LEAVING MARKS ON THE EARTH

In August, the Portland area Lutheran church softball season culminates in a two day tournament at Meldrum Bar Park. Church softball can be distinguished from other forms of softball by the ritual group prayer that opposing team members participate in together before they try to beat the hell out of each other.

The typical prayer format:

General thanksgiving for nice weather
Vague promise to enjoy fellowship
Petition for injury free play

As with most prayer, the recognition of answers requires active and imaginative interpretation.

There’s really nothing like sliding in shorts (except maybe falling off a motorcycle) to set up the circumstances that will showcase the miracle of self-repairing skin.

Softball, with its rules and regulations, is rich with metaphors and analogies that can be applied to life in this universe.

In the following dialogue from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, commander Sisko explains our linear existence with a baseball metaphor.

JAKE ALIEN

"Baseball" - what is this?

SISKO

I was afraid you'd ask that...

A beat... How the hell do you explain baseball to an alien... he takes a deep breath, well, here goes...

SISKO

I throw the ball to you... and this other player stands between us with a bat, a stick... and he... he tries to hit the ball in between these two white lines...

Commander Sisko with antique baseball copyright Paramount Pictures

Jake alien blinks with confusion, Sisko pauses... regroups... getting another idea... his delivery growing with confidence as he continues...

SISKO

The rules aren't important... what's important is -- it's linear. Every time you throw this ball a hundred different things can happen in the game... he might swing and miss, he might hit it... the point is you never know... you try to anticipate, set a strategy for all the possibilities as best you can... but in the end it all comes down to throwing one pitch after another... and seeing what happens. With each new consequence, the game begins to take shape...

BATTER ALIEN

(grasping the meaning)

And you have no idea what that shape is until it is completed...

SISKO

(beat)

That's right. In fact, the game wouldn't be worth playing if we knew what was going to happen.

JAKE ALIEN

(flabbergasted)

You value your ignorance of what is to come?

SISKO

(acknowledges, driving home his point)

That may be the most important thing to understand about humans. It is the unknown that defines our existence. We are constantly searching... not just for answers to our questions... but for new questions.

Script from DS9 pilot episode Emissary

Sometimes I get caught up in trying to figure out the title (the shape) to my story. Even more, I’d like to have some reassurance that it’s going to be a good story. But I guess all you can really do is take time out every once in a while and look at the tracks you’ve made so far.

One day, we’ll be gone, and all that will be left is the evidence of how we played.

It’s good to be reminded sometimes that you just can’t be afraid to get dirty.

Dirt Angels

Shaman at work

Test Paddling the Thresher 140

Wilderness Systems has broadened their sit-on-top offerings this year with the introduction of the Thresher (this includes a 14 and 15.5 foot version). The Thresher seems designed to bridge a gap between overly stable, relatively slow fishing platforms and sleeker more touring-orientated craft, all for the sake of fisher-people who need to cover significant distances to reach their intended fishing locales, whether that's in the middle of a huge bay or out beyond the breakers in the open sea The characteristics that make this boat a good fishing option, should also make it a killer expedition photography platform/beer barge. I knew my test trials wouldn't be complete until I auditioned this state of the art bid for kayak fishing supremacy. The Thresher 140 I've probably been remiss for not highlighting this before, but the reason I've been able to rent and evaluate various sit-on-top kayaks is because of the reasonable and renter friendly policies of the ...

Miller Island Expedition: Columbia River Ghost Cult

My brother Fred sent me a checklist of things he didn’t want to forget for our second attempt at a Miller Island Expedition. Foil pans Steak Beer or whiskey/tequila Bacon Shovel TP Bug spray Homebrew Ghost repellents Scouting Miller Island from the Lewis and Clark Highway (Washington side of river) “Ghost repellents?” I asked. Well, it turns out that Fred had been doing some research and found an old article from American Anthropologist by Wm. Duncan Strong called The Occurrence and Wider Implications of a “Ghost Cult” on the Columbia River Suggested by Carvings in Wood, Bone and Stone. The article, written in 1945, revealed that bone carvings depicting figures with prominent rib cages, a symbol of death, were found in old cremation pits on Miller’s Island. Excerpts from the article: “It can be shown that among these peoples there was an old belief in the impending destruction and renewal of the world, when the dead would return…” “One of the most striking fea...

John Day River: Thirty Mile Creek to Cottonwood Bridge

"Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse;" -Romans 1:20 "I'm not so sure about that, but whether or not we all make it through these rapids alive, I'm confident the grading criteria will be fair." - Scott "Get ready to explore your world without boundaries." - Wilderness Systems Owners Manual Sunrise found us on the outskirts of Wasco, high on the Columbia Plateau, our 3 vehicle convoy speeding through golden fields of wheat on toward Condon and then West to a 7:30 AM meeting with a rancher who would provide us a private launch site to the John Day river and also execute our car shuttle. Startling verdant fields, free of the vestiges of irrigation, belied narratives of drought that punctuated the news. The fresh born morning, still cool to the senses, felt like the fledgling hours of a...

The Narrative Image

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