I've recently become sort of an activist, championing for many causes that through my various travels and life-lessons have become dear to my heart. Anything from fighting to stop domestic abuse to environmental concerns to advocating for the mentally-ill, this fact is something that I am increasingly proud of, something that I feel that is an aspect that defines my true self.
Recently, I finished the book, Bayou Farewell, by Mike Tidwell. It was a book I picked up for character research on a part I've undertaken for the last few years, a story of a trek down the Louisiana Bayou for a local playwright's radio play, Trek of The Catahoula Kids, in which I played Tansy, a Bayou native. I set out to learn a little about the culture, the land, the people to help better understand my character but I ended up falling in love and appreciation with Tidwell's book. In short, I got more than I had bargained.
Tidwell writes about the vanishing Bayou, due to the lack of sediment from the Mississippi needed to restore and create new land, thus that which is already there is all too swiftly liquifying into more and more river. The causes of this range from the need to "control" the great Mississippi river to help the growing human population to the oil industry's usage of the land.
Tidwell's writing style is not preachy, but is styled in a narrative that reads like a novel, with a few necessary facts along the way. He recalls with vivid accuracy his journey backpacking through the Bayou, a telling that makes a more powerful impact on the need to act more than any lecture or campaign could.
It made me think and added another cause to my growing need to save the planet and to make a better place in this world before I leave it. It is for this reason I write this blog, adding links below for more accurate information, including a link where Bayou Farewell can be purchased.
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