Lobo, The King of Currumpaw Returns

Super Moon of 2016 (dlw photo)

Dear Lobo,

This is my annual letter to my favorite wolf, my Letter to Lobo, Year 124 EE.

Lobo, the great gray wolf of Union County. Lobo, the wolf who changed Seton from wolf killer to wolf protector. Lobo, The Wolf that Changed America, as stated in the title of the 2008 film about you. 

You will recall that I have abandoned the standard calendar in favor of a new system of dating with the first day of the first year starting from the time of your demise. The Environmental Era, EE.

 

According to an even older calendar, today is Tu B'Shevat, the Jewish New Year for trees. 

 

The heavens commemorate the anniversary of your death with an early morning lunar eclipse. I’ll had to get up early in the cold pre-dawn to see the moon in its copper color reflecting endless sunsets. This apparently was the second full moon this month, and one that is closer than usual to earth making it look marginally larger than usual. Not that I was able to tell. Maximum moon darkness took place a bit after first light, around 6:30am in northern New Mexico.

On this date 124 years ago you were hours away from your final end, already caught in traps from which Seton would release you, although too late for you as it turned out. We don’t know for sure when you were caught, only that you died on January 31^st.

Seton asked himself WHY?

We are still asking that question about our destructive relationship to nature. And while we can’t exactly make it up to you, we can do something in your memory. We will turn Seton’s account into a graphic novel and gallery exhibition, inviting 55 visual artists to tell your story in ink, watercolor, oil, acrylic, or whatever other medium they choose.

You are not forgotten.

Sincerely yours,

The Author 

Lobo, The King of Currumpaw

The World’s Greatest Wolf Story!

A Novel Graphic and an Exhibition

in pictures and text

Original Story by Ernest Thompson Seton

Original artwork by Invited artists

Reception Sunday, August 12, 2018

Seton Village, New Mexico

Academy for the Love of Learning

Advanced Topics in Lifecraft #4 User's Guide to Ernest Thompson Seton Stories

 Rabbit at Night from ALL collection

In the three previous Lifecraft essays, I have discussed the Nine Principles, the Fourfold Path, and Learning as Transformation. This time I want to present a brief discussion of several Seton short stories. Seton vividly illustrates the lessons of Lifecraft through the biographies of his animal heroes. The stories are filled with action (chases and escapes) and emotion (triumph and pathos). Based on Seton’s observations and imaginings, we see nature described in a highly descriptive manner. He can veer into the fantastic (do animals really commit suicide?) but also stick to the highly realistic—wild nature, overall, while it may often emphasize cooperation over survival of the fittest, generates stories of kindness less often than others of unconscious cruelty. A hard lesson for the children the stories were aimed at, but that is life.

The violence in “Lobo” (wolf) is unapologetic. The life of Krag (bighorn sheep) is tragic. Even the triumph of Billy (another wolf) comes at a price—his life will never be one of security. Nature must be taken on its own terms, and not portrayed as less brutal or less magnificent than it is. Seton presents two radical lessons. One is that wild animals are not fundamentally different from us, only different by degree. The other is that we humans are a part of nature, and that by causing environmental destruction, it is ourselves that we attack.

Many of these stories are available as free on-line books or through Project Gutenberg. The stories are taken from Wild Animals I Have Known (1898), Lives of the Hunted (1901) and Animal Heroes (1905). Seton aimed his stories towards young adult readers (defined by the publishing industry as being between 12 and 17), but younger children as well as adults also have a lot to learn here. I have included story descriptions and discussion guides.

	“Lobo, The King of Currumpaw” is Seton’s signature tale of the wolf hunt that transformed him from predator killer to predator protector. This is the lead story in Seton’s first best-seller, Wild Animals I Have Known, a first-person narrative about his efforts to trap wolves in Union County, N.M., during the winter of 1893-94. Based on real events, the story focuses on a remarkable wolf who could not be caught until Seton uses the most extraordinary treachery against him. The wolf is the hero of the story, while Seton casts himself as the villain. It is one of the most unusual hunting stories ever written. It is also a story that captures the larger American experience of man and nature. Seton referenced it in one of his next books (Lives of the Hunted): “I have been bitterly denounced, first, for killing Lobo; second, and chiefly, for telling of it, to the distress of many tender hearts.  To this I reply: In what frame of mind are my hearers left with regard to the animal? Are their sympathies quickened toward the man who killed him, or toward the noble creature who, superior to every trial, died as he had lived, dignified, fearless, and steadfast?” Use these questions to generate conversation in a discussion group: People have to make a living through honorable undertakings such as cattle ranching. Wolves have to make a living as well, by killing their prey. Land owners have the right to protect their livestock. What rights do wolves have, or what rights should they have? Lobo proves to be an animal of exceptional cunning. What do you think of him? Seton uses a trick to trap Blanca. Was he unfair, or was he justified in the measures taken to trap her? Seton describes Lobo’s last hours in considerable detail, what do you think he might have learned from this experience? How does the death of the wolf make you feel?
	“Krag, the Kootenay Ram” is an in-depth conscientious exploration of animal behavior set in the Canadian Rockies. In this story, Seton set out his ideas on environmental consciousness and the complexity of animal behavior. The magnificent bighorn sheep, Krag, finds himself in a lifelong battle against the degenerate hunter Scotty MacDougall. In their final encounter, Scotty’s pursuit is such that he gives Krag no time to graze, and the great animal begins to starve. The journey is equally harsh for Scotty, whose physical deterioration soon matches his mental collapse. The story is an allegory about Western civilization’s self-destructive treatment of nature. Quote from Seton at the beginning of Lives of the Hunted: “My chief motive, my most earnest underlying wish, has been to stop the extermination of harmless wild animals; not for their sakes, but for ours, firmly believing that each of our native wild creatures is in itself a precious heritage that we have no right to destroy or put beyond the reach of our children.” Use these questions to generate conversation in a discussion group: What do bighorn sheep have to learn in order to survive in their mountain environment? What are some of the rule of bighorn sheep life? Krinklehorn nearly kills Krag by unfair fighting, but pays a terrible price. Do animals have a sense of morality? Krag must battle against both dogs and wolves. Krag prevails in these encounters, but sometimes the predators must prevail because they too must feed their families. What is the relationship of predator and prey in the wild? Scotty relentlessly pursues the ram. Do you think Scotty represents something more than himself in this story? What lesson is Seton teaching us?
	Badlands Billy: the Wolf that Won. Long before scientists understood animal intelligence, Seton identified it in this story. Badlands Billy is Seton’s remembrance of a wolf hunt he observed in 1897. Seton uses the story to explain the natural history of wolves. He invents a life history for this hero wolf who survives the greatest hardships. When the normal prey of wolves (such as bison and antelope) are killed off by human hunters, the wolves of North Dakota, like those of New Mexico, are forced to kill cattle, putting them into conflict with humans. Unlike Lobo, Billy outwits all the hunters. In addition to instincts, animals learn behavior by watching others of their own kind and through personal experience. Although these ideas are now accepted among animal behaviorists, when Seton first suggested them, they were highly controversial. Quote from Seton in Animal Heroes: “A Hero is an individual of unusual gifts and achievements. Whether it be man or animal, this definition applies; and it is the histories of such that appeal to the imagination and to the hearts of those who hear them.” Use these questions to generate conversation in a discussion group. Special note: the hunt for Billy took place in 1897, three years after the death of Lobo. Long ago, antelope and buffalo roamed the grasslands of America. Eventually, many of these animals were hunted to near extinction and replaced by cattle. The remaining wolves had nothing left to eat but cattle. Does this change your perception of wolves? What do mother wolves need to teach their pups? Why does Billy survive when Lobo did not? When Billy escapes the dogs, Seton cheers him on. Seton seems very different than three years earlier during his encounter with Lobo. Why do you think he has changed? What are the attributes of an animal hero? Which of these traits are demonstrated by Billy?
	Silverspot, The Story of a Crow is Seton’s classic look into the secret lives of birds., the subject that began his interest in natural history. Birds, especially large ones such as crows are relatively easy to see. Birds of the Corvidae family (crows, jays and ravens) are known as animals of exceptional intelligence. Silverspot is a natural leader and teacher, wise in the ways of his own kind, and the object of Seton’s attention over several years when he lived in Toronto. Quote from Seton in Wild Animals I Have Known: “How many of us ever got to know a wild animal? I do not mean merely to meet with one once or twice, or to have one in a cage, but to really know it for a long time in the wild, and to get an insight into its life and history.” Use these questions in discussion of the story. Seton interprets the calls of crows as a kind of language. Are the crows really speaking to each other? Crows can reason, plan, and learn. When Silverspot drops bread into a stream entering a tunnel, he knows to wait for its reappearance at the tunnel’s other end. How much are we like them or they like us? Are there absolute differences between the behavior of crows and of humans?
	Raggylug, The Story of a Cottontail Rabbit. Seton shows how animals, like people, do learn by watching their elders. He was one of the first naturalists to develop a scientific-based understanding of animal behavior. He wrote that animals (including rabbits) learn through instinct, but also by watching adults of the same species, and through personal experience. As we watch them go through their daily routines, we find out just how dangerous the world can be.  Quote from Wild Animals I Have Known: “Those who do not know animals well may think I have humanized them, but those who have lived so near them as to know somewhat of their ways and theirs minds will not think so.” Consider these questions. Which of Rag’s learning moments falls into which of the three categories (instinct, watching and imitating others, personal experience)? Time after time, Rag’s mother shows a willingness to make the ultimate sacrifice (that is, giving up her own life) to save him. How do you feel about her?
	Bingo, The Story of My Dog is a tribute to man’s best friend. Most of us have owned or been around dogs. The human-dog bond is unique. Bingo saved Seton’s life at least once, perhaps twice.  Quote from Wild Animals I Have Known: “It is wonderful and beautiful how a man and his dog will stick to one another, through thick and thin.” Here are some things we might ask about these relationships. What remarkable experiences have you had with dogs? What have you learned from dogs? Do you think they really know what we think and feel? Is there such a thing as a “bad dog” or are do dogs react to us in developing their own behavior?
	The Springfield Fox. At least until the advent of televised nature programs, few were privileged to observe the secretive fox as closely as Seton. This fox made an appearance in Raggylug’s story as a predator passing through. But here we see that the foxes have families of their own to care for. They react to changing situations with both emotion and intelligence. A fox can consciously choose to resemble a rock in order to escape attention. This suggests they are, at least in some ways, much like us. Quote from Wild Animals I Have Known: “For each kind of prey they [the fox pups] were taught a way to hunt, for every animal has some great strength or it could not live, and some great weakness or the others could not live.” Discuss the following ideas. When people and animals (such as foxes) encounter one another, the result is often tragic for the animal. What steps might we take to avoid or non-violently resolve conflicts with wild animals? Have you ever seen a fox or other secretive wild animals?
	The Pacing Mustang dramatizes the plight of wild animals by having a mustang choose between captivity and death.  Seton set this story concurrently with his hunt for Lobo. In order to create a sense of drama, he has the Mustang, in its final moment, chose death by suicide over captivity. Most scientists have doubted this could really have happened, but it is clear that animals have an emotional life. Quote from Wild Animals I Have Known: “Up, up and on, above the sheerest cliff he dashed away into the vacant air, down—down—two hundred downward feet to fall, and land upon the rocks below, a lifeless wreck—but free.”  A group could discuss these questions. If we could tune into the feelings of wild horses (or wolves or rabbits), what might we learn? In the late 1800s, the western United States was lightly populated and thinly fenced. Have you visited areas that were vast and open? What did you experience and how did you feel about that place?
	Redruff, The Story of the Don Valley Partridge is a poignant look at the extreme impact humans can have on wild nature. This is a particularly sad story where harmless animals are relentlessly pursued until they are exterminated. We will let Seton write the first discussion question from Wild Animals I have Known: “Have the wild things no moral or legal rights? What right has man to inflict such long and fearful agony on a fellow creature, simply because that creature does not speak his language?” Seton does not apply these questions to the way people treat one another. But do you believe these questions are valid in questioning how all the peoples of the world either do or do not get along? The back-page art in the original edition (and in many editions of the book) shows a man, a wolf, and a bird together. A rising sun comes up behind them (shining its light on all equally). A river or lake flows in front on them (from which all must drink). Swirling lines of energy connect all of them together. Was Seton correct in his vision, is it possible that all peoples, animals, and plants can someday achieve some level of harmony?

Through his stories Seton examined the relation of humankind to nature and its wildlife. Should we preserve wildlife for our sake? For the sake of the animals themselves? Or in our more ecologically minded time, can we make the case to do both? Lifecraft gives guidance for how to live, but also for how to question. We become fully alive when we take on the arduous responsibility of thinking for ourselves.

“Lobo, The King of Currumpaw” is Seton’s signature tale of the wolf hunt that transformed him from predator killer to predator protector. This is the lead story in Seton’s first best-seller, Wild Animals I Have Known, a first-person narrative about his efforts to trap wolves in Union County, N.M., during the winter of 1893-94. Based on real events, the story focuses on a remarkable wolf who could not be caught until Seton uses the most extraordinary treachery against him. The wolf is the hero of the story, while Seton casts himself as the villain. It is one of the most unusual hunting stories ever written. It is also a story that captures the larger American experience of man and nature.

Seton referenced it in one of his next books (Lives of the Hunted): “I have been bitterly denounced, first, for killing Lobo; second, and chiefly, for telling of it, to the distress of many tender hearts.  To this I reply: In what frame of mind are my hearers left with regard to the animal? Are their sympathies quickened toward the man who killed him, or toward the noble creature who, superior to every trial, died as he had lived, dignified, fearless, and steadfast?”

Use these questions to generate conversation in a discussion group:

1. People have to make a living through honorable undertakings such as cattle ranching. Wolves have to make a living as well, by killing their prey. Land owners have the right to protect their livestock. What rights do wolves have, or what rights should they have?
2. Lobo proves to be an animal of exceptional cunning. What do you think of him?
3. Seton uses a trick to trap Blanca. Was he unfair, or was he justified in the measures taken to trap her?
4. Seton describes Lobo’s last hours in considerable detail, what do you think he might have learned from this experience?
5. How does the death of the wolf make you feel?

“Krag, the Kootenay Ram” is an in-depth conscientious exploration of animal behavior set in the Canadian Rockies. In this story, Seton set out his ideas on environmental consciousness and the complexity of animal behavior. The magnificent bighorn sheep, Krag, finds himself in a lifelong battle against the degenerate hunter Scotty MacDougall. In their final encounter, Scotty’s pursuit is such that he gives Krag no time to graze, and the great animal begins to starve. The journey is equally harsh for Scotty, whose physical deterioration soon matches his mental collapse. The story is an allegory about Western civilization’s self-destructive treatment of nature.

Quote from Seton at the beginning of Lives of the Hunted: “My chief motive, my most earnest underlying wish, has been to stop the extermination of harmless wild animals; not for their sakes, but for ours, firmly believing that each of our native wild creatures is in itself a precious heritage that we have no right to destroy or put beyond the reach of our children.”

Use these questions to generate conversation in a discussion group:

1. What do bighorn sheep have to learn in order to survive in their mountain environment?
2. What are some of the rule of bighorn sheep life?
3. Krinklehorn nearly kills Krag by unfair fighting, but pays a terrible price. Do animals have a sense of morality?
4. Krag must battle against both dogs and wolves. Krag prevails in these encounters, but sometimes the predators must prevail because they too must feed their families. What is the relationship of predator and prey in the wild?
5. Scotty relentlessly pursues the ram. Do you think Scotty represents something more than himself in this story? What lesson is Seton teaching us?

Badlands Billy: the Wolf that Won. Long before scientists understood animal intelligence, Seton identified it in this story. Badlands Billy is Seton’s remembrance of a wolf hunt he observed in 1897. Seton uses the story to explain the natural history of wolves. He invents a life history for this hero wolf who survives the greatest hardships. When the normal prey of wolves (such as bison and antelope) are killed off by human hunters, the wolves of North Dakota, like those of New Mexico, are forced to kill cattle, putting them into conflict with humans. Unlike Lobo, Billy outwits all the hunters. In addition to instincts, animals learn behavior by watching others of their own kind and through personal experience. Although these ideas are now accepted among animal behaviorists, when Seton first suggested them, they were highly controversial.

Quote from Seton in Animal Heroes: “A Hero is an individual of unusual gifts and achievements. Whether it be man or animal, this definition applies; and it is the histories of such that appeal to the imagination and to the hearts of those who hear them.”

Use these questions to generate conversation in a discussion group. Special note: the hunt for Billy took place in 1897, three years after the death of Lobo.

1. Long ago, antelope and buffalo roamed the grasslands of America. Eventually, many of these animals were hunted to near extinction and replaced by cattle. The remaining wolves had nothing left to eat but cattle. Does this change your perception of wolves?
2. What do mother wolves need to teach their pups?
3. Why does Billy survive when Lobo did not?
4. When Billy escapes the dogs, Seton cheers him on. Seton seems very different than three years earlier during his encounter with Lobo. Why do you think he has changed?
5. What are the attributes of an animal hero? Which of these traits are demonstrated by Billy?

Silverspot, The Story of a Crow is Seton’s classic look into the secret lives of birds., the subject that began his interest in natural history. Birds, especially large ones such as crows are relatively easy to see. Birds of the Corvidae family (crows, jays and ravens) are known as animals of exceptional intelligence. Silverspot is a natural leader and teacher, wise in the ways of his own kind, and the object of Seton’s attention over several years when he lived in Toronto.

Quote from Seton in Wild Animals I Have Known: “How many of us ever got to know a wild animal? I do not mean merely to meet with one once or twice, or to have one in a cage, but to really know it for a long time in the wild, and to get an insight into its life and history.”

Use these questions in discussion of the story.

1. Seton interprets the calls of crows as a kind of language. Are the crows really speaking to each other?
2. Crows can reason, plan, and learn. When Silverspot drops bread into a stream entering a tunnel, he knows to wait for its reappearance at the tunnel’s other end. How much are we like them or they like us?
3. Are there absolute differences between the behavior of crows and of humans?

Raggylug, The Story of a Cottontail Rabbit. Seton shows how animals, like people, do learn by watching their elders. He was one of the first naturalists to develop a scientific-based understanding of animal behavior. He wrote that animals (including rabbits) learn through instinct, but also by watching adults of the same species, and through personal experience. As we watch them go through their daily routines, we find out just how dangerous the world can be. 

Quote from Wild Animals I Have Known: “Those who do not know animals well may think I have humanized them, but those who have lived so near them as to know somewhat of their ways and theirs minds will not think so.”

Consider these questions.

1. Which of Rag’s learning moments falls into which of the three categories (instinct, watching and imitating others, personal experience)?
2. Time after time, Rag’s mother shows a willingness to make the ultimate sacrifice (that is, giving up her own life) to save him. How do you feel about her?

Bingo, The Story of My Dog is a tribute to man’s best friend. Most of us have owned or been around dogs. The human-dog bond is unique. Bingo saved Seton’s life at least once, perhaps twice. 

Quote from Wild Animals I Have Known: “It is wonderful and beautiful how a man and his dog will stick to one another, through thick and thin.”

Here are some things we might ask about these relationships.

1. What remarkable experiences have you had with dogs?
2. What have you learned from dogs?
3. Do you think they really know what we think and feel?
4. Is there such a thing as a “bad dog” or are do dogs react to us in developing their own behavior?

The Springfield Fox. At least until the advent of televised nature programs, few were privileged to observe the secretive fox as closely as Seton. This fox made an appearance in Raggylug’s story as a predator passing through. But here we see that the foxes have families of their own to care for. They react to changing situations with both emotion and intelligence. A fox can consciously choose to resemble a rock in order to escape attention. This suggests they are, at least in some ways, much like us.

Quote from Wild Animals I Have Known: “For each kind of prey they [the fox pups] were taught a way to hunt, for every animal has some great strength or it could not live, and some great weakness or the others could not live.”

Discuss the following ideas.

1. When people and animals (such as foxes) encounter one another, the result is often tragic for the animal. What steps might we take to avoid or non-violently resolve conflicts with wild animals?
2. Have you ever seen a fox or other secretive wild animals?

The Pacing Mustang dramatizes the plight of wild animals by having a mustang choose between captivity and death.  Seton set this story concurrently with his hunt for Lobo. In order to create a sense of drama, he has the Mustang, in its final moment, chose death by suicide over captivity. Most scientists have doubted this could really have happened, but it is clear that animals have an emotional life.

Quote from Wild Animals I Have Known: “Up, up and on, above the sheerest cliff he dashed away into the vacant air, down—down—two hundred downward feet to fall, and land upon the rocks below, a lifeless wreck—but free.” 

A group could discuss these questions.

1. If we could tune into the feelings of wild horses (or wolves or rabbits), what might we learn?
2. In the late 1800s, the western United States was lightly populated and thinly fenced. Have you visited areas that were vast and open? What did you experience and how did you feel about that place?

Redruff, The Story of the Don Valley Partridge is a poignant look at the extreme impact humans can have on wild nature. This is a particularly sad story where harmless animals are relentlessly pursued until they are exterminated. We will let Seton write the first discussion question from Wild Animals I have Known:

1. “Have the wild things no moral or legal rights? What right has man to inflict such long and fearful agony on a fellow creature, simply because that creature does not speak his language?”
2. Seton does not apply these questions to the way people treat one another. But do you believe these questions are valid in questioning how all the peoples of the world either do or do not get along?
3. The back-page art in the original edition (and in many editions of the book) shows a man, a wolf, and a bird together. A rising sun comes up behind them (shining its light on all equally). A river or lake flows in front on them (from which all must drink). Swirling lines of energy connect all of them together. Was Seton correct in his vision, is it possible that all peoples, animals, and plants can someday achieve some level of harmony? 

Advanced Topics in Lifecraft #3 Learning as Transformation

This deep sky is for me a visual representation of the possibility of  deep learning

In this essay, I am taking a somewhat different tact, using by permission, the Learning Model of the Academy for the Love of Learning. This has been developed over many years and is explored through the Academy’s programs. I believe Seton would have understood this approach since observation and experience were key to his view of learning.

We can enter the Learning Model by referring to events from Seton’s life, and then follow up with questions that we can ask about our own. Learning Model components create the basis of all programs offered through the Academy. Even in its simplest form, it brings personal engagement to the learning process, invites creativity and insight, and the establishes the potential for deep learning. Four key elements of the model (below) are also inherent to the meaning of Seton’s Lifecraft.

The Academy’s founder, Aaron Stern, while he was developing the fundamentals of his organization’s approach to education, had no knowledge of Seton or his ideas on Lifecraft. It may be too much to claim convergence of the two sets of ideas, but there are parallels which I mentioned in the previous essay (Lifecraft #2).

When Aaron made an agreement with Dee Seton Barber (Seton’s daughter) to provide the Seton Legacy with an institutional home at the Academy, he saw that Seton’s life illustrated one of the Academy’s core principles: one can become the change that one wants to see in the world. To learn more, we invite you to visit the Academy’s web site (the link is above) as well as the campus at Seton Village to take part in its programs. (In the meantime, we are happy to hear your thoughts on all of this.)

While there is no direct connection between Seton’s Fourfold Path and the four aspects of the Academy’s Learning Model (the number of four being coincidence), you may wish to join me in consideration of the parallels. The Fourfold Path (or Lifecraft Way) summarized:

1.     Service of Love (a waking up of consciousness about oneself, and one’s place in a larger context.

2.     Spirit of Fortitude (courage arising from self-reflection and empathy)

3.     Body of Beauty (recognition of the sanctity of life and standing for the well-being of all life)

4.     Mind of Truth (accepting honesty, reverence, and reasonableness as core guiding values)

As an adjunct to this, I can add, that although Seton was a romantic (in reaction to the mass-war, mass-industrial age), at the same time he specifically rejected the irrational as a legitimate means of interpreting meaning in the world.

The Learning Model of the Academy for the Love of Learning summarized:

EXPERIENCE
Seton hunted wolves, and eventually trapped Lobo. He came to see the nobility and intelligence of the wolf and, as he watched Lobo’s dignity in dying, was profoundly touched.  His understanding of animals was forever changed.

Begin with the experience—either an experience in the moment, or one that can be remembered…

• Experience could come in many forms: drawing or painting, storytelling, movement, group activity, time in nature, going for an outing
• Pretty much anything you give full attention to could be called an experience

Can you recall an experience that was transformative for you?

REFLECTION
Seton spent much of his time alone while he was in New Mexico trapping wolves. He kept a journal of his experience, and thought deeply about what he was seeing and feeling. Writing Lobo’s story was a powerful form of reflection.

 Take some time to think and feel into the experience…

• Reflection can be alone, or with another – can include journaling, drawing, going for a walk
• Tell the story of the experience to a partner
• Include feelings, emotions, memories that were evoked

When you reflect back on your transformative experience, what do you remember most clearly? What were the details, including feelings and emotions, that seem particularly meaningful to you now?

MAKING MEANING
To find meaning from his experiences in New Mexico, Seton made an extensive study of its birds and animals as an artist and naturalist, and also learned from Native American friends and mentors. Over time, Seton formulated an understanding of the interconnectedness of the natural world, including the role and impact of humanity.

Explore learning from the experience and what meaning can be made from it…

• What personal or shared learning came from the experience?
• What other sources of information can add insight?
• How can this learning be applied in life? How can it be explored further?

What meaning does your experience hold for you? What did you learn from it about yourself, and about the world?

ACTION
Seton’s life of activism as a conservationist, naturalist, and educator, grew out of his experience with Lobo, and the resulting transformation of his understanding of the natural world.

Try out the learning…

• Follow curiosity, see where this learning leads
• See if it invites another cycle of learning…

How were you changed by that moment in your life? What actions, or new ways of being in the world, resulted from your experience?

Four Ways to Support the Learning Process

1. This way of learning involves the whole person:
Thinking is only a small part of the picture. Invite the whole of each person into the inquiry.

• Physical movement – can you dance your experience, or explore it with your body?
• Sensations – what textures, tastes, tones are in your experience?
• Emotions – how do you feel? What do your feelings want to tell you about your experience?
• Imagination – what colors are in your experience – what could you name your experience

2. Slowing down helps bring awareness to reflection:
Often our need to reach completion overwhelms the richness that comes with savoring the journey.

• Invite participants to stop for a moment and listen, or feel, what is happening inside themselves, and in the group.
• Encourage participants to relish their stories, take time to speak, and really get into the telling.
• Listen slowly, too. As a facilitator, listen with depth, and experiment with reflecting back what you hear when a participant says something that touches you. Let him or her know how you were affected.
• If things are going too fast, suggest everyone takes a breath, feels their weight on the chair, looks around the room.

3. Follow your curiosity:
What catches your attention can bring guidance as you work with the group.

• Ask questions that deepen and invite feeling: “Can you say more…?”
• Invite the unexpected: “What might happen if…?”
• Allow yourself to be transparent at times: “When you said that, I felt very moved. Thank you for being so open.”
• When strong feelings come up for you, as facilitator, can you follow the thread internally – what is being evoked in your own story? Be curious about that, too.

4. Attend to what goes on in the ‘field’:
When the unexpected happens, it may bring a key insight to the group.

• Notice the tone of the group – is it alive, sleepy, all over the place.  Can you play with that, and make it part of the experience? “Let’s get up and run around the room.” “How about a five-minute nap?” or, “What do you think our sleepiness is trying to say to us?”
• Are there themes coming into the group through reflections? Stories?
• What’s happening outside the group? Are there interruptions? What’s the weather doing? Was there a powerful headline on the news?

anno ab incarnatione lupus 123 E.E., Annual Letter to Lobo

 

Valley of the Corrumpa where Lobo lived in 1894. dlw photo from Capulin Volcano 2010

Dear Lobo,

                  I have been writing these to you yearly, expressing appreciation for all your work in the world, even dating a new historical era from the date of your death, now that BC, AD, CE, etc. seem irrelevant.

                  January 31 of the Environmental Era is a special day with the growing hours of light (in New Mexico at least) becoming more evident. While Earth Day (April 22) is a day to celebrate Nature, this date should become one of reflection on what is happening to the world you knew only so briefly.

                  Unfortunately, I don’t have much positive news to report. This past year of 122 E.E. was not a particularly good one. First and most importantly, it was the hottest on record in terms on averaged annual global temperature. The temperature has risen 1.3° Celsius since the time when you roamed the plains of the Corrumpa. (That translates to 2.3° Fahrenheit for you as a non-scientist wolf.)

                  According to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, earth is now “on the edge” of runaway heating. Imagine yourself in ferocious pursuit of an antelope on an exceptionally hot, sunny day when, at the end of the chase, there is no way to cool off. That should give you an idea of what we are up against.

                  On the same day as the release of this report, National Public Radio ran an interview with someone who, as I recall, has the title of Secretary of Energy. He spoke calmly about someday, decades from now, when carbon fuel use will gradually be replaced by renewables such as solar power. Decades from now! He should have been panicking, promising to lead a campaign to get us off of carbon right away. And, compared to the joker who has replaced him, well, words fail. Makes me want to howl.

                  Almost no one mentions—outside of obscure corners of the internet, something like the scent marking you use to interpret—that cows, as leading methane producers, are just as important in causing climate change as fossil fuels. Little did you know (or at least I think you didn’t know) that by killing cows you were doing your part to combat climate change. You were right to kill so many of them.

                  I could go on with list of terrible and destructive political developments here and abroad by populists, fascists, and terrorists, but I’m running out of energy (so to speak). To put it in terms you would understand, imagine a world of wolf hunters run amuck (actually, last year 14 Mexican Gray Wolves were murdered in New Mexico and Arizona) and you will get an idea of what 122 E.E. has been like.

                  Thanks again for your sacrifice in attempting to warn us Lobo, and for your ongoing inspiration. I will hope that our collective environmental consciousness will continue to grow stronger and that next year, I may be able to give you a better report.

                  (Actually, I’m not counting on it, but according to Joanna Macy and other environmentalists, we must hold on to positive thoughts if we are to have any chance to making it to 124 E.E. and beyond.)

Your devoted admirer,

The Author

anno ab incarnatione lupus

Wolf portrait by Seton

According to Julian/Gregorian calendar reckoning, we have entered the 2016^th year following the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. The religious descriptor A.D. (in the year of the Lord) has been in widespread use for over twelve hundred years. The more secular C.E. (common era) has in recent times gained limited traction with historians.

I will here propose a new system for reckoning time: January 31, 2016 C.E. should become known as the first day of the Year 122 E.E.

Year 1 (a.k.a. Environmental Era—E.E.—January 31, 1894) marks the death of the gray wolf “Lobo, King of Currumpaw” at the hands of Ernest Thompson Seton. Not long afterward Seton repudiated animal trapping as well as persecution of predators (including wolves). In 1925 he predicted the coming civilization-ending environmental disasters.

I chose January 31, 1894 as the New Year 1 E.E. because the death of Lobo represents the turning point between the old world of unconscious environmental destruction and the new world of conscious environmental destruction. After that fateful year we had no more excuses for our war on nature.

Seton’s account of the life and death of Lobo was published in November of 1 E.E., proving the link between morality and wild nature. In his stories, Seton showed that we ignore this connection at our peril.

Other than Seton, the Apostles of Lobo of course did not know him; indeed, few are left who personally knew Seton. But we who know the Gospel of Lobo (the environmental New Testament Part I) and the Gospel of Walden (the environmental Old Testament) will continue to carry the message as long as we have breath.

My celebration of New Year’s Day 122 E.E. will include climbing the mountain behind my house to spend time with the elk who reside there this time of year. I hope you will also find a way of honoring wild nature on this special day.

Happy New Year, Lobo.

(New Testament Part II is Seton’s 1901 story “Krag, the Kootenay Ram.”)

Wolf! Annual Letter to Lobo

Canine drawing by Ernest Thompson Seton, courtesy Academy for the Love of Learning

January 31, 2015 marks the 121^th anniversary of the death of Lobo, a wolf trapped by Ernest Thompson Seton along the Corrumpa River in northeastern New Mexico. I have written in my book on Seton and elsewhere in this blog about how he underwent a psychological and spiritual transformation as a result of his encounter with the great wolf Lobo. This encounter became one of the foundational moments leading to today’s environmentalism. Over thirty years after Lobo’s death, Seton wrote this wolf appreciation. Excerpt from Vol. I of Lives of Game Animals (1925), pg. 336-337.

LIFE VII—THE GRAY-WOLF. His True Character—A Challenge

[Excerpt from Vol. I of Lives of Game Animals (1925), pg. 336-337]

“Thus have I offered evidence of the courage, the chivalry, the strength, the playfulness, the love loyalty, the fidelity, the friendliness, the kindliness, the heroism, the goodness of the Wolf—completing my attempt to set before you the faithful and fearless portrait of a creature so long maligned; to piece together the little scraps of truth I have found in countless hunter-tales, like gold raked out of garbage bins; to make you know the wild one’s true character and his way of life as it really is.

Now with all the evidence before me and much more of the same available, and with the story of Lobo in mind (for it is true in the main), can anyone wonder that I love the Gary-wolf and credit him with true nobility of character—with the attributes of a splendid animal hero?”