B E I NG PR ESENT IN A LARGE L AN D The late Canadian environmental philosopher and writer John Livingston reminded us that human survival in the natural world depends on a variety of “prostheses.” Hunkered down in subarctic Quebec on the third day of an August gale, I’m thinking about how a mountaineering tent, warm clothes and down sleeping bags are all that’s keeping my partner and me somewhat comfortable. We’ve scrounged all the twigs of firewood the barrens will provide; tonight we’ll burn fossil fuel on a camp stove to cook a meal we dehydrated months ago at home. Meanwhile, the tent strains in the gusts, pulling against guy lines secured to our 85-pound canoe on the windward side. Despite all the food and hardware we’ve packed to persist for an eight-week journey in this harsh and wild place, waiting is our only choice. We memorize the maps and inventory our remaining provisions. Then we daydream of a faraway world: The projects we’ll tackle, people we’ll see and books we’ll read back home—if the wind ever subsides. It’s frustrating and humbling to be confined to life in the present tense. Yet months from now, I know I will yearn to be the hapless “rogue primate” Livingston described. BY CON OR M IHE LL
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