Kim’s Strafford’s essay “A Few Miles Short of Wisdom” found in the book Having Everything Right is about his visit to the Big Hole Battlefield in Montana. The essay is about an author’s insatiable appetite for a clearer view of the world and having a deeper meaning of events in the world. This is the appetite that most of us always have when we visit places that have a special meaning for us. Kim Strafford’s visit is a learning experience as he is driven by the hunger for the absolute reality and the quest to know the kind of person that he is, the place at which he is and the events that are happening around him. This is the same desire that always makes most of us want to understand the deeper meaning of events.
Strafford battles drowsiness and hunger to go and understand the events that happened in the Big Hole National Battlefield. He shows the determination and the urge he had by stating, “I will not eat until I learn from this place.” (27). His desire to learn and understand the truth was insurmountable. The place had meaning to him as he states that, “where Joseph and the Nez Perce band were attacked one year after Custer had died.” (27). Strafford describes the a lot of information he obtained about the events but he was unsatisfied. He states, “Still my head was vacant” (27). Strafford wanted to learn more about the events and commune with that community. Strafford was curious to know whether people from the Nez Perce tribe visited the place and what were the events that happened when they visited the place. Upon further inquiry, he is told that the Nez Perce mostly visited at night, conducted ceremonies and left behind ribbons to commemorate the events that had happened on that battlefield. Strafford follows the trail of the events and locates the ribbons left behind by the Nez Perce. He further notes that long before the ribbons were used, the Nez Perce had been using beads to commemorate the events of the place. Strafford notes with satisfaction that the information offered through brochures and slideshows at the headquarters were only a “preparation of knowledge” (33). He states that it takes a change of heart to truly know the events that happened in a historical place.
Toward the end of the essay, Strafford explores nature and describes the valuable lessons that he had learnt from his short expedition to the Big Hole National Battlefield. He notes that books and other pieces of writings found in historical monuments and places usually leave out very important information about the events. These pieces of literature do not always explain the current state of the affected tribes or any events that people carry out to celebrate fallen heroes. He describes the little girl who was asked by her little sister about the ribbons. The girl replied, “Which ribbons?” “It doesn’t say” as she was referring to the brochure provided. Strafford explores nature by describing the bear he saw on his way to Wisdom. This bear evoked meaning as it revealed the events he had learnt from the Big Hole National Battlefield. In the end, Strafford notes that he was changed by those events and vowed to replicate the lessons he had learnt from his short expedition.
Works Cited
Stafford, Kim R. Having Everything Right: Essays of Place. Lewiston, Idaho: Confluence Press, 1986. Print.
