{"id":610,"date":"2023-03-01T08:19:16","date_gmt":"2023-03-01T15:19:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/2023\/03\/01\/my-side-is-the-mountain\/"},"modified":"2023-03-01T15:13:48","modified_gmt":"2023-03-01T22:13:48","slug":"my-side-is-the-mountain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/2023\/03\/01\/my-side-is-the-mountain\/","title":{"rendered":"My side of the Mountain"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"665\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/img_1038-665x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-609\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/img_1038-665x1024.jpg 665w, https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/img_1038-195x300.jpg 195w, https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/img_1038-768x1182.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/img_1038-998x1536.jpg 998w, https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/img_1038-1331x2048.jpg 1331w, https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/img_1038.jpg 1629w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 665px) 100vw, 665px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ve always been an avid reader. The first story I can remember reading that was not a children\u2019s book in the sense of <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Velveteen_Rabbit\" target=\"_blank\">The Velveteen Rabbit<\/a> or <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Charlie_the_Choo-Choo_(book)\" target=\"_blank\">Charlie the Choo Choo<\/a>, was My Side of the Mountain, by Jean Craighead George. 4<sup>th<\/sup> grade I think. During the afternoon, our teacher would pull out her book and read. Us students would pull out our copies and read along. She\u2019d get us started and we\u2019d run down the rows of desks, each taking our turn reading a couple pages out loud. This would go on for maybe 30-45 minutes. My favorite part of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This&nbsp; book is about a boy who runs away from home. I can\u2019t recall the reasons why or anything. But I do remember he makes his way into a forest on a mountain, hollows out a huge tree to live within, and ends upraising a baby falcon. Him and the bird of prey develop a bond and together they live off the land. That\u2019s about all I can remember from it but has stuck with me ever since. Perhaps this was a catalyst for my love of the wilderness, along with my father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are many opinions on the story. You either hate it or love it. \u201cThat could never happen,\u201d being the most used excuse. To which I say, so what. It entertained me. It led me through a fantastic journey of the mind, which is the fundamental goal of any good story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>About once a decade, this book makes a reappearance in my life. This was one of those times. This particular fellow also read it as a child and dreamed of having his own falcon one day. <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2023\/02\/26\/1158798396\/falcon-hunting-training-falconer-bird-kansas\" target=\"_blank\">His dreams have come true<\/a>. Well played, old man. Well played.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My current adventure is Grady Hendrix\u2019s <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2023\/01\/20\/1150240753\/grady-hendrix-how-to-sell-a-haunted-house-is-campy-and-tense-dark-but-also-deep\" target=\"_blank\">How to Sell a Haunted House<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every so often, my favorite childhood book emerges into my life &#8211; My Side of the Mountain. #childhoodbook #mysideofthemountain #books<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":609,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27],"tags":[337,338],"class_list":["post-610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-books","tag-child-books"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/img_1038.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":612,"href":"https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610\/revisions\/612"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}