{"id":6633,"date":"2018-02-06T07:29:07","date_gmt":"2018-02-06T12:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/faithlens\/?p=6633"},"modified":"2018-01-23T17:53:37","modified_gmt":"2018-01-23T22:53:37","slug":"february-11-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/faithlens\/february-11-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"February 11, 2018–The Winterkeeper"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kris Litman-Koon, Mt. Pleasant, SC<\/strong><\/p>\n

Warm-up Question<\/strong><\/p>\n

Have you ever read an interesting autobiography? What made this person\u2019s life unique?<\/p>\n

The Winterkeeper
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the dawn of 2018, the Mountain Journal online magazine introduced<\/a> a year-long series written by a man named Steven Fuller, who is a \u201cwinterkeeper\u201d at Yellowstone National Park. During the warm months, winterkeepers do general upkeep for the park\u2019s buildings that are used by the thousands of summer tourists. During the cold months, each winterkeeper lives in complete solitude while ensuring those same buildings don\u2019t collapse under the weight of snow. The winterkeepers may need to trek miles between the buildings they are tasked to maintain.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>It is treacherous and dangerous work; mistakes can be deadly because no help is available. Wilderness survival skills are a must. Because it is such a solitary and demanding job, most winterkeepers last for a season or two. Steven Fuller, however, has 45 years as a winterkeeper under his belt. This is the longest tenure in the park\u2019s history. These decades have allowed Fuller to grow intimately close to the ecosystem where he stewards, and the solitude has allowed him to ponder the great questions of life.<\/p>\n

The Mountain Journal has asked Fuller to share his thoughts and photographs with its readers over the course of 2018. The series of journal entries is titled A Life in Wonderland<\/a>, and thus far it has included accounts of bison meandering onto his front porch and ruminations on the geological beauty of Hayden Valley. Although more is to come in this year-long encounter with Fuller, the reader can tell already that his words and worldview have been shaped by the wild places around him, much like Henry David Thoreau, Aldo Leopold, and Rachel Carson before him. It is exciting to know that more of Fuller\u2019s writings are to come and that his life\u2019s work is ongoing.<\/p>\n

Discussion Questions<\/strong><\/p>\n