"If there is a future for wild things, then it is the burden of those who have reached farther than me, to save them for the rest of us. It will be done by those whose convictions were forged in campfires,
Bill"
Dad wrote this on the picture above which he gave to his good friend Jerry Thiessen a few years before he died. I've often wondered what it really means. It's so profound and I just wonder what dad was thinking when he wrote it. Maybe someday it will come to me. Maybe I'm trying to hard to decipher it.
I know dad had some premonitions. As it turned out, I think dad had a much bigger impact on the wildlife and our nation's natural resources than he ever dreamed he would.
Tomorrow we will get together as we always do on January 5th and remember dad and Conley. We'll take a minute to give them both a toast. I know he'll be there with us.
You were a great Game Warden...
That's a beautiful post, sis. I love that photo of him and Jerry, and the quote he wrote. It is so profound.
ReplyDelete28 years. Wow.
Thank you for that beautiful post. I love those pictures. The campfires were a big thing on his little excursions to the backcountry with Jerry or alone. They spoke of profound theories, how the department SHOULD be run, rules, regs and life . Many important ideas and happenings came about over those campfires, forged in the light of the flames.
ReplyDeleteI think Mom nailed it right there.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry I missed this anniversary. Don & I had been together a year when your dad was killed - Don wanted to finish college and become a Game Warden back in those days. It never happened. We were both deeply affected by that day on the Owyhee. Thank you for sharing your dad's Thoreau moment. And I think your mom nailed it, too.
ReplyDeleteWow. 28 years.