WSI COLLABORATIVE EFFORTS:
The
Russian River Celebration
by Edgar Castellini
A subdued thrill runs through me each time I wend my way down to the banks of the River. This Russian River, this people-magnet, this comforter on warm summer days, this river-highway, this land-shaper: wherever you would be standing beside it, whether near its fountain sources in Mendocino County, or as the river spreads broad and receptive as it nears the ocean at Jenner, you would be touched and thrilled by this central artery of our region. Stand beside it long enough, make it some part of your mind-you will then want to celebrate this river, to render back to it in terms of your human feeling something of what it has given to you.
To celebrate the river, we need to reflect. We have to stop the car, turn off the engine, open the door, pause in the daily round for a moment, or a minute. You might pause here and now, and think: How does the river touch me, this moment?
Even if we do not live on the very banks of the river, we still live by the river, if we live in its watershed. Off our roof-tops or windows in that heavy winter storm, the drops run down the front yard, under the road, down the freshet, into that little seasonal creek. From there, into the larger creek, and we by force pause and watch in winter its brown waters rising, thundering by on their way to the great feeder creeks: the Laguna, Santa Rosa, Green Valley, Willow, Austin, Dry, Sulphur, Maacama, Fife Creeks, and many more, each a valley-maker, each a central shaper in its own realm. Then down into the main trunk of the river, now swollen with the brown steeped-tea of the watershed, mingling bits of everything it has nourished summer-long, speeding the whole mass to its ocean destination.
Or you might think of the river in its other moods: hopeful spring days of fresh westerly winds gusting along the new-green willow-lined river banks; warm relaxed unending summer days; cool autumn evenings as the stars shine down into still water. Whatever your favorite image, you ask the question: What answers do you have for me, river, for questions I am only learning to ask? And what can I give back to you, for all you have given us this season?
The Celebration of the Russian River and Its Watershed: A River Runs Through Us. Remember that the river runs for people of all ages, with different messages for each. To the youngest among us, the source of treasure-troves of life and mystery: unlimited measures of flowing water, air, fish, rocks and sand, sunshine, trees, along with boats, tubes, mud castles, rope swings, and picnics in the evening along the shore. To adolescents, add the new perception of moonlight and magic and the birth of love. Or later in life you add gardens and fruit trees, neighbors, the beach and circle you frequent-or anxiety and concern winter midnights as the river spills over its banks. Or your mind may be broadening and widening as does the river in its old age, needing hints of the eternal rhythms, something soothing and peaceful, the fluid waters doing away with boundaries and suggesting farther shores.
What do we do, all ages, along the river and along its creeks, its watershed? What do we not do? The Celebration of the Russian River is about all the things that we do, at each age. It celebrates life, love, art, work, school, religion. We hope you can find a time to join with others in this celebration, to join with others who, like you, are learning to celebrate-who aspire to leave behind them a river and a watershed for many thousand years of continued celebration.
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