Peter, my oldest, is twelve. A month after his forth birthday Peter became the victim of the unfortunate condition known as LBS, or, Little Brother Syndrome. Evan was born and the condition appeared chronic.
I tried to find activities Peter and I could do together to reassure him that he wasn't going to be forgotten. When he was five, we started hiking.
A co-worker of mine, an avid naturalist, turned me on to Ken Weber's Walks and Rambles in Rhode Island. It is the definitive book of Rhode Island day hikes.
A couple years later I learned that Ken was doing a talk on animal tracks at the Audubon Society of Rhode Island. There was a talk one night and a walk the following weekend. The walk was booked up (I seem to find out about these things too late) but I got the chance to sit in on the talk. Before hand lots of people were milling about. It seems to me that I always end up at events where everybody already knew each other. I tried to blend in.
Some guy came up to me and started a conservation. After a few moments he introduced himself as Ken. I was taken aback. His manner was so easy going I hardly expected him to be the speaker. He is a published writer. He wrote a weekly nature column. He was famous. But it seemed he sought me out to make me feel comfortable, welcome. It was blown away.
Needless to say the talk was awesome. Frustrated that I couldn't participate in the walk, I promised myself I would someday hike with him.
On August 2nd of 2007, Ken Weber died.
During his life, I had never once read his weekly nature column. I didn't get the Saturday paper it was in, but that shouldn't have stopped me. Life is very busy for me. A good friend of recently mine gave me a copy of Wanderings, a collection of his weekly articles from the mid to late 1980's. His writing in his hiking books is very informational. But his nature stories, inspirational.
I met Ken just that once. He's been gone over a year now, but his writing still influences, still inspires my passion for nature. The more I get to know him through his writing, the more I feel I've lost a good friend. His knowledge, his passion, his curiosity. In no small part has his writing inspired me to create this blog.
There is much more about him than is contained in his Wikipedia entry. I created that in part to memorialize him, part to learn more about his life.
If Ken touched your life, please share.
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6 comments:
Hello Fred. I too was inspired by Ken Weber. After he passed away, I felt like the landscape of Rhode Island was blackened by death. It was horrible. He taught me something new in every article he wrote. I also met him, but I was on a July 4th kayaking trip. I wrote him a letter and he actually wrote back and asked if I wanted to hike with him. He took me to a place where he and his wife hiked at midnight during new years eve! It was an awesome place, but I have no idea where it was! Someday I will ask his wife. I started my own blog, about nature in Rhode Island and although it is new and raw, I am doing it ultimately because of Ken. I will hopefully get some followers someday and just keep on writing until I am a better writer like Ken.
Hello again Fred. One more thing. A few times throughout the year, I would email Ken and ask him some questions or offer a unique animal observation. But out of the blue, I sent an email thanking him for writing his columns and I told him how much they meant to me. He emailed back in his humble way and said thank you. A week later he died. I was so grateful that I sent that timely email to thank him. You never know what's going to happen.
Thank you for your comments. It's good to hear from someone who has also been touched by Ken's writing. I look forward to seeing your blog.
For some reason, this afternoon I started thinking about the articles Ken wrote every week for the Providence Journal. It was the first item I read in the paper each week and sometimes the only thing. I have his original 25 Walks in RI (1978) and original Walks and Rambles in RI (1986), plus several of the updates. I also have his River Guide. One thing I've always wanted was to get some of his articles from the Providence Journal known as the Wanderings. Does anyone know where I can get a copy?
Look for "Wanderings". It was published by Dutch Island Press back in 1989 and it contains selections from his newspaper articles.
My wife used Amazon to find "Wanderings" and "The Dog, The Hawk and I." You can buy both books there. I was just reading Wanderings yesterday. It would be great if all of this writings in the Journal would be published. I would buy that in a heartbeat. I learn so much about nature in his writings. I still miss him.
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