Most of us are familiar with Frost’s Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, the opening phrase of which serves as the title for this ramble,  but we push on, as would Frost’s little horse.  But the phrase gave me pause this morning as I strolled in the woods I am privileged to live by.

I confess it now, that I spend so much time in those woods that I will often commit the sin of being tethered in a park; mea culpa, but so it was that as Freddy and I came upon a Cow Moose and this year’s progeny, the phone rang.  I took a moment to advise my caller, who was calling from “the contiguous 48”  (once upon a time I had a vehicle repossessed because the lienholder believed I had removed the vehicle from the United States) that I had to get situated where I could keep an eye on my friends before I could discuss our business.

Business concluded, I waved farewell to madonna and child and wandered home, only then being struck (admittedly not for the first time) with how fantastically privileged I am to be able to live by a wooded place with a natural spring and wildlife, that I took it for granted that I shared my space with a half ton wild mammal and other species.

I have these pleasures because I am a member of a collective which when asked, Whose woods are these?”, can respond, “Ours.”

And yet that collective has all but destroyed those places, that aesthetic.

Those persons we have selected as Trustees of those precious gifts have run roughshod over these places. They have cut down the trees in the name of public safety and sport, and neglected what needs assistance in the name of cash and convenience.  We have turned ourselves over to the ubiquitous “user group” with the inevitable “partnership agreement.” Why were the soccer goals in the community park removed that had stood there for 20 years? No User Group Partnership Agreement.

This is symptomatic of possessive narcissism, if it is not developed and under contract it has no value and is on the market: first come first served. I have to admit that what has kept me going through this political season is the fact that Dan Sullivan is done.