Ask us!
CommUNITY Reads
Wildbranch Part V: For the Children/For the Future
"The title of the final section of the anthology is taken from our concluding essay, Scott Russell Sanders’s “For the Children,” which is in turn based on a line in a poem by Gary Snyder. Each writer in this section addresses a different vision of the future, from Aleria Jensen speaking directly to her unborn child in “Peepers,” to April Newlin’s essay, “Hatch,” where we are allowed to join the author as she patiently watches over a nest of endangered sea turtle eggs." (p. xvii)
- Wildbranch: An Anthology of Nature, Environmental, and Place-based WritingLogin with G# and password to access full eBook.
Essay
- Jupiter Came Down on TuesdayMaureen Sullivan, pp. 248-249
A mother contemplates the amount of stuff that has come into her family's life since she's had a child, all well-intentioned gifts and tokens for her young daughter. Her pre-motherhood plans to resist material accumulation have been dashed by the reality of the living in the "land of plenty." - HatchApril Newlin, pp. 252-258
A "turtler" who volunteers to watch over the unprotected nest of leatherback sea turtle eggs eagerly and nervously anticipates their hatching, reflecting on their ability to survive despite a mother's natural instinct to lay the eggs and leave and in spite of human manipulation of the nests to counteract the ways human activities have disrupted the natural world. - The Worst Trap in the WorldJules Older, pp. 261-262
The author argues that the worst trap is the "Can't Do Anything Until You Do Everything Trap," which leads people to believe that even small efforts at conservation are futile. A short, conversational, but effective argument for making even the smallest changes so that combined with everyone else's small changes, we can make a difference.