then I happened upon an old post I wrote from a good year; 2009. I think a few readers might even remember that week and the festivities. Including a fortuitous stranger we met that week, who, with his family in Indiana, have become good friends through the years.
As I reread this post, I smiled. And the Little Voice is stuffed back in a box, buried in a hole and quieted.
In Big Bend speed and time constantly change. From the perspective of an urbanite, they both slow way down. Almost seeming to crawl or stop. To someone living here, they are merely fluid; they change all the time from very slow to flashing fast. How we see time and speed is related to what the human lenses are used to. Just remember the lenses are attached to a brain, one chock full of past experiences and expectations. It's all relative.
Here days prescribed with special meanings in the bigger world take on new meanings or none at all. Unlike the clock hung on the wall, a wrist or on a cell phone, our societies attach additional significance to certain days of the year. Along with this are specific rituals, ceremonies, and conventions. These, too, are used to measure time, speed, and each other. But in remote and isolated areas like parts of Big Bend, all those can fall away, be reconstructed with new meanings, or renewed with the origins of old meanings.
Over the decades this prescribed Holiday lost its meaning for me. To the point where I dreaded it and fled from it. The only meaning left for me was my daughter. Possibly because she represented the innocence and the goodness in the original meanings of the Holiday. It was a reason to rejoice and share.
Now that she is an adult with her own world, I find remnants of that in Big Bend and sharing it with a small group of people. Between us and for a small period of time, they become my family. All the modern trappings driven by consumerism fall away, the stress driven by work and family expectations, the harried traffic and impatient race are left behind. Even though I abandoned all that many years ago, to watch others be beaten down by it always disturbed me. Here, it is absent. Here, we share peace and good-will toward each other.
For me, the ideal of the Christmas holiday spirit is revived. I know it is completely contrived, but that adds to the enjoyment: we choose to make it this way.
Original source is a blog site from 2009: Desert Rats 2009. By yours truly.
Then I happened upon an old post I wrote from a good year; 2009. I think a few readers might even remember that week and the festivities. Including a fortuitous stranger we met that week, who, with his family in Indiana, have become good friends through the years.
As I reread this post, I smiled. And the Little Voice is stuffed back in a box, buried in a hole and quieted.
Christmas Eve Day
Time is a human construction. Although two arrows revolving around a center point are used to measure it, as we humans seem obsessed with measuring everything down to its smallest denominator, time is relative. Einstein offered a theory for Denominatorists to understand and accept, but it really is very simple. Time, speed and the observer are integral to the equation. Nor are there any real rules. Because they change as well. In time and speed. And the observer.In Big Bend speed and time constantly change. From the perspective of an urbanite, they both slow way down. Almost seeming to crawl or stop. To someone living here, they are merely fluid; they change all the time from very slow to flashing fast. How we see time and speed is related to what the human lenses are used to. Just remember the lenses are attached to a brain, one chock full of past experiences and expectations. It's all relative.
Here days prescribed with special meanings in the bigger world take on new meanings or none at all. Unlike the clock hung on the wall, a wrist or on a cell phone, our societies attach additional significance to certain days of the year. Along with this are specific rituals, ceremonies, and conventions. These, too, are used to measure time, speed, and each other. But in remote and isolated areas like parts of Big Bend, all those can fall away, be reconstructed with new meanings, or renewed with the origins of old meanings.
Over the decades this prescribed Holiday lost its meaning for me. To the point where I dreaded it and fled from it. The only meaning left for me was my daughter. Possibly because she represented the innocence and the goodness in the original meanings of the Holiday. It was a reason to rejoice and share.
Now that she is an adult with her own world, I find remnants of that in Big Bend and sharing it with a small group of people. Between us and for a small period of time, they become my family. All the modern trappings driven by consumerism fall away, the stress driven by work and family expectations, the harried traffic and impatient race are left behind. Even though I abandoned all that many years ago, to watch others be beaten down by it always disturbed me. Here, it is absent. Here, we share peace and good-will toward each other.
For me, the ideal of the Christmas holiday spirit is revived. I know it is completely contrived, but that adds to the enjoyment: we choose to make it this way.
Original source is a blog site from 2009: Desert Rats 2009. By yours truly.
7.15.2013,6:59 PM
New 'home'
Drove to Ohio and bought a used 26' travel trailer today. A smaller and lighter version of the previous one. No more sleeping on sister's couch. Having a domicile again will be most welcomed. And I will have two months to spruce it up before heading back to Texas in October.
Labels: Traveling