I come from Seattle, but haven't lived there for nearly two decades. For some reason, I seem to have spent the intervening time in desert-like climates (central

I come from Seattle, but haven't lived there for nearly two decades. For some reason, I seem to have spent the intervening time in desert-like climates (central California, the Middle East, northern China). The dampness of Seattle -- in particular the proliferation of moss and fern -- has become a symbol to me of life and health. I remember once being in Wadi Rum, in Jordan, and amid the totally parched desert finding a deep crevice in a cliff, and way back in the heart of it there was a tiny, tiny trickle of dampness, and maybe a couple of square feet of moss and fern. Just the tiniest little patch, but delicate and absolutely beautiful. And another time being in the Hoh Rain Forest, on the Olympic Peninsula near Seattle, and looking at a little rill of water that cut through the soil, edged with a profusion of overhanging ferns and mosses, the water completely crystal, and not a hint of death or corruption anywhere. Even the rot was full of life. How lucky I am to come from a place where water really does mean life! (And not like the Amazon, where there is water, and life, but much of it is the kind of life that can poison you or inject eggs under your skin or swim up your urethra.)