by Bill McKibben, Outside Magazine
Bill McKibben is a famous environmentalist who first broke out in the mainstream with his The End of Nature in 1998. It was one of the first texts to address the true crisis of climate change. Yet he’s also written countless other articles, both serious and humorous, about nature, climate, and outdoor adventures. Here, he talks about his love of cross-country skiing, and his attempt to make himself an “elite athlete” in middle age. A useful mentor text for sports-lovers and humorists alike!
And so I had to make sure he understood. What I wanted was not just fitness, certainly not trophies. I wanted a break from myself. Call it early midlife crisis, call it silly, call it vain. I’d spent my whole adult life as an environmentalist and writer (and my weekends as, yes, a Sunday school teacher), preaching sacrifice, voluntary population control, the idea of Saving the Earth through Humility and Restraint…
By Bill McKibben
We finally arrived in Madison Junction, deep in the park, to find ourselves surrounded by a herd of 300 bison. Husaby and veteran coach Rick Kapala and I headed off through the woods, skiing slowly around a deadfall. From a ridge we watched a coyote sitting serenely in the sun, surveying us and the bison. And then, because we wanted to see a particular hot pot, we forded the thigh-deep Gibbon River. Before long we were dressed again, double-poling another 25 kilometers back down the road as the sun bent behind the ridges.
We weren’t going at racing speed — good nordic skiers cover 50 kilometers in two hours, and that’s with hills to climb. But a year ago I couldn’t have done anything like this. “You showed me some mettle,” said Husaby as we finally clicked out of our skis. He didn’t even need to say it. For once I knew it myself. I knew that in the year just past I had evolved, ever so slightly, in the direction of bison and coyote.
- How does McKibben weave self-deprecating humor and even satire into this piece? Think about the juxtaposition of the serious and the silly. Think about the title, the use of capitalization and punctuation…
- Though he skiis in many glamorous and unglamorous places, he chooses to describe his final scene in Yosemite, a world-famous park filled with bison and coyote. What might he be saying about the most meaningful moments for this ‘outdoor’ sport?
- What is the relationship between man and nature in this essay? What parts of nature seem important?
- McKibben uses lots of active verbs in his piece to describe his different athletic feats. Which do you notice? Can you borrow any for your own writing? What might some active verbs be in your piece?
- What other noticings and questions do you have?
GREEN & GROW 