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73386e7
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If you look at it from the right point of view, lying is just good manners.
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Gary Paulsen |
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4a22c85
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Well, he'd actually never heard anybody say it. But he felt that it should be true. There
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Gary Paulsen |
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1103b45
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There is always a solution. For everything. Always. Sometimes it isn't pretty and takes a little longer, but there is still a solution.
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Gary Paulsen |
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363ee06
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We have grown away from knowledge, away from knowing what something is really like, toward knowing only what somebody else it is like. There seems to be a desire to ignore the truth in favor of drama.
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Gary Paulsen |
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a85263b
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None of that used to be in Brian and now it was a part of him, a changed part of him, a grown part of him, and the two things, his mind and his body, had come together as well, had made a connection with each other that he didn't quite understand
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Gary Paulsen |
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b22af77
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While now and then you hear somebody talking about how ". . . beautiful and elegant the predator-prey relationship is, how natural and proper the death of the prey is," it is usually so much misunderstood balderdash by people who have not witnessed it very many times, or worse, by people who have witnessed only highly edited versions on film."
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Gary Paulsen |
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d789011
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Do you like the race so far?' I looked at her, trying to find sarcasm, but she was serious; she really wanted to know. And I thought of how to answer her. I had gotten lost, been run over by a moose, watched a dog get killed, seen a man cry, dragged over a third of the teams off on the wrong trail, and been absolutely hammered by beauty while all this was happening. (It was, I would find later, essentially a normal Iditarod day -- perhaps a..
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Gary Paulsen |
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d82e830
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But I'm your brother." Daniel sounded genuinely wounded. "You," she announced, "are a turd in the punch bowl of life."
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Gary Paulsen |
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79743bc
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He had forgotten the most important thing about living in the wilderness, the one thing he'd thought he would never forget-expect the unexpected. What you didn't think would get you, would get you. Plan on the worst and be happy when it didn't come.
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unexpected
wilderness
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Gary Paulsen |
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907de11
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A person can do practically anything for a short time if he doesn't think he has to do it for life.
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Gary Paulsen |
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d6b6302
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He could not play the game without hope; could not play the game without a dream. They had taken it all away from him now, they had turned away from him and there was nothing for him now. The plane gone, his family gone, all of it gone. They would not come. He was alone and there was nothing for him.
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Gary Paulsen |
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069aa22
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He was out of food, but he could look tomorrow and he could build a signal fire tomorrow and get more wood tomorrow . . . The
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Gary Paulsen |
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a0cca78
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about four inches down, he suddenly came into a small chamber in the cool-damp sand and there lay eggs, many eggs, almost perfectly round eggs the size of table tennis balls, and he laughed then because he knew. It had been a turtle.
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Gary Paulsen |
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693db45
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It must have been a snapper
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Gary Paulsen |
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0150cb5
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He widened the hole with his finger and looked inside.
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Gary Paulsen |
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c27b40b
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moose was a moose. There
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Gary Paulsen |
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a103efd
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No, not secrets so much as just the Secret. What he knew and had not told anybody, what he knew about his mother that had caused the divorce, what he knew, what he knew--- the Secret.
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Gary Paulsen |
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8a82584
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I wish I had a dollar for every hour I've spent in the library," he always says. I have to agree- we'd probably never have to worry about money again."
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reading
humor
truth
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Gary Paulsen |
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c472123
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he's not stupid, he's just not observant.
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Gary Paulsen |
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dc018c9
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As if my whole life up to that time had somehow been safe and now I would ruin all that because, you know, catamarans flip over.
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Gary Paulsen |
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a4636cd
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I know that my life on boats has been about this: not the sailing or the sea so much as learning about self. And almost every boat I have had has taught me something.
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Gary Paulsen |
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f11ebe9
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But life has a way of pulling the rug out from under you just when you need it least, which is what they like to call growing, I guess, but as far as I'm concerned you can have it. It seems like everything they call growing up has to jerk your guts out and just about wreck you and I've never been able to understand why that's supposed to be good for you.
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Gary Paulsen |
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9907677
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Never assume anything, expect the unexpected, be ready for everything all the time. And
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Gary Paulsen |
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cf89a24
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He was not the same. The plane passing changed him, the disappointment cut him down and made him new. He was not the same and would never be again like he had been. That was one of the true things, the new things. And the other one was that he would not die, he would not let death in again.
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Gary Paulsen |
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6a82a42
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There were these things to do.
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Gary Paulsen |
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c98b194
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Perhaps when I am grown I will not know anything. Perhaps that is the way it works, the way it is with growing. When you grow, you start to unlearn things.
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Gary Paulsen |
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82d050b
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What he did instead was clean his shelter. He had been sleeping on the foam pad that had come with the survival pack and he straightened everything up and hung his bag out in the sun to air-dry and then used the hatchet to cut the ends of new evergreen boughs and laid them like a carpet in the shelter. As soon as he brought the boughs inside and the heat from the fire warmed them they gave off the most wonderful smell, filled the whole shel..
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Gary Paulsen |
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5d30d24
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It's just that those things don't seem to have the weight, the measureless beauty of countless sunsets and dawns, the simple grace and clear glory of nature.
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Gary Paulsen |
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ee31bce
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He could not play the game without hope; could not play the game without a dream. They had taken it all away from him now, they had turned away from him and there was nothing for him now. The plane gone, his family gone, all of it
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Gary Paulsen |
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805be2b
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The burning eyes did not come back, but memories did, came flooding in. The words. Always the words. Divorce.
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Gary Paulsen |
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4b6c185
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discoveries happened because they needed to happen. He
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Gary Paulsen |
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8042818
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He had read somewhere that wolves could eat up to twenty pounds of meat in a single meal and he thought the dog was coming close. She . . . just . . . kept . . . eating.
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Gary Paulsen |
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e1daae8
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Simple. Keep it simple. I am Brian Robeson. I have been in a plane crash. I am going to find some food. I am going to find some berries. He
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Gary Paulsen |
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8721f69
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blinded
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Gary Paulsen |
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8d36df0
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None of that used to be in Brian and now it was a part of him, a changed part of him, a grown part of him, and the two things, his mind and his body, had come together as well, had made a connection with each other that he didn't quite understand.
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Gary Paulsen |
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c9072b0
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Listen to me, he thought. If I were talking out loud, I'd be whining. Derek gets hit and I act like I'm the one getting messed up. It
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Gary Paulsen |
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e63b43b
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There. I've poked my leg, rolled down a bank and been hit in the head with the canoe. All simple things. All fixable things.
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simple-things
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Gary Paulsen |
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25bbaf7
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The best joy and beauty are the kinds that are unplanned, and the same is true of painting or poetry. Don't chew at it too much. It's beautiful, and it makes you remember a beautiful part of your life and that's enough.
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Gary Paulsen |
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19430dc
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Of course, the sea has tried to kill me on several occasions, has timed itself to coincide with my stupidity and put an end to me. Here in this beautiful lagoon, with time to think of things, and with serenity, some of the madness comes back to me now as I attempt the death-defying feat of eating a second Oreo with my tea.
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Gary Paulsen |
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932b04b
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I ran from the barn out through the herd to make certain and saw that the coyote was really dead, as was the sheep, but I ran smack into what makes border collies the incredible beings that they are. Louise grabbed at the coyote's neck, growling, and having made certain that it was dead, tried to bring the sheep back to life. She pulled at the ewe, trying to lift her to her feet, nudged at her ribs in a kind of crude CPR,
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Gary Paulsen |
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29abb2b
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I have seen their humor and anger expressed in natural terms and learned more about them as dogs and not just extensions of human training.
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Gary Paulsen |
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da9abb6
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He had to keep thinking of them because if he forgot them and did not think of them they might forget about him. And he had to keep hoping. He had to keep hoping.
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Gary Paulsen |
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68bb04b
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sex
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Gary Paulsen |
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fc2ac59
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It was, all in all, a grand example of interspecies lack of cooperation and the further illustration that might makes right. I stayed in the rest area, in my car, for another half an hour, until everything had settled down, and saw who emerged as the victor. The bees kept the water fountain.
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Gary Paulsen |