Aloud at the Los Angeles Public Library

Tonight's discussion was entitled "The Elemental West: Reflections on Moving Water" and in this case moving means inspiring.  Craig Childs and Kathleen Dean Moore spoke with William, Huntington USC Institute on California and the West, being the moderator.  Childs lives on the Western slopes of Colorado and can be described as an intuitive roamer and hiker.  He loves to look in the desert where water is or was.  He looks to find clues to tell stores of the past.  He has written "House of Rain", "The Desert Cries", and "The Secret Knowledge of Water" among others.  His interest in water was described as water on a small scale like a water hole or small oasis.

Kathleen Dean Moore is a professor of Philosophy and co-founder of the Spring Creek Project for Ideas, Nature, and the Written Word.  Her new book is "Moral Ground: Ethical Action for a Planet in Peril".  She has also written "River Walking, Reflections on moving Water."  She lives in Oregon and Alaska both during their rainy seasons....she has 7 rain coats. She was described as viewing water on a larger scale such as in lakes and rives.  She is from Cleveland where she was warned not to touch the polluted rivers and now spends her life washing herself in beautiful waters.  She is very concerned that man's history of using up the earth for his immediate pleasure is destroying the planet at an increasingly faster pace without regard for the future generations.  She is hopeful that people are understanding more about the interdependence of species and the importance in protecting all.

They both talked about the fear that it may be too late.  We need to see the world as sacred.  Water brings life to the world...we are all connected.  Both of these writers are poets in that they have been referred as the Emersons of our age.  Their speaches and readings of their writings was moving.