a field guide to drowning: photo: point of reference

"There will come a time when you think that everything is finished. Yet that will be the beginning."

--Louis L'Amour

my life as a guide

A few things to know, not necessarily useful. My day job for nineteen years was as a boatman on the Colorado River in Grand Canyon; l rowed enough river miles to have circumnavigated the globe and be on my way back 'round again. There was a segue to law school, an odd stint in L.A., & enough career changes to render my resume quite suspect. Why drowning? I was taught how to swim in the Atlantic, that might be the beginning. In the early days I rarely got a night's sleep worrying that as a fledgling guide I might drown someone. And then the times I was there: in the deep and not knowing how much longer I could hold my breath. For Sally, who drowned in Chile and I should have been there to keep it from happening. And Dugald; you were doing what you loved but dammit anyway. To the 6 Welshmen I took with me into the Ledge Hole, we made it, sorry about the scare. If anything my stories are about looking for the light and finding it: it is not where I thought it would be.

a field guide to drowning

Friday, January 30, 2009

photo: point of reference

my life as a guide

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