Favorite 2012 Olympic Athletes

Pictured from top down:
Allyson Felix - US 100m, 200m, 4x100 relay, 4x400 relay
Sandra Izbasa - Romania gymnastics
Usain Bolt - Jamaica 100m, 200m, 4x100 relay
Jessica Ennis - Great Britain heptathlon
Kirani James - Grenada, with Oscar Pistorius - South Africa 400m
Yordan Yovchev - Bulgaria gymnastics
Michael Phelps - US swimming
Hope Solo - US soccer
Sanya Richards-Ross - US 200m, 400m, 4x400 relay

By far my favorite sporting event, I can remember watching the Olympics from as far back as the 1972 Munich games.  Favorite athletes from the past that I can remember this moment without checking spelling: Mark Spitz, Olga Korbett, Sugar Ray Leonard, Bruce Jenner (before scary face-lifts), Edwin Moses, Mary Lou Retton, Greg Louganis, Mahre brothers, Eddie the Eagle, Magic Johnson, Vasili Alexiev, Dorothy Hamill, Michael Johnson, Sean White.  My favorite moment was Ali lighting the torch at Salt Lake City.

Life of a Bear

Just returned from the now-annual trip to my friend Hannah's wilderness lodge in northern British Columbia.  It's 12 1/2 hours of driving each way (now faster with new truck) to Smithers and an hour each way in a float plane.  The physical work wasn't as tough this year, but trying to smooth things out between two people who don't get along well was taxing in its own way at times.

Summer is my time to do the kind of out-there thinking that I don't seem to be able to get around to during the school year.So the question, lately?  How did I end up where I'm at?  Teaching middle school?  Living in Bellingham?  Flying into the bush in B.C to clear trails, fix cabins, chop wood, and fish?

My last day of fishing at the camp I came face-to-face with a grizzly.  This got me to thinking, I've kind of lived life like a bear, just kind of following my nose.  I know it's popular to speak of goals and goal-setting, and I've done that to a certain extent at times, but most of the time I've just gone off after interests that I just felt like doing and I've done my best to avoid stuff I didn't want to do. 

This kind of living hasn't brought me huge monetary success or a big, happy, family life, but what the hell, it's been a pretty decent and rewarding journey.  I've never quite fit in with the cul-de-sac commandos, nor have I totally lived the life of the fun-seeking vagabond.

My path has led to a rewarding and challenging career of 24 years and counting, it's led me to some interesting long-term and short-term friendships, it's led me to some of the most beautiful places on the planet, and it's produced a philosophy of a deep reverence for the natural world and a deep cynicism of politicians, advertisers, and modern bullshit in general.

The downside is that it seems I have to keep on relearning stuff over the years.  Also, I have not exactly been a pillar of self-discipline.

Right now the nose keeps leading me to intertwine my love of nature and my teaching career.  I'm not really looking to do a hug-a-tree environmental school, but more a pursuit of bringing a greater nature element to the curriculum at school.  I think it's become my way of trying to help the kids battle the giant illusion that this techno craze is creating.  The kids still find tremendous joy in being active with one another outdoors.  I want to give them as many opportunities for that kind of joy as possible.  Plant the seed, so to speak, so these kids will care for their natural world when it's their turn to rule it.

Confessions of a Conversational and Political Idiot

Awhile back, I decided it would be a good idea to become more involved in some local environmental issues beyond just sending in the annual check to some of my favorite causes.  I've been kind of easing into it by doing some field work with the kids at school and putting in some time with some local folks who are already involved with trying to turn around our declining runs of local salmon and steelhead.

My lack of political knowledge has become hugely apparent, at least to me, and probably a few of the people I've been hanging around with.  I sat in on a meeting today of the American Alps Legacy Project.  This is an organization whose goal is to expand the North Cascades National Park into some areas that should have already been included in the park when it was formed in 1968.  A worthwhile endeavor, for sure.

One of the people I had a chance to meet was Polly, a woman in her nineties who has been involved in environmental advocacy for over fifty years.  She and her late husband John were instrumental in forming the very first Sierra Club chapter in Washington.  Polly told me a story of how she and her first husband met in Alaska during WWII.  So how often do you get a chance to have a conversation with someone with this kind of life history and is completely clear-thinking at that age?  I was at a loss for words or questions.  Same yesterday, when I was sitting down with Rawhide, the father of a close friend of mine.  Rawhide (yes, that's his legal name) was one of the first smoke-jumpers in the world.  He was also a seasonal ranger in Yosemite and the Tetons during the fifties, sixties, and seventies.  And yet there I was again at a loss for words and questions.

I just absolutely suck at conversation, and not just small talk.  And later I always think of a ton of things I would have liked to have said or asked.