Between One Red Lantern and Another

Oh hey, cold weather. Are you getting ready to freeze my hands solid for a full two seasons and turn me into a whimpering baby? Yeah? That's cool. I'll live. Batten down the hatches. I've taken to drying my hair for warmth. And listening to Bon Iver. Who needs circulation or decibels above a whisper? Not this girl.

Lantern in Missouri, looking out toward my friends.

But here's something that warms my heart (aww) (you'll never take this away from me, Weather!): Nick married another fantastic forester earlier this month. Double forest power! Ask him about the proposal sometime.

For the ceremony, Nick asked me to read this beautiful passage from Walt Whitman:

This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.

The two lil' lovebirches needed a proper gift, and I fortunately have some truly antique and personal items befitting our friendship. These past few months, I've helped clear out the house where my great-grandparents and I lived since 2000. I'd never seen this pair of old red lamps in Grampa's shed until last month, but I instantly knew where they belonged. After some work, of course.

First, I had to clean off the outside cobwebs and grime. Then accept the inner webs as "character." And finally, give a symbolic gift. Telling Nick and Megan to "keep a light on for each other," and "I'll keep a light on for you," I gave them a lantern and hung the other on my porch.

It's funny, that as I searched for a quote to write on their card, I came upon Aldo Leopold's essay, "Red Lanterns," from the October chapter. It could only have fit better if Mr. Leopold were writing about actual lanterns and not the red leaves of a blackberry bush. Or if the Mustoe wedding featured blackberries instead of lavender and wheat. But I digress. Their wedding was perfect (right down to the Midwest bouquets, homemade dress, and offbeat readings), and this coincidence was just perfect enough.

Nick and Megan's lantern in Arkansas.

Stanley Donwood and Spirits in the Forest

 I received an email last week from one Stanley Donwood. It was a newsletter he crafts every once in a while, and I always try to read them for A) artistic perspective and B) mention of Radiohead. Donwood has created all of the band's original artwork for nearly twenty years, which boggles my mind. Concert posters? Album sleeves? They grace several walls. I guess this makes me an art collector.

Anyway, this piece of mail caught my eye, for it not only touched on A and B, but stirred up item C, which lingers just as constantly in my mind: nature, forests, trees. He talks about an exhibit of paintings from his Holloway project, part of which emerged in Radiohead's The King of Limbs art. It's got me thinking about spirits we feel in the forest, if they should be feared, or revered, or both. Let's go with both.

The Next Step in Citizen Cartography

With Tina's recent post covering a different look at maps than we usually see and the Atlantic's article on OpenStreetMap and non-traditional cartographers entitled "What Happens When Everyone Makes Maps?" my mind has been filled with all the possibilities that exist today for citizen cartographers.

Disclaimer, I am a huge fan of OpenStreetMap. For those who are not familiar, the five second version is that OpenStreetMap does to mapping what Wikipedia did to encyclopedias. Imagine Google Maps where each bike path and fence line that someone has taken to the time to map makes its way to your eyeballs and you would have a pretty good idea of what it looks like for some areas of the world. Results may very. Again, this is a similarity it has with Wikipedia.