‘Sherkin Comment’ strikes a note on behalf of Mother Earth

One morning three weeks ago, in the Okanagan Valley in the Canadian Rockies, my wife and I woke in our son’s makeshift but comfortable camper van and looked out to see, between us and distant snow-capped mountains, a vast lake glittering and winking in the sun.

“On the shores of Gitche Gumee, / Of the shining Big-Sea-Water . . .” recited I, two of the few lines I know of Longfellow’s ‘Song of Hiawatha.

I recalled them again this morning when I looked out at the shining Small-Pond-Water in our backyard, and saw a grey heron standing statuesquely alongside. It was, of course, our ‘familiar’ Ron.