For a period of about 40 years, I drove
past Wanapum Dam, on the big bend of the Columbia River, hardly noticing that
massive structure. Then, about two months ago I was in the area doing field
research for the latest book for children I am writing. Not only do I believe
in “book research,” but I think it’s a good idea to be on site.
After ranging though acres of sage brush,
stones, and all sorts of native plants and bugs, I decided to drive up to the
Dam and see if it contained an interpretative center or something of interest.
Turns out they have one of the finest Native American/Early Settler displays a
tourist could hope to see.
One part of the displays sticks in my
memory. It’s a hand-carved, dugout canoe, made from a whole log. The craft
stretches to about 18-20 feet. Its makers had carved the shape to perfection.
In that one canoe, humans and cargo could shoot rapids and sail along swift
currents, both upstream and down. According to the pictures on the museum’s
walls, such perfection of workmanship allowed for its Wanapum owner to stand up
and paddle the craft atop the smooth water of deep pools. I am still impressed!
I took pictures—it is permitted—and stood
for a while in thought. Who carved that canoe? How did they do it? What process
taught the Wanapums to do such a fine and careful job with a wooden log?
The answers allude me. I’ll be looking
for books on the subject and may learn more than I know now. But I do know this
much. That canoe, in its finished form, happened one chip at a time. That’s
right—one chip at a time! It wouldn’t surprise me if there were times when the
canoe makers got weary of their work. Still, they just kept chipping away at
it.
“How many books have you written,”
someone asked me a couple of weeks ago.
“Eight,” I said. “Four have been
published and the others are waiting in line”.
“Wow. I’ve thought about writing a book,”
he said. “It just seems like a daunting task. How do you do it?”
“I just keep chipping away at it, one
word at a time.”
Do you long to do something significant
but don’t know how to get it done? Well, just get started. Write the first
words, sew the first stitches, play the first notes, turn the first spade. Then
stay with it, learn more about it, apply your new knowledge, and just keep
chipping away at it. Your work won’t likely find a place in a future museum,
but you will have the personal satisfaction of fulfilling your own dream and
getting it done.
Richard
M. Cary
