19 Aug, 2011
The summer sun is constant while cotton clouds cast shifting shadows on the mountains and prairies of western Montana. Structures aging and ageless tell the stories of fortunes made and lost while oscillating between working with and taking from the land. Modern day prospectors float down cool streams in search of the precious trout panned at the end of a gossamer dream. Saloons still bind the countryside. Tourists drift from park to park. Vacation ranchers wave soft hands to calloused neighbors. But the solitude is friendly to all.
I spent a few days following the Blackfoot River, which was popularized by the book and film "A River Runs Through It." Today, that popularity translates to a density of guided rafts rowing tourists downstream to chase down dwindling populations of trout (see article below). Follow me, and I will make you fishers of trout... Lots of talk of fishing in God's country. Anyway, this river ran through my route, and I was happy to have its company.
Some people call this God’s Country. I both intuit what they mean and question it. What is it about this country that stimulates such a term? Is it the shifting landscape with peaks and valleys that draw our attention away from ourselves? Is it the comfort of land blessed with brilliant growth in the short period of warmth? Or the grandeur of the seasons? The untamable landscape? Is it the absence of human imprint? Perhaps it’s the solitude of sitting in relationship with land that is both with you and beyond you. Whatever it is, the divine mystery is more immediate for many in these places.
I got to Paradise a little earlier than anticipated. Turns out everybody's welcome.
In God's country, there's a friendly river flowing right through downtown with plenty of people out having fun.
There's plenty of free outdoor music in God's country, too! Here, the Missoula Symphony played some movie standards down along the river.
There are angels in God's country, too. They seem to frequent the saloons. Montana might be one of the few places in the country where the term "saloon" cannot be substituted with "bar." The saloon culture is fascinating. Plenty of characters. Food. Most are "casinos," meaning they have electronic gambling. If you love the thought of the Old West, you might find that Montana really is God's country.
Of course, the mystery is not all that reigns in this land. The countryside holds the record of worship penitent before the dollar. Vacation areas reshape the landscape to make comfortable havens for retreating urban populations. Streams and rivers are stopped in their tracks to feed more growth. Earth is moved and life destroyed in search of precious metals and minerals. Everyone is going somewhere, and like a suffering servant, God’s country is beaten in those paths. We know the story, but we continue to live it out.
Plenty of trucks in God's country.
There's a Walmart there, too.
We've dammed God's country plenty as well.
In God's country, climate change makes front page news. Seriously. Click on these two pictures to read the article.
Continued story about TROUT AND CLIMATE CHANGE. Click to read a larger image in a separate window.
We often talk about the future effects of climate change, but we neglect some effects that are already very visible. A prime example is the pine beetle, which is decimating pine populations in the American west and British Columbia. Normally, the beetle would only affect old and weakened trees. However, with warmer winters, the beetle populations have skyrocketed. As a result, the trees which play such an important role in carbon cycle are dwindling. Dead zones like the one you see above are ubiquitous in this region.
Here, one of many daily trainloads of coal pass through God's country. From mining to emissions, coal represents our mindless destruction of God's country.
Glass that flatted the unflattable tire. At the shop where I bought these tires, they had thumb tacks stuck in these tires to show how puncture resistent that are. Still, this glass had no problem slicing right through. A minor setback. Back on the road quickly.
However majestic the land is, it is not the sole space where the divine dwells. If you are looking for God’s country, look no further than where you are. See the history of love that formed and is forming you. Consider the fertile landscape that is your creativity, your passion, your memory, your reason, and your unquenchable desire for life. It is in you, and it is all around you. It is in the grass growing to meet your feet and in the food that sustains you. That eternal striving is beyond you, but it lives in you. You are God’s Country.
More Blackfoot River. I had the Thad's standard "That River Runs Through You" in my head throughout this portion of the ride.
If your ears turn deaf to God talk, consider your place in a process that reaches back from the expansion of the universe to the collection of our planet and the settling of the seas. Think about the sequence of events that made mountains and withered them away. Remember how the movement of molecules led through millennia to form life that bred life. Simple life became specialized in the evolving process that was mirrored in your earliest being. The process continued through countless generations and continues on in you. Call it what you will, but recognize the mysterious process beyond our understanding that made the miracle of you.
That mystery is not limited to you. In fact, there is no you without the collective miracles all around you. We live in relationship. At present, that relationship is neglected. In the wake of our infidelity, it will never be the same. But we can move forward with a renewed dedication to love and learn to be faithful.
Until we meet again
More faithfully connected
Than we thought possible.
