Listening to the Animals

It's been a while since I posted on any of the books I have been reading. One that is a remarkable book is The Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild by Craig Childs. Childs is a writer about nature and life in the great tradition of the irreplaceable Loren Eisely. He has a way of walking into encounters and places that open up revelations and insights. Most of us walk past these encounters in our lives and never pay them any attention. It is a writer like Childs (and Eisely) who do the looking and insight for us.

Childs, for example comes face to face with a mountain lion and becomes, for a moment, its prey and equal. Another time he wanders into a canyon following a raven and discovers a place of worship where no human would ever go or understand. He portrays the jumps and movements of mountain goats in a way that evokes their jumps and movements.

In his introduction to these 40 short pieces, Childs says these are not meant to be read in any order- or in any order you want. I would add they should be read with care and an eye open for the incredible and remarkable. He does not portray animals as human, but rather presents we humans as animals in the fullest and deepest sense of the word. He does not beautify nature but allows us to join him in discovering its reality.