In honor of my little girl Sarah (aka Slugo) turning one today, I turn to the source of all TV wisdom, Northern Exposure.
I made you, paddle person, because I had a dream: A little wooden man smiled at me. He sat in a canoe on a snowbank on this hill. Now the dream has begun to come true. The sun spirit will look down at the snow and the snow will melt and the water will run downhill to the river, on down to the Great Lakes, down again, on at last to the Sea. You will go on with the water and you will have adventures that I would love to have. But I cannot go with you because I have to stay and help my father with the traps.
"That's Paddle to the Sea folks, the story of a little Indian boy who sends a toy canoe on a journey that he himself is too young to take. We do the same thing, you know -- Pioneer, Voyager, Galileo: our standard bearers in the eternal human crusade, exploration. And now we've hit the cosmic trail. Why? Well, because earth's played out. You know, less than a hundred years ago, Amundsen could have been the first human being to reach the south Pole, Falcon Scott could have died trying, and now . . . well, last year China had to close down Mt. Everest, too much litter. The world's become a fragile place. It's not to be conquered, it's -- it's to be protected, coddled, nursed like a little baby. What do we do now? We launch our surrogates into interstellar space, dreaming of that one fine day when we ourselves can go." Chris Stevens
The lower half of the falls was hidden in mist with a rainbow across it. Paddle fell through the rainbow and went on falling. Paddle had ridden rapids. He had ridden the Mad River and seen the rapids at the Sioux, so big that ships went around them. But these rapids -- thirty foot waves rushed on shooting stars turning inside and out at every jump. Paddle flew up on a chain of wet volcanoes and plunged deep in submarine dives and took sudden trips toward the moon in green rockets.
"There's probably a lot of folks out there saying, "Man, I'm never going to have me a rush like that. Earth's a parking lot and outer space's just too pricey." Let me tell you something: there's lots of ways to blaze a trail. I always think back to those unsung heroes of the past, like that
prehistoric gourmet who looked at that lobster and said, "I'm going to eat that," or the first healer who picked up a knife and said "Let's operate, boys." You see, adventures come in all kinds of shapes and sizes, like -- getting your hair cut, falling in love. Even getting behind the wheel and backing out of the driveway can be a sublime act of fate -- as well as a monumental act of courage." Chris Stevens
For that instant, he looked like his own paddle. There was a song in his heart. It crept to his lips but only the water and the wind could hear. You little traveler, you made the journey -- the long journey. You now know things I have yet to know, you little traveler. You were given a name, a true name in my father's lodge. Good medicine, little traveler. You are truly a paddle person.
Just the other day Sarah had what is likely to be the first or many monumental acts of courage. With her tiny self delicately balanced with the help of the couch behind her, she let go. Arms out stretched, wide eyed and a big smile, she tried her first step without training wheels. It's not important that she did a face plant on the carpet a step and half into the adventure. The act of faith that got her to take that leap was everything.
By the way - Stonebriar mall is out of the book "Paddle to the Sea", I bought the last copy. A wonderful book.
pictures from Andy's website :http://www.picsearch.com/pictures/celebrities/artists%20and%20painters/artists%201/andy%20goldsworthy.html
Andy takes the items you and I step over, brush aside or generally think of as a nuisance such as fall leaves and rocks and through a vision and patients they collectively make art. He plays with colors and shapes of the everyday and pulls them together if but only for a temporary collection captured in photography. 
