Some Simple Wisdom From a Wise Man

There are gloomy days in abundance on Barrett Ridge, and not all of them can be blamed on the weather. When the blues borne of too much winter and snow and too many budget woes loom, I often return to the Joseph Wood Krutch's essay On Being an Amateur Naturalist for some needed grounding. The following quote is particularly helpful:

I think what I have wanted most out of life is to find living itself rewarding. I'm sure that I have wanted that more than I wanted wealth or fame. As Thoreau said, I don't want to feel when I come to die that I have never lived. Like Thoreau again, I am inclined to say that I came into this world not primarily to make it a better place to live in, but to live in it be it good or bad....I haven't always been happy -- who has -- but I have usually been interested.

This passage has three key phrases that stay with me: "what I wanted most...is to find living...rewarding," then " I came into this world not to make it a better place...but to live in it be it good or bad," and "I have usually been interested." These can be boiled down (ever a tricky thing with Mr. Krutch's already spare and efficient prose) to: Find living itself rewarding, live in the world as it is, stay interested.

Not exactly words to inspire mental fireworks of inspiration are they? The effect can be rather flat, or maybe even frustrating. I mean really, if you aren't finding your life all that rewarding...just how do you go about making it so? And living in the world as it is sounds like great advice, but if the world isn't going along so well, then are you supposed to just accept that? Mighty passive way to live. Finally if you aren't finding much reward, and the world you find isn't much to admire, how are you supposed to stay interested?

Even so, I find true wisdom in that boiled down line. It's the kind that doesn't so much impel me to charge out and change the world, as it cautions me to stay the course. "Steady as she goes" is what I hear when I re-read Krutch's paragraph. I can choose to be frustrated, or I can choose to look beyond what's wrong for the rewards that lurk just out of sight, but not out of reach. Seeing the world as it is can be painful at times, but clear vision is the best tool for making the best out of less than perfect situations. And there are so many interesting things out there. One doesn't have to look all that deeply to find and enjoy them.

The trick here is to keep giving myself permission to look for the positive that lurks nearly everywhere.  Mr. Krutch did just that through his long and varied life. I count him as one of my wise men. But that's a topic for future posts.

(The essay, On Being an Amateur Naturalist and many other fine ones by Mr. Krutch can be found in The Best Nature Writing of Joseph Wood Krutch, University of Utah Press, ISBN 0-87480-480-9)