Predictably traffic was non-existent. I contentedly motored north in the dark morning.
I finished listening to Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed. My opinion of the book was unchanged. It was worth listening to, but not one I intend to come back to. The last essay was by Tim Kreider and it was by far one of the best. I was glad (and a little relieved) since I've struggled to like some of his newer writing.
I thought about listening to some podcasts, but jumped right into The Secret Wisdom of Nature by Peter Wohllben. It was at least mostly about the interconnectedness of the natural world. It took me a bit to get into the book since so much of it was condescending. There were several times it said things like: This probably surprises you... Or: ...but it's more complicated than that. Or the worst: You might think ... but you would be wrong.
If I would have had another book that I wanted to start, I definitely would have killed it. But I soldiered on. The book did get better - or maybe I got numb to the condescension? I liked some of the facts and comparisons he gave, even if a few might have been whitewashed to show a point of view. I did enjoy the basic premise of the book about how interconnected things can be.
I thought the solutions he gave were far too simplistic and tailored to how he could live his life - a great frustration of mine when anyone gives simple solutions to complex problems. While humans are doing at least some terrible things, we ARE part of the world; we can't live in a cocoon. He did acknowledge
this complication near the end of the book. Tying it in with the previous book - he never gave the difficult solution of population reduction. I know this will never happen, but trying to fix global issues with addressing the ever-increasing scourge that a growing population brings is akin to choosing immobility as your mode of transportation.
While the book was a bit of a downer, I was comforted by the book I read the previous year (almost to the day) and its conclusion that on the geologic time scale, humans do not matter.
Ultimately, I give the book a C+. I had another of his books on hold with Libby, but I got rid of it since I was concerned it would be too similar (and condescending).
The day had started out wonderfully cool. Going through Wisconsin I did hit a bit of mist/rain. Then it stayed really nice for the rest of the day. It was, quite frankly, a wonderful day on the road. I did get a bit wistful every time I saw people on motorcycles who were obviously touring.
I ended up stopping more often than I usually do for drinks or snacks - odd since I had a whole buffet of food with me. I'm embarrassed to admit I gorged on too much trail mix so I had to buy some more.
US2 was a bit annoying with convoys of pokey drivers. But once I turned on to MN46, traffic almost instantly disappeared. It was quite glorious.
I motored on to my hotel in Baudette. The owner was painting, but we talked for a few minutes as she checked me in. I really do want to come back to fish for sturgeon - still a bucket-list fish for me.
After getting settled, I walked around the dock a bit. The afternoon was spectacular. I thought about how fortunate I am to be able to go on these adventures. I stared across the river at Canada. I thought about bears, about how special it is to have this enormous friendly border. I thought back to the book I had listened to and while there may be problems, we are still fortunate in North America to be able to easily go places that are a salve to the soul.
Despite being a good day, it was also a tiring day. I knew I'd be up too early but turned in early anyway.
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