I notice two paired specks skittering around the page. The bigger one is actually a hazy shadow, thrown by my booklight as it illuminates the meanderings of a bug so tiny that only a magnifying glass would reveal its features. The bug itself is smaller than the "i" in the print of the word "porcupine."
I'm reading an essay by Pam Houston, "Looking for Abbey's Lion." She's talking about her wilderness experiences, about how the call of imagination can override reality. I can relate to that.
The bug moves. I can't say it crawls, since it is so tiny that I see no legs--just an eighth-inch dark line dragging a fuzzy shadow two or three times its size. Up and down the page it goes, heedlessly highlighting a hodgepodge of words--"pine trees," "complicated," "timberwolf," "stumbled," "ptarmigan." Not a very organized reader!
Suddenly it jumps? flies? It has no visible means of disappearance, but it's gone. Whoops, now it's back on the facing page. How did it get there? But wherever it goes, it brings its shadow for company. Is it looking for something to eat? I can't imagine what it can find between the pages of a book that are opened only for a brief period at night. But, then, I guess a bug that tiny can make dinner on some very small specks.
Now, I could go on and try to find something profound in all this, try to squeeze out a meaningful lesson from a little bug with a big shadow. Or I could just relax and enjoy the experience. I think I'll do that.
But I do appreciate the essay, so I resolve to look up Pam Houston.
And here she is!
What do you know?! I find that she is a local gal--for at least part of each year. She is the director of the creative writing program at UC Davis (right next door here to Sacramento), flying back and forth between Davis, her home in Colorado, and a full schedule of worldwide adventuring.
To top it all off, I see that our local paper, The Sacramento Bee, ran an interview with her less than a year ago. I'm sure that I read it, but somehow it didn't stick with me. Darn! I don't remember everything I read! Does that ever happen to you?
Just in case you are a nature lover who likes to follow up on any interesting leads, the book containing Houston's story is Sisters of the Earth, 2nd edition, published April, 1991.
You can even find the essay, "Looking for Abbey's Lion," if you click here.
Scroll down to the third section in the list of contents and you'll find it under the heading, "Her Wildness." "Abbey" is Edward Abbey of Monkey Wrench Gang fame. So, if you are a lover of the outdoors, of the wild things within us and around us, you will love this little gem.
As for me, I don't know that I would trade my little bug for Abbey's lion. A real live bug on a page at the right time might be worth even more than a mountain lion in the wild. And, for sure, I've lived to tell about it.
