[Paddlewise] Soul of the Sport

>
>From the new Patagonia catalog, a piece worth quoting for
>all on this list to ponder a bit.  Where they say rivers, we might think
of all the waters we paddle.
>
>"THE SOUL OF THE SPORT"
>"Of all nature's glories, rivers exert a powerful force on the imagination
>and the spirit. Rivers permeate our language, our stories, our metaphors.
>Nothing else draws us quite like the revelations we find in flowing waters.
> These days thousands of people, for an equal number of reasons, grab paddle
>or oar and set their boats downriver. For many, wild waters are a source of
>exhilaration, a match of muscle and skill to liquid thunder and foam. Others
>seek tranquillity or the pleasures gained from knowing the local rocks,
>plants and creatures. However, veteran boaters are concerned about an
>increasing number of river users who are "illiterate." For this group a wild
>place is simply an exotic backdrop for other agendas; environment is not as
>important as a fixation on gadgetry or goals that reach no farther than
>miles made, rapids bagged, bodies buffed. In the words of one river guide,
>"When a river is treated purely as a playground rather than a natural
>organism, it loses its protectors."
>America's waters are not in good shape. The lexicon of ailing streams is
>lengthy and alarming. Laws and bureaucracies perpetuate the paradigm that
>flowing water is the slave of economic gain and political whim, a commodity
>rather than a paragon of creation. A large number of dams, or the reasons
>for them, are aging. A disproportionate share of endangered species are
>aquatic and riparian. The rivers we run can be called "free flowing" only by
>a long stretch. More likely they are remnants of drastically altered habitat
>wedged between massive mechanisms of watershed control.". . . .
>    On dry land or in the water, the soul of every sport begins with place.
>Be responsible for what you love. Support a conservation group; start your
>own. Become literate in the languages of the river - the intimate engagement
>with place and the words to defend it. These waters not only give us
>pleasure, they give us life. "


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