March NSS News

[Caver1402]

I just wanted to compliment Philip Rykwalder on his article about the river caves in Guatamala and other southern countries ... his words wove a beautiful picture. As a writer myself, I was in awe of how powerfully written his article was. It was awesome!

[ethan]

I just wanted to compliment Philip Rykwalder on his article about the river caves in Guatamala and other southern countries ... his words wove a beautiful picture. As a writer myself, I was in awe of how powerfully written his article was. It was awesome!

I was going to start a new thread about this article as well, but I'm glad to see that someone else appreciated it enough to already do so. I finally got a chance to read this month's issue and I too found his words amazing. Aside from technical papers, I really have no skill as a writer, but I can definitely appreciate beautiful prose. I delayed heading to work a bit this morning (not that I need much excuse) to transcribe a passage I found particularly meaningful and email it to a few friends who understand and sometimes share my inability to be satisfied by the known. I'm going to take the liberty to post them here - I'm assuming that most reading this are already subscribers and perhaps this will help convince the few that aren't that they ought to be. Any errors are my own.

"As I walked slumped under a pack laden with rope and rubber, I pondered a notion that often passes over me. To John Muir, to Major John Wesley Powell, to Sir Edmund Hillary, Edward Shackleton and scores of other explorers, the pristine world was full of unexplored territory, ranges teeming with unexplored slopes and peaks, wondrous unknown animals, dancing rivers of greens, reds and browns and more--so much more. The planet was a playground of discovery and the call of the great unknown grabbed some souls roughly by the collar and threw them into a void beyond the limits of maps, where speculation was rampant, and the only clue of what lay beyond was found in the imagination. And now there are parking lots at the foot of mountains, handrailed paths that crisscross every landscape, and signs that caution and direct. Lands are graded into difficulties by the most artificial and superficial of means possible. Little remains undiscovered, unexplored, untouched under the fine-toothed comb of man's eyes, feet, and hands except for those few remaining hidden realms. I too feel the rough hand about my collar pulling me into motion and consider myself lucky
enough to know where there still remain untouched places--and that is exactly where I was headed."
- Philip Rykwalder in "Back-to-back Adventures South of the Border", National Speleological Society News, March 2008, p9

Thank you Philip for contributing your amazing work to the News, and thanks to the editor and everyone else involved for making such a great publication possible.

Ethan

[Thomas Coleman]

Go Phil!!!