Scott Russell Sanders: Not Our Rules

(Image Credit: scottrussellsanders.com)

In defining wilderness as an unruly place where shaggy creatures roam, our language betrays an uneasiness about our own hairy origins and a regret that the original world does not dance to our music. Beyond our campfires, beyond our tents, beyond our makeshift structures, the whole universe is wild, from quarks to quasars, from black bears to black holes, but far from being disorderly, it follows intricate, exquisite rules that we have only begun to decipher. They are not our rules, however, no matter who fervently we may desire to legislate, a fact that is dismaying only to those who believe that we should be running the show.

--Scott Russell Sanders, "Voyageurs"