February 1954 (age 54)

As Sigurd is more seriously pursuing the idea of gathering a number of his old, mostly unpublished essays and putting them into a book (which would become The Singing Wilderness), his wife, Elizabeth, and daughter-in-law Vonnie have been reading and critiquing them. Both of the women greatly enjoyed "Silence," which would become the centerpiece of the book. Elizabeth also liked "The Way of a Canoe," but not "Farewell to Saganaga," which she called (according to Sig's journal) "confused, unduly dramatic, immature." Sig said he thought she might be right, because he had written it some twenty years earlier. It pointed to the need for him to rewrite his old essays, in addition to writing new ones. Meanwhile, Sigurd read a Saturday Review review article about the poetry of Kathleen Raine and Theodore Roethke, and says he has much in common with their sense of mystery and the primeval. He also has just read the book So Long to Learn, by John Masefield, and quotes from it at length in his journal. Masefield tells the story of when he first experienced an epiphany as a child, entering "that greater life." He says, "I believe that life to be the source of all that is of glory or goodness in this word; and that modern mad, not knowing that life, is dwelling in death." Masefield says fewer and fewer are seeking this source of everything that is good and beautiful and right, and so few "bring from it something shining for man." This is what Sig says he wants to do in his essays, to touch that greater life and bring forth something shing for man.

February 1969 (age 69)

Nothing to report. Sigurd is still in Florida, recovering from his heart attack.