Harmonizing on the Mississippi
“There is moonlight and moss in the trees, down the Seven Bridges road.” These are the lyrics to a line in The Eagles song “Seven Bridges Road.” This song is an excellent example of harmony making a song sound extraordinary because it has four distinct parts. All four parts together produce musical magic, but if you take some away or change parts, it ruins it. As in music, nature has a harmony that makes it all go together. A single part missing or out of place disrupts the whole system. John Madson lives in harmony with the Mississippi river, throughout Up on the River. Madson shows his love for the river and tells how he despises those who are cutting parts of the harmony and trying to change the melody of the river. Madson lives in harmony with the river because he is an environmentalist. He does this in many ways. Madson shows that he is an environmentalist when he describes “how walleyes are very sensitive to pollution and turbidity in the water” (140). His background as a biologist further supports this because in order to be a field biologist you have to love the field in which you work to do well. Madson loves to fish, and the fish are part of his field site, the Mississippi. His biological knowledge
Madson shows his love for the river several distinct times, but the entire book is his love letter to the river. Madson tells how he loves canoeing in the young waters of the Upper Mississippi (37-41). He calls the beginning in Itasca “an infant river” (37). There is some symbolism here because he is canoeing in the young part of the river with his daughter. Madson, being a father, feels that he needs to protect his children, so he wants the river to maintain health and beauty. Like a loving father, Madson feels that he can’t do anything good for the river. He says, “We are Earth’s only bad habit” (99). Madson says this because he is admitting that he is only human and is not perfect. Because he isn’t perfect he tries harder to protect the river. gives him an advantage while fishing, yet it also makes him more careful of the environment. Because he loves to fish, he also loves the thrill of the hunt. Whether he’s hunting partridge, ducks, geese, quail, or pheasant, Madson always behaves like a sportsman when he hunts. Like any good sportsman, he doesn’t harm the environment, and Madson despises poachers and people who harm his playground. Once you experience the great outdoors, video games and TV aren’t nearly as much fun as
Some topics in this essay:
River Madson,
Upper Mississippi,
Bridges Road”,
Willie’s McDonalds,
Corp Engineers,
Eagles Madson,
War Madson,
Seven Bridges,
John Madson,
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love river,
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simple creature,
loves fish,
letter river,
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siltation harms,
madson lives,
love letter river,
madson lives harmony,
lives harmony,
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Approximate Word count = 849
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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