• No one we know •
[1½ MIN READ]
Many active SRC-ers know that I go to Alaska every year to do service work. Others who make their way up north connect through cruises. Gregle was one of them this last summer. This was my 10th time. This, his first.
He prepared for the experience by reading about the early native population through one particular writer, Velma Wallis. A few weeks ago as we ran, he told me about 2 books of hers that he used for his preparation. Then he sent them to me.
It might be weird for you to hear that even in my days as an academic librarian I didn’t read a lot of books. There’s an evil stereotype that gets dropped about the particular profession and the particular practice whenever I mention the line of work. The reality is that people like me with short attention spans get distracted. Long-form reading doesn’t always fit in so well with that reality. Happily, the first book, Two Old Women, was a quick read with short chapters and … pictures.
Based on oral tradition, it’s about a village that chooses to abandon two weaker women who otherwise risk the survival of the rest of them during a particularly difficult winter. The book taps into the people I get to minister to every summer: Game hunting still contributes to household sustenance. The outdoors can be vast. Caring for the needy is complicated. Spoiler alert: They survive.
Other details of the story aside, what made this literary episode meaningful is Gregle’s and my connection both to running community and to native Alaskan community; his, literarily, and mine, ministerially.
Shawmont runners are directly connected to each other through the club. Finding other degrees, even by intermediation, deepens the connection beautifully.
–CtCloser (Calvinthe) “Negative Split or Positive Splat” #dothedue (iCandybyWangC.com)
FINE PRINT ¶Text by Calvin Wang (Wäng), CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (CreativeCommons.org). ¶Cross-published: Facebook Shawmont Running Club (ZY Weekly Newsletter 10/10/26 [Facebook]), Shawmont Running Club website (ShawmontRunningClub.com), Ruminations by CtCloser. ¶This website posting: Rumination with added caption, duration, and enumeration.
Explore more
Go up one level
