The city of Rocklin has a pretty terrible track record with beavers, but still found itself faced with an unwilling beaver heroine as it heads into the final stages of excavating its remaining wetlands to make room for a monstrosity of a housing unit opposite Sierra College. Laurie Rindell has been filming and photographing these beavers and talking to neighbors and doggedly reading planning documents and writing engineers as they ruin one of the last wild spaces left in Rocklin. It’s a grim job. She didn’t ask for it. And I feel a strong combination of beaver solidarity and deja vu whenever we chat about it to plan or console.
But I didn’t expect this.
Yesterday a package arrived for me in the mail wrapped in brown paper. And I thought, “Oh a christmas gift! That’s nice” and thought maybe it will hold some little beaver trinket or other or maybe a chew and I should thank her. Then I turned it sideways and saw she sketched this on the side of the box:
I was blown away by the artistry, the accuracy, the waterline and the potential. I could immediately imagine this on our ceiling, like the Sistine Chapel or as a watercolor flag with children filling in all the fishes below and the dragonflies and birds above. I could see this as a bookmark. A tattoo. Letterhead. I love it. Love it. LOVE IT.
I still have no idea what’s in side the package but I strongly doubt it could ever EVER be as lovely as what’s outside it. Thanks Laurie.
