2023 BTUSFMS #5 – The Star of the Show

More than two million people visit Olympic National Park every year. They come to see thousand-year-old trees that grow to world-renowned dimensions because of the 300 inches of rain that the rainforest receives each year. They come to see where the continental United States crashes into the Pacific Ocean. They come for a chance to see the resident Jefferson elk. They come for a photo op or postcard or t-shirt to commemorate their journey. But unquestionably, the star of the show is nature.

Today our route took us south along the western edge of the continent, between the park on our left and the Pacific on our right.

It’s a privilege to be here. And a sobering reminder that we need to be better stewards of this place. Not simply this one magnificent National Park, but every place we call home, including those places inside us—our proud National Park parts, our ignored urban squalor parts, and our forgotten or unknown parts.

We need to learn to listen in these places of grandeur and desolation. There is wisdom in the trees, in the crashing waves, in the wild things living here, and in the lost pilgrims who come searching for a forgotten connection, who come yearning to be seen and heard.

If we have dominion over the earth, it’s not to control it or to bend and train it to our will. It’s to listen to it in order to learn how better to serve it. Because if we really want to lead, we have to learn and accept that a leader is, first and last, a servant.

Riding a bicycle through creation is one way I am relearning how and why to listen. It’s not the only way. There are probably as many ways as there are ears to hear and voices waiting to be heard.

Let’s pause and move slowly enough, long enough to give those voices and their wisdom their time in the sun.

If you’re interested in learning more about BTUSFMS and the work they do, you can visit their website at http://www.biketheusforms.org.