What You See is What You Get

In what bold relief stand out the lives of all walkers of the snow!  The snow is a great tell-tale, and blabs as effectually as it obliterates.  I go into the woods, and know all that has happened.  I cross the fields, and if only a mouse has visited his neighbor, the fact is chronicled.  –John Burroughs

We were walkers of the snow on Saturday.  Even though it was only a chilly 11 degrees F, it was a sunny day with no wind.  With minimal snow cover, it was a perfect day for a winter hike!  We went to Rockville County Park and Nature Preserve which is adjacent to the Sauk River and Eagle Park where we watched the eagles last summer.  One of the first things we noticed were the mouse or vole tracks through the snow–not tracks, exactly, but a trail, as their low-to-the-ground body indented the snow.  Scattered seeds of a fallen dock will likely entice the rodents to trek this way.

We saw deer tracks skirting a dried, prickly thistle, then following the trail through the woods.

A large area of the park has been planted to re-establish a natural prairie.

The arched seed heads of Indian grass shone in the bright sunshine and stood tall in the open winter.

We walked toward the Sauk River through the woods.  We saw fox tracks and many fallen trees from a previous summer’s tornado-like storm.  The River was frozen from either side of the banks, but the middle was a fast-moving stream.

The River had an S-shaped bend and as the narrow channel of open water turned each corner, it flowed swiftly as a Rocky Mountain stream.

Walking through the leafless woods and along the prairie with only an inch or two of snow covering the ground, we could see everything.  We saw the animal tracks, the grasses, the lay of the land–what you see is what you get–until we got to the River.  Up river and down river from where we were, the ice covered the entire river.  The swiftly flowing current was under the ice, hidden from sight.  Just how deep was the ice above the current?  I wasn’t going to find out.

In the early Seventies, a group named The Dramatics sang a song ‘What You See is What You Get’ (Whatcha See is Whatcha Get).  The phrase was used in the media to assure customers of the quality of products.  It was adopted by Flip Wilson for his comedic skits.  It is used in the computing world (as the acronym WYSIWYG) to signify that what is displayed on the screen is the way it will be displayed in print.  Most of us try to display ourselves as the ‘real thing.’  We want to be genuine and live our lives without hidden agendas.  We want to be like the woods and the prairie.  But we all have a little bit of frozen river in us.  What’s going on inside does not match what it looks like on the outside.  The ice is covering something we cannot see–especially in ourselves.  How thick is the ice?  That may matter when fording a stream in winter, but Life doesn’t care.  What does matter is that we work on melting the ice that separates us from ourselves so we can live our lives in bold relief.