River of Life Freezing Over
Journal 2004 11 15
River of Life Freezing Over
It’s getting cold along the Missouri River in the middle of November 1804. Ice is floating down the river. This phenomenon begs a whole series of questions by itself. What do you do when you see your “River of Life” becoming less accessible? The men must be anticipating that at some point in the not distant future that the river will freeze over.
On this day a group six of hunters were thirty miles downriver getting meat. Drouillard, who would prove to be the Corps best hunter, returns on horseback with a report on the men and their success. He also delivered tin for the men to cover the front of their river boats to protect them from the ice in the river. He also brought a tow rope for the heavily laden boats. Easier to pull them from the shore of the river than paddle or, can you imagine, get in the middle of the river and pull like they did when the weather was hot.
To put this task in perspective, can you imagine getting into the slough in Bothell, traversing Lake Washington south to the Cedar River and following it up into the Cedar River watershed where a large herd of elk resides. Then, after hunting them, and laying in a large supply of meat, transporting them back to Bothell via the same route.
It was a lot of work and seems daunting in comparison to our modern life. What strikes me in this regard is the principal of division of labor. Twenty percent, about six of the men went hunting to collect meat. The rest were involved in tasks around the building of their fort.
We should be looking in our lives today for the healthy division of labor as we work towards a common end.
River of Life Freezing Over
It’s getting cold along the Missouri River in the middle of November 1804. Ice is floating down the river. This phenomenon begs a whole series of questions by itself. What do you do when you see your “River of Life” becoming less accessible? The men must be anticipating that at some point in the not distant future that the river will freeze over.
On this day a group six of hunters were thirty miles downriver getting meat. Drouillard, who would prove to be the Corps best hunter, returns on horseback with a report on the men and their success. He also delivered tin for the men to cover the front of their river boats to protect them from the ice in the river. He also brought a tow rope for the heavily laden boats. Easier to pull them from the shore of the river than paddle or, can you imagine, get in the middle of the river and pull like they did when the weather was hot.
To put this task in perspective, can you imagine getting into the slough in Bothell, traversing Lake Washington south to the Cedar River and following it up into the Cedar River watershed where a large herd of elk resides. Then, after hunting them, and laying in a large supply of meat, transporting them back to Bothell via the same route.
It was a lot of work and seems daunting in comparison to our modern life. What strikes me in this regard is the principal of division of labor. Twenty percent, about six of the men went hunting to collect meat. The rest were involved in tasks around the building of their fort.
We should be looking in our lives today for the healthy division of labor as we work towards a common end.
posted by @2007 Dick Cinkovich | 11:16 PM
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