| Motivation to write comes into your life at the | | | | journey to manhood, I participated in one of |
| strangest times and under the wierdest | | | | man's cruelest attempts at destroying half a |
| circumstances. | | | | country and thousands of people. Maybe I had |
| For example, when I wrote my first book about | | | | taken on the personal responsibility of saving the |
| the magnificent endangered Florida panther | | | | endangered panther because I found out first |
| tracking him in the Everglades through my | | | | hand what such a creature must feel like. Perhaps |
| lived-adventures my motivation seemed | | | | having been a part of destruction and death was |
| bottomless. Including my eerie parallels to my | | | | a stepping stone to becoming an extreme |
| Vietnam War experiences through flashbacks, I | | | | preservationalist. I was hunted by the Viet Cong, |
| quickly developed my journey to find myself. | | | | preyed upon, and finally almost killed. Surviving an |
| Eighty percent of my book, Cry of the Panther: | | | | enemy ambush was a miracle. |
| Quest of a Species, was written in the depths of | | | | However, I think miracles have a real purpose. I |
| the cypress tree swamps, pond apple sloughs, | | | | know the miracle of my own survival is what |
| mangrove forests, slash pine tree woods, and the | | | | motivated me to come to the Florida Everglades. |
| River-of-Grass-the very places where the big cat | | | | It's a miracle that any panthers have survived |
| roamed. | | | | too. Maybe the purpose of that miracle is to |
| In the beginning, I thought my wilderness | | | | make all of us consider our own survival as a |
| experiences alone motivated me to write because | | | | species. That will be the biggest miracle of all. This |
| I wanted to share them with others. Plus, there | | | | was another subtle means of motivation for me |
| were two overwhelming factors about this | | | | to write. |
| beautiful cat. His survival was in immediate peril. | | | | It was the big cat that taught me peace and a |
| He was on the verge of extinction. | | | | means of dealing with my life. It was Vietnam |
| Over the years many people have asked me | | | | that taught me how to stay alive. The panther |
| why I bothered with a big cat that was almost | | | | also ultimately led me to God. I am never closer |
| gone. How could I be motivated to write about | | | | to that miracle than when I am in the swamp |
| him? | | | | close to panthers. |
| I knew I had an intense desire to see if the | | | | My long journey toward tracking panthers was a |
| wondrous cat could really be rescued. | | | | pilgrimage of the soul. The panther and I were |
| But I was headed toward other self-encounters I | | | | conceived into this world to meet in the midst of |
| was not even aware of yet. Who knows his own | | | | the modern Everglades under siege by heavy |
| motives? Really, who really knows.? However, I | | | | over-development and over-population that have |
| will tell you that in writing my panther book I | | | | no place in the swamp. |
| began to encounter a few of mine. | | | | Though the panther and I were more than 15,000 |
| Though I can't yet say how or why, I knew | | | | miles apart at one point in our lives, circumstances |
| eventually I had to understand that volunteering | | | | eventually brought us together. I traveled a long |
| to go to Vietnam-and coming back-had a lot to | | | | twisting trail to the panther. Yet, I still sometimes |
| do with why I had spent years tracking the | | | | wonder if it was the cat's cause to track me |
| panther in a section of the United States that | | | | down. Maybe in our spirit territories we were |
| was most like the Vietnam tropical jungle. | | | | seeking each other. Either way, our tryst was my |
| Ironically, when I left Vietnam in 1967, I swore I | | | | wilderness re-birth as a human being into a new |
| would never go out in the forest again. I thought I | | | | life, a life that offered itself as solid hope and |
| hated it. A few years later I couldn't wait to get | | | | motivation for the preservation of the Everglades. |
| to the Everglades. It seemed my motivation was | | | | It was the panther that poured into my |
| unconsciously spawned well before I got to the | | | | consciousness an infinite, positive power that |
| swampland. | | | | made me realize that this big cat was much more |
| Now I will never leave. I love the swamp and | | | | than a wild animal on the prowl for prey. |
| panther. Rather then being a grim, disheartening, | | | | In Vietnam I was not only hunted, but I was also |
| empty place, the swamp is infinitely fulfilling, rich | | | | the hunter. I carried an M-14 rifle. My orders were |
| with vegetation, pulsing with animal life, and | | | | to search and destroy. At the end of my tour I |
| abundant in beauty. Having been acclimated to the | | | | came home with lead in my back, neck and left |
| intense tropical climate in Vietnam made it easy | | | | hand as a partially disabled veteran. |
| for me to adapt to the Everglades climate. There | | | | So, how was I motivated to write my book? In a |
| was built-in physical motivation from the beginning. | | | | direct sense, this book is in itself my answer. |
| For me the Vietnam War was a time of cruel | | | | Perhaps this is why I am writing my next book |
| disillusionment beyond all conception. In my | | | | on panthers-Cry of the Panther, Part II. |