Eiseley’s essay about this experience is called “The Flow of the River.” In it, he’s not only describing the Platte; he’s describing how he felt he was merging with the river. He recounts a sort of open awareness of the connections between all creatures, all nature. He wasn’t swimming in the river. He wasn’t investigating the river. He was accompan

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one image that has repeatedly come to mind is skating on a newly frozen lake near my home in Idaho when I was a boy. Sometimes the ice was so clear, I felt like I was skating across the night sky. And the only sounds I could hear were the cracks that echoed through the dark, transparent depths. I thought if the ice ever gave way I would find myself

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And like, I feel compelled to to write about these damn mice! I want to EB White the shit out of every single mouse moment. This writing would reveal nothing new! It would change nothing about mice-human relations!

But writing about those mice helps me observe - right there out of the corner of my eye! - the border of my own reality. It helps me re... See more