The first revelatory novel of my teen years was Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I haven't read it in years, but I came back to it several times in my twenties and I really should delve into it again. Huck and Jim float down the river and on the way the white boy discovers that the black man is a person. The racism he has bathed and swum in through his young life made no sense and was immoral. Huck decides that he will "swim against the current" even though he had been taught that this is a sin which would lead to eternal damnation.
The river of Huckleberry Finn was the mighty Mississippi, a river which is much different than the waterway of 125 years ago. While the river is still used for commerce -- billions of dollars worth per year -- it has been drying up as drought affects it and its tributaries. The Army Corps of Engineers is using every means to both deepen the river and raise water levels, but without rainful it is a losing battle. The giant barges must carry lighter loads or run aground.
Isn't it sobering that once again the resources we assume will be around forever and impervious to change because of their size and abundance are finite and fragile? In a way the new story is that we need to be awakened to the oppression of nature itself, something akin to racism.
I have never seen the Mississippi -- have you? Any thoughts about what is happening here?
You read Huck Finn in your late 30's too when you read it to me :-) I had just downloaded it to my Kindle a few weeks back. Actually that was just one of a few good books about boys encountering the natural world that we read together: "The Pond" "Rascal" "Hatchet" "Dog Runner" I think Mom read me "My side of the mountain" . I'm sending a theme!
ReplyDeleteThank you for refreshing my memory. The Pond was wonderful. Where's my grandchild?
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