Everything Better

"Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better." - Albert Einstein 

Everything Better

 -by Angie Young 

(August 2014)

Sure, nature is pretty and I've always appreciated that. It's one thing to look at a sunset and feel relaxed, go on a hike and appreciate how the terrain came to be, or enjoy a cool breeze under a shade tree. It's a whole other thing to immerse yourself in it and feel nothing left but awe for its complexity, its perseverance, and its spirit. 

It's all about survival. I've always appreciated that, too. I learned about all the different animals and ecosystems in school - even passed lots of science tests on the subject - and learned about how most every action an animal or insect takes is based on their survival skills. But then you go to college, specialize in something else, get a job, specialize some more, take on other hobbies and life interests, and forget to notice - much less ponder - the elaborate cycles of life going on all around us. 

During our recent stay at a gorgeous, remote, Alaskan lodge enclosed within 4 million acres of untouched, mountain, glacier and volcanic wilderness, we were transposed to a life in the wild. Well, not totally wild - we had our own cabins, were very well fed, and had personal guides to escort us on every excursion we desired. For people who never go camping (yours truly), it was a bit of a jump. But back to the nature part - I was originally just excited to try - maybe 'dabble' is a better word - fly fishing, since I knew we'd have the guides to show us how and the equipment to help us. And fishing is supposed to be a big deal in Alaska. OK, maybe I just wanted to wear the outfit required for such an activity - girls, it is just as fun as it looks to wear waders with suspenders and huge, indestructible boots over comfy layers of warm clothes and rain gear. You get to stand in thigh-deep, rushing water and not feel quite as vulnerable. It enables less worrying about mud, bugs, and falling down. 

But back to the nature part; during our last fishing trip on our last afternoon, I caught the biggest fish I have ever seen that you'd still call a fish, and it was one of the most exciting things that has ever happened! It was a king salmon, and we used this salmon-egg paste type of stuff as a lure with this floating bobble thing near it that you had to watch to see when it dipped to know when to try to sink the hook. Our guide Jesse (who goes by Jess because he is as hot as that sounds - OK, attractive, sorry) had to use the net to eventually get it off the hook and it almost broke the pole while I was reeling it in. Of course, no one had a camera because it was pouring rain that afternoon (none of us wanted to risk ruining our cameras or phones), but I have eyewitnesses of my fish story glory. I can now completely, unquestionably understand why men get up at 3:00 in the morning, pack coolers full of beer, cover themselves in sunscreen and bug spray, and head out in a boat for the foreseeable future to mingle with nature. The thrill of the catch is a very real thing. 

I had never even held a fish before, so Jess and my brother-in-law Fredrik showed me how. We decided that I had to hold it, even if there was no camera to snap a picture. It was heavy, thick, huge, and a beautiful pinkish red hue and had a very large mouth and teeth. I love to eat salmon as a special meal and have never really stopped to consider what they look like or what their life is like before they get to my plate. I guess I don't really consider what any of the animals I eat look like before...it's just an issue I don't choose to dwell on much. Anyway, Jess declared that the king salmon I caught looked very healthy and would likely go on to spawn in the next few weeks. We had been hearing all week about spawning and salmon runs, steelheads and sockeyes and I was barely knowledgeable on most of it. After catching this fish, I became really interested in what these fish actually do - and as it turns out, it's fascinating. 

Sockeye salmon, which were the most prominent fish in the lake and rivers we were fishing, are born in freshwater rivers, in gravel beds. They spend the early part of their life there and then swim out to the ocean to mature. They get nutrients and gain size, while constantly surviving larger predators, but cannot ultimately thrive in warmer water. So, when they are a strong enough adult, they swim out of the ocean, miles and miles up-river, to spawn. This is what everyone was calling the "salmon run". On a side note, I don't even want to help paddle a boat that is going upriver or against the current. I can't imagine how unbelievably hard this is for the fish. This is also why you see all the pictures of bears standing on their hind legs in rushing water, grabbing at fish that seem to be "jumping" out of the water. It's the salmon, and the bears instinctively know when and where to look for them. The salmon get understandably more muscular and are full of fresh oxygen from the freshwater from all of the up-current swimming. Another amazing fact is that most of the salmon have a magnetic sense and ability to find the exact place where they were born, or pretty close to it, and spawn there, dig their gravel beds, and protect their eggs. The closer they are to spawning, the more reddish in color they become. Once they spawn, they die and the cycle begins again. All of the nutrients that they gain from being in the warmer saltwater like nitrogen, sulfur, and carbon all remain in their carcasses, feeding the rest of the riverbank wildlife including the bears and deers. What doesn't get consumed by them also washes up, collects, and benefits the birds, including bald eagles. All of the animals' survival systems benefit from all of the animals' natural life cycles. 

How's that for a thought? "All of the animals' survival systems benefit from all of the animals' natural life cycles." Anyone else feel like running outside and hugging a tree? 

The bears spend all summer fattening up, eating as much as they possibly can and hunting food for their cubs, so they can all last the long winters in their den. They dig their dens in higher elevation to avoid avalanche entrapment. I couldn't help but have the thought that if I were thrown into the Alaskan wild and given the responsibility of building a den, this is a detail I would most likely overlook. Props to the bears! Bears become protective of their areas mostly because they see intruders (animals and otherwise) as a threat to their food source - not because bears are evil, killing machines. They are very tunnel-vision on food, just like our two cats - who behave differently from bears, but whose actions can all be attributed to some version of being hungry and having learned how to get food (positioning themselves in front of the pantry where the food is, meowing in certain places at certain times, becoming more snuggly at key parts of the day when it's closer to feeding time, etc.). In addition to noticing bears, the bald eagles we saw were all found in trees with one thing in common - a V-shaped branch, exposed, near the top, where the eagle can sit with an unobstructed view of the water, watching for fish to swoop down and catch. 

It's all about survival. Which got me thinking about humans. We do it too. We obviously eat, drink, and move our bodies to stay alive. But I was thinking about the fish and how they know where to go, even though they don't have developed brains like humans, unable to think about the risks or benefits of their choices in an advanced way. As someone at the lodge said, "they go where they know they need to go to survive". Do humans also do this? 

 I completely do this. Without a doubt. One illustration of this in my life is the kind of friends I choose. Since childhood, I always gravitated towards mostly having guy friends. My very best friend and neighbor was Greg. I began playing drums in middle school, which helped fast-track this choice in friends for six more years, then four more years in college. I have girl friends too, but I find that when I really need help, it's my guy friends that I turn to. I don't rule out the advice of girls, but I seem to be more relieved when people like George, Cyrus, Kevin, the other Kevin, and of course Matt (a biggie) weigh in. 

Why? Here's where the whole survival thing will explain it. My dad was not able and/or willing to give me what I needed, so I went elsewhere for it. He was unavailable to give me advice on anything, help me learn anything, encourage me about anything, or gently push or pull me in any direction. I got wonderful parenting from my mother that I wouldn't trade for the world, but that doesn't mean it was complete, nor does it mean I got everything I needed to survive. So, like the salmon, the bears, the eagles, and everything out there in every ecosystem, I went where I needed to go, using my instincts and the magnetic forces of the Earth to survive. 

If you think about it, you can look at everyone in the world and the decisions we all make - our choices in partners, careers, interests - and if you look a little deeper, into the gravel beds of their beginnings, you can see the tiny vulnerability - just trying to survive.