SubscribeIS IT TRUE THAT BOY SCOUTS HAVE TO SIT AND WATCH AN ANTHILL FOR AN HOUR WITHOUT MOVING?
I just read a quote from the great Edwin Way Teale, who evidently wrote, “I have never seen a woodchuck drink.”
Seems plain enough, but I love it. In one simple statement, he explains a lifelong fascination with nature.
You see, though Edwin theorized that woodchucks must get their fluids from plant juices, dew and rain, he didn’t *know.* He wasn’t sure. And so, reported Rick Telander in an old article I found yesterday, “he was going to keep watching woodchucks.”
It was so perfect that it forced me to research more on Mr. Teale, who died in 1980.
I found more greatness at Naturewriting.com. It explained his background, how he was born in Joliet, Illinois but spent formative years at his grandparents’ farm in northern Indiana. “Lone Oak” was the place’s name.
I’ll let them take it from here:
“Between his grandfather’s farm and the Indiana dunes grew a field of rye. One summer afternoon, when he was six or seven, Edwin crawled into the dense stalks on his hands and knees. He hollowed out a cave in the rye and lay very still. All day he watched the activities of the creatures around him–ants, beetles, flies, toads, and snakes. He used his imagination to picture life as it appeared to them. He discovered a whole new world, a world unnoticed by most people. He wrote, “Returning home that evening was like landing from a distant voyage of discovery”
That, among a million other experiences, is what I want for Veda.
We will watch woodchucks, kiddo. You’ve got my word on it.
How many chucks could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? I just had to throw that in.
Love and hugs
Mom