"Harrison's 40 years' worth of work explores what constitutes a good life, both aesthetically and morally,on this planet. On the basis of that work we can extract what might be called Harrison's Five Rules for Living:
1. Eat well, of course, avoiding the ninny diets and mincing cuisines that demonize appetites and make unthinkable a tasty snack of hog jowls. We're all going to die. Might as well enjoy a little fat along the way. (In a 1971 "false memoir" called "Wolf", written while Harrison was convalescing from a fall off a cliff, he suggested curing heartbreak by broiling a two-to-three-pound porterhouse, eating it with your hands, followed by a hot bath in which you consume the best bourbon you can buy until the bottle is empty. Then sleep for a day. Ladies and gentlemen, this works.)
2.Pursue love and sex, no matter discrepancies of desire and age. Romance is worth the humbling. Doing it outdoors on stumps, in clearings, and even swarmed by mosquitoes is particularly recommended.
3. Welcome animals, especially bears, ravens and wolves, into your waking and dream life. An acceptance of our common creaturedom is essential not just to the health of the planet but to our ordinary happiness. We are mere participants in natural cycles, not kings of them.
4. Rather than lighting out for territory, we ought to try living in it.
5. And finally, love the detour. Take the longest route between two points, since the journey is the thing, a notion to which, contaminated by zen-fascist slogans of advertising ("just do it!") we all pay lip service to but few of us indulge."
---------Will Blythe, Reviewing "Returning to Earth"
N.Y.Times, Feb.11, 2007
What's cool is both of our biographies begin with "Born and raised in Michigan..."
FOR VIDEO INTERVIEW WITH JIM HARRISON, SEE "Links" ON LEFT SIDE OF PAGE
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