River Story: A New Path Ahead

By Rick Margl, Great River Coalition

RIVER STORY: A NEW PATH AHEAD

By Rick Margl, Great River Coalition

I was beginning to get the feeling that I’d messed up. After a long day meeting with local staff in Grand Rapids, I had decided there was enough daylight left to grab a quick run. Padding along on the highway shoulder, I came upon an interesting looking dirt road, took a quick turn on a whim and headed into the woods. You know how sometimes you turn onto an interesting trail, then another trail and then another? So, on I went, always expecting a clearing or a view of the town through a break in the dense foliage. At some point I realized that it was probably time to reverse route and head back to the motel.

But you know how trails and landmarks can look very different when you’re going in the other direction? My mind had been elsewhere as I ran and I was also unconcerned about losing my way, having over the years spent much time trekking in woods and along rivers. Now, victim to that self-confidence and inattention (yes, a dangerous combination), daylight was dimming around me while I investigated several likely looking but ultimately unhelpful trails. I began to contemplate the prospect of spending a night in the woods.

This memory came to me the other morning while I was out for an early ramble along the river. The woods are open now, with vistas all around which scant weeks before were unseen and unimaginable. The river, recently stippled with burnt orange, gold and scarlet leaves, now runs clear, quiet and cold between snowy banks. Shrubby alder, chokecherry, silver maple and young ironwood overhang the banks. Beneath slate gray skies, intermittent clouds of flurries drift through the bare branches like ghosts. Today, at least, I was in no danger of becoming lost.

Yet as I walked along, I contemplated how we all occasionally lose our way, not only individually but also collectively, as communities and entire societies. Obviously, we can go astray as I did on that long-ago evening, by thoughtlessly wandering about without compass, knowledge or (heaven forbid it nowadays) a cell phone. But we can also lose our way by mindlessly following well-established and once useful routes that are no longer advantageous, given the vagaries of our rapidly changing world.

In the concluding chapter of Walden, Henry Thoreau wrote, “The surface of the earth is soft and impressible by the feet of men; and so with the paths which the mind travels. How worn and dusty, then, must be the highways of the world, how deep the ruts of tradition and conformity!” For our own good, we should consider the possibility that much of our accepted wisdom is subject to a ‘shelf life’ in this evolving world. Why should it be surprising that new knowledge and facts could cause us to develop new answers and new directions that we can use to move our society towards broadly desirable goals? Recent polls report that only a small percentage of our fellow citizens are convinced that ‘the country is moving in the right direction’. No surprise there.

As I contemplated the darkening woods outside of Grand Rapids, I had a few options. Find a roost for the night, wander some more until nightfall, or acquire additional decision information. To use the trite phrase, I thought outside the box. More specifically, I gained a different perspective on the problem by climbing about thirty feet up a handy maple tree. At that height, I was sufficiently above the mass of foliage so that I could hear traffic passing on Highway 169. Armed with that new knowledge, I cut across country in that direction and emerged at the roadside before nightfall.

Sometimes you just have to set out in a direction of your own choosing, rather than blindly following the paths that tradition would dictate. What’s true for you and me is equally applicable for our society. Changing circumstances are best addressed through investigation, deliberation, decision and action. Inaction and acquiescence to the status quo might at some point bring disappointing or even tragic results.

Back when my sons were quite young and learning (sometimes grudgingly) how to be responsible for themselves, I would chide them with fatherly nuggets of wisdom when they fell short. My frequent admonition whenever they left a mess behind them was, “Don’t make it easy for the wolves to find you”. At a basic level, all of us are little entropy generators, converting order into randomness and waste as we live out our lives on this earth. As our world has become smaller and the detritus of our existence becomes increasingly apparent, those metaphorical wolves of consequence are emphatically snapping at our heels.

Strewn along the path behind us are animal and insect extinctions, rising and warming seas, increasing storm intensity, new disease vectors, crop failures and a long litany of other basic changes to the world and the environment that has sustained us until now. What to do about it? Well, that’s up to you. Perhaps make more thoughtful consumption (and disposition) decisions. With your time and other resources, support organizations that are developing solutions. Provide input to our government leaders about their plans. At a very primary level, as physicist Leo Szilard cautioned, “Do not destroy what you cannot create.”

Oh, and if you haven’t voted yet, please get it done. Speak out for the future of the Earth. Thank you.

The Great River Coalition is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization that advocates for preserving, protecting and promoting the historic, commercial and environmental significance of the Mississippi River, the City of Minneapolis and its relationship to the people and their communities.