Sometimes A Great Notion

Any kind of notion will help

I first became intrigued with Oregon in my teens when I read Ken Kesey’s ‘Sometimes A Great Notion’, about a logging family in Oregon. It all sounded so romantic- cutting those huge trees and sending them down the river to the mill. I imagined green immensity and wanted to be there and feel it. Does anyone remember when the idea of cutting down trees didn’t have the negative connotation of habitat destruction, soil erosion and climate change? I do, but I expect that’s just due to naivete` regarding the various consequences of things we took for granted.

I wonder what the ‘Great Notion’ was that Kesey pictured in naming his book. The family was a dysfunctional mess and the patriarch was pretty pissed off most of the time. What was it that shone through all of that?

Traveling through western Oregon was a roller coaster of thoughts and feelings. It is glorious when the mighty DouglasFirs are all around, tall and strong and everlasting. 

 But soon there is clear cut- a ridiculously steep hillside with stumps and grey ghosts and exposed soil. How did anyone ever think this was okay?












And then there is a new planting, green and lush, poking through the grey ghosts, looking like velvet on the hillsides. And I realize that people are paying some kind of attention here. The teenaged stands and the millennial stands each crowd together to regain the sky. Is this replanting a ‘great notion’? Is it?

We use wood. Everyone uses wood. This is the result of using wood- here in front of me. And this Northwest corner of the country is just a fantastic place to grow these trees, obviously. It is absolutely evident that those firs want to grow in that climate and situation. But it would be impossible to selectively cut these slopes, I think. Wouldn’t it? Is there a new method that is taking hold somewhere?

As I sit here in my campsite with the towering trees all around me, I want a ‘great notion’ for the world when it comes to trees. Deforestation and reforestation are both such essential issues everywhere. Through and beyond our dysfunction and anger and disillusionment, can’t we find even a pretty good notion for our wooden neighbors?