Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
QOTD: The Forest Service vs Your Soul
“The Forest Service is worse than the Internal Revenue Service. Those Revenue fellows are only after the money, while our Feds are running a fulltime all-out campaign for your soul.”
That’s a quote from A River Went Out of Eden by Chana B. Cox, @iwe’s mother. I got a Kindle copy after @iwe told us about it back on March 6 in Crazy Things My Parents Did.
I had an entirely different quote picked out until I came across this one today, near the end of the book. I thought it might be helpful in understanding some of the more bizarre behaviors of our government in dealing with Coronavirus. Perhaps the comparison will become more obvious if I quote a few more explanatory paragraphs:
It’s one thing to be photographed by the FBI, to have your phone conversations monitored by the CIA, or to be hounded by the IRS. It is quite another thing to have to put up with all of these things from Smokey the Bear. There is just no dignity in it. How do you tell your friends you are being harassed by the Department of Agriculture? What possible glory is there in fighting Smokey the Bear?We are always being caught in some sort of Catch 22. For example, we live in a technically uninhabited area, so it follows that we do not really exist. I kid you not. The logic is impeccable.Since we do not exist, it follows that the Feds cannot be spying on us. And so on.
And what possible glory is there in defying the authorities to walk through the flooring aisle at Lowe’s? And what does it profit a man to acquiesce to nonsensical words about “essential” and “non-essential” and lose his own soul in the process? Quarantines are one thing and are sometimes necessary. The nonsense we are expected to repeat is something entirely different.
Several Ricochetti s have already read Chana Cox’s book, but I hate to give any of the rest of you the impression that the book is political. You can be assured that politics is left in its proper place. But I don’t know how to do justice to it. I am closer to the generation of @iwe’s parents than to @iwe, so the idea of the two parents-to-be going off to live in a place where there was no electricity or running water is not completely foreign to me. I’ve known crazy people myself. And the inhabitants of their uninhabited place are fascinating, from Sylvan the mountain man (and uncle of Chana’s husband), to Houston (who observed that horses do sex differently than humans–they play around first), to the chickies, and to the workers who figured that when the boss man and boss lady weren’t “working” (working with paper and books didn’t count, to their way of thinking) that it was time for them to knock off for the day, too.
I highly recommend the book, and now want to get back to it and finish it.
Published in Group Writing
This is right out of the federal bureaucrats lexicon. Most Americans won’t recognize the concept. When there is no budgetary appropriation for the federal government, the employees are designated “essential” or “non-essential’, more or less based on work functions that actually deliver a product or service for the people versus those who spend their days making up rules for your behavior. Those designated “essential” continue working, those designated “non-essential” are furloughed, all are paid for that period of time when funding is appropriated by Congress, about as non-sensical process as most people can recognize as existing in the real world of commerce.
The Congress should make up the rules, not the Swamp!
Join other Ricochet members by submitting a Quote of the Day post, the easiest way to start a fun conversation. There are only 3 days left on the April Signup Sheet. We even include tips for finding great quotes, so choose your favorite quote and sign up today!
I am delighted for this review – thank you! Note that the book is also available as an audio book, read by Yours Truly – sample here. Amazon reviews are also most welcome!
I forgot to mention that the Kindle version is only $2. It’s cheap at twice the price. I’m sure it would be worth getting the audio version to hear iWe’s voice, though. The style of writing lends itself to be read aloud.
Seems to me there are other things I forgot to mention, too.
“And what possible glory is there in defying the authorities to walk through the flooring aisle at Lowe’s?”
Its not glamorous. But there is a quiet dignity in the person doing so. It is good for the soul. I recommend it!
Well, here’s something. As I often do when reading a story like this, I went snooping on Google Maps to see the place at Five Mile Bar on the Salmon River. The book has a helpful map that got me started, so I figured I wasn’t intruding too much. From satellite view it looks like the settlement may be a little busier now than when the Cox’s lived there, but it’s hard to say. There were more boats at the landing place than I would have expected. It looks like the road still terminates across the river from their home. And the Google Street View camera has not made its way along it; otherwise I may have gotten a look from across the river. But if the road is still anything like the one shown in a photo in the book, it may not be the kind of place where a Google Street View driver would dare go.
Somebody did take a photo for Google Maps, though. I don’t know if any of the buildings you can see are ones that Chana Cox talked about in her book. (That link actually takes one to a set of photos, including one of the gravestone of @iWe’s great-uncle.)
One thing is striking about the photo: The garden hose running out to the garden. Despite being right next to a river, water for cooking and bathing, much less for watering the garden, was very hard to come by when the Cox’s lived there.
“Whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting over.” – Attributed to Mark Twain.
Water rights are sacrosanct out west.
It’s an amazing book! I’m reading it, savoring it, for the second time. I can’t begin to imagine seeking that lifestyle, but for many years they lived it with relish and joy. This time the book included letters written and photos that make it even more special.
Home improvement stores is where home owners dream.
When I was a child on our farm in the Wyoming Rocky Mountains, we’d lose our electricity often enough that my mom kept oil lamps filled and ready. We also lost our running water many winters for a period of time because it would get so cold that the pipes froze. It was always obnoxious. I felt like I lived in a civilized area, however, I guess we were “survivalists” in the sense that we had to work every day to survive. But, I would never have consider choosing that life-style deliberately as an adult. Hmmm…to each his own.