{"id":1294,"date":"2023-01-15T10:09:41","date_gmt":"2023-01-15T19:09:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/?p=1294"},"modified":"2023-01-15T10:09:41","modified_gmt":"2023-01-15T19:09:41","slug":"the-other-sleeping-lady","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/?p=1294","title":{"rendered":"The other Sleeping Lady"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cI like seeing the Sleeping Lady,\u201d says Elder Son, leading me to momentary confusion. He and I are sharing my car for a few days, and I am driving him to work. We are just passing the black cliffs between Craig and Klawock, a pair of sister cities on Prince of Wales Island. My son sees my look, and points to this, which is the view to our left as we drive:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I listen with dawning comprehension as he reminds me that when he and Younger Son were small I often told them the story of the Sleeping Lady, in which young Susitna, a member of an ancient race of giants, lay down to sleep until her lover returns from war. To date, he hasn\u2019t come back yet, but that doesn\u2019t mean he won\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEver since then,\u201d Elder Son concludes, \u201cI\u2019ve felt hopeful every time I pass this spot and see her.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I am delighted. I tell him that the original Mount Susitna, aka the Sleeping Lady, is located across Cook Inlet from Anchorage, and that the story I told him is an ancient Athabaskan legend from that area. We both laugh when we realize that for the almost thirty years since I first trotted out that story, he and I have been talking about different mountains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s the Sleeping Lady that most Alaskans are familiar with:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In contemplating these two lovely ladies, I am reminded of Zenna Henderson, a teacher and science fantasy writer from an earlier age. In one story, Zenna put forth the idea that some of our hills and mountains might just be creatures from other dimensions who are catching a nap before heading home. Who\u2019s to say? We have nothing to lose by treading lightly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

**************<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For your further edification:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zenna Henderson (Author of Pilgrimage) (goodreads.com)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/book\/show\/491887.The_Anything_Box<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI like seeing the Sleeping Lady,\u201d says Elder Son, leading me to momentary confusion. He and I are sharing my car for a few days, and I am driving him to work. We are just passing the black cliffs between Craig and Klawock, a pair of sister cities on Prince of Wales Island. My son […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[535,534,46,533,536],"class_list":["post-1294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-as-an-alaskan-educator-and-citizen","tag-athabascan-legend","tag-mount-susitna","tag-prince-of-wales-island","tag-sleeping-lady","tag-zenna-henderson"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1294"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1297,"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1294\/revisions\/1297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}