40 years of what all of us are doing anyway

Of guerrilla war (or open combat, depending) with mice and porcupines.

Of felling trees and stoking fires.

Of canoeing, fishing, shooting, hiking and hammocking.

Of campfire conversation.

Of reconnecting with moonrises, with sunlight dancing on the soul.

Of the soothing soughing of wind-rustled leaves, the consuming speech of pattering rain in the woods.

Most discovery is rediscovery; the trick is what one emphasizes.

Extensive nature reading there has elicited mountains of commendable quotes. Among the best are this one describing the cabin - from J.R.R. Tolkien...

"Elrond's house was perfect, whether you liked food or sleep or story-telling or singing (or reading), or just sitting and thinking best, or a pleasant mixture of them all. Merely to be there was a cure for weariness. ... Evil things did not come into the secret valley of Rivendell."

...And this one, ostensibly about fishing yet really about immersion in middle-of-nowhere Nature - from Robert Traver, of "Anatomy of a Murder" fame:

"I fish because I love to. Because I love the environs where trout are found, which are invariably beautiful, and hate the environs where crowds of people are found, which are invariably ugly. Because of all the television commercials, cocktail parties, and assorted social posturing I thus escape. Because in a world where most men seem to spend their lives doing what they hate, my fishing is at once an endless source of delight and an act of small rebellion. Because trout do not lie or cheat and cannot be bought or bribed, or impressed by power, but respond only to quietude and humility, and endless patience. Because I suspect that men are going this way for the last time and I for one don't want to waste the trip. Because mercifully there are no telephones on trout waters. Because in the woods I can find solitude without loneliness. ... And finally, not because I regard fishing as being so terribly important, but because I suspect that so many of the other concerns of men are equally unimportant and not nearly so much fun."

Upon lowering the drawbridge and returning to civilization one finds ... the same old same-old: unfun combat of various deadly sorts about everything from the Middle East and the Ten Commandments to nonprescription drug coverage and denominational blessing of homosexual unions. And millions enduring the rigors of electrical blackout.

Forty years at the cabin remind that blackout can bring with it the rediscovery of abundant virtues. And all of us - that's ALL of us - really are just camping out anyway.