I need to get out in the mountains. How’s that for a follow-up to yesterday’s post on the non-open, non-agreeable, introverted but at least non-neurotic Alaskan personality?
Something happens when I get couped up for too long. We’ve been painting and doing chores and getting ready for winter around here. I’ve been tinkering with stories and writing reviews and thinking deep thoughts about the state of our nation. I’ve gotten out, but not for long. Not in a meaningful way.
I listen better in the mountains and the woods. Out there I rediscover the fundamental connection between voice and truth, the one that comes by way of deep grounding with the earth, the one that for me happens best in wild and rugged places.
Author Jennifer Hubbard has a great post on voice. It got me thinking about the truest Alaskan voices, especially now as we’re bombarded from the political arena with noises that are neither pleasing nor authentic.
Thanks be for writers like Dan O’Neill and Seth Kantner and Velma Wallace and a host of others whose voices ring true. And thanks be to my friend who invited me out to the mountains this weekend, where we can listen together and reflect on what’s true.