Becoming Our Own Volcano: the Fires of Nature and Humanity
BY PATRICK MAZZA
The ash cloud produced by the eruption of Mount St. Helens.Photograph Source: Rocky Kolberg – CC BY-SA 3.0
As I write this, it is the 43rd anniversary of the May 18, 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens. On that day the mountain certainly lived up to its Klickitat name, Tahonelatclah, Fire Mountain. The eruption was a reminder of our own fragility, the deep impermanence of human society, how it could all go in an instant. On another 43rd anniversary, that of my own entry into the world, I was granted a sight that embodied that reality.
Taking the day off to celebrate my birthday, I went hiking on Sauvie Island, a rural landscape formed north of the confluence between the Columbia and Willamette Rivers, one of my favorite places on Earth. The n...










