UW-Madison Archives
For those of us who find it hard to understand how a man like Donald Trump can all but capture one of our major party nominations for president, the annual Madison Reads Leopold event couldn’t come at a better time.
Each year on the Saturday closest to March 4 (the day Aldo Leopold signed the foreword to his famous work, A Sand County Almanac, in 1948) the UW Arboretum sponsors an event of quiet dignity. From 9:30 am to 3:30 pm Saturday at the McKay Center, 50 readers will read selections from Leopold’s body of work.
The public is invited to sit in for any portion of the day. There are no speeches, just the words of a great conservationist and a fine writer spoken out loud by environmentalists, conservation leaders, relatives and others with a connection to Leopold and just plain citizens of Madison. That includes me. I’ll be reading “January Thaw” just after 9:30 or so.
After I’m done with my own reading I always take a seat and listen to others read for a while. It’s comforting somehow to hear good people (some with impressive resumes of their own) read the words of a thoughtful man who knew how to express himself with a combination of bold ideas and subtle language. It’s an art that right now seems wholly lost in our public discourse, at least on one side of the equation.
If you’re feeling like the bruising political season is draining your very soul, than stop by Madison Reads Leopold for a little while. It may give you some hope that things can be better.
