WRITING DOWN THE RIVER
A KAET PRESENTATION

"The experience changed me. Here the river is in charge. In the city, I'm the boss. Here, I'm the boss of nothing." Journalist Linda Ellerbee

Writing Down the River shares the experiences and reflections of four women writers - unlikely companions and even less likely adventurers - who raft together down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. Veteran journalist Linda Ellerbee, novelist Denise Chávez, naturalist Ruth Kirk and writer and painter Barbara Thomas meet their fears head-on as they renew and re-examine their relationships with nature. The program was inspired by Kathleen Jo Ryan's award-winning book, Writing Down the River: Into the Heart of the Grand Canyon, a collection of Ryan's photographs and essays by 15 distinguished female writers, including the four featured in this film. Writing Down the River airs Thursday, January 30, 2003 at 8 and 11 p.m. and Sunday, February 2, 2003 at 5 p.m. on Channel 8.

Each of the women confronts her own personal struggle as she prepares to spend nine days on the Colorado River. Outdoor adventures are foreign and frightening to Chávez and Thomas.

"I'm from a family of black Southerners who I would describe as still-water people," says Thomas. "Where I come from you sit still and fish. Going fast in a boat for any reason is just not done." Her fears are compounded by the fact that her parents drowned in a boating accident.

Chávez senses the ludicrous in the scenario. "A woman with a fear of heights and rapidly moving water … who thinks that camping out is room service at the Holiday Inn … agrees to run the rapids on the Colorado River for a week," she says. "My river adventure is so unlike anything I've ever done."

Ruth Kirk, a naturalist, is at home in the outdoors. "Impatience and transience permeate today's Western culture," she observes. "The canyon offers antidote. Time clearly is an ingredient here, perhaps the main one. But how greatly canyon time contrasts with the span of a human life and with the busy-ness of our days."

For Ellerbee, a survivor of breast cancer and city-dweller, the trip to the Grand Canyon fulfills her craving for natural beauty and brings back childhood memories of playing in the woods. "Every year, beauty becomes more important, some magic vitamin, a necessary tonic without which body and soul might wither. This is what the woods and, possibly, cancer have given me," she says.

Over the course of the 226-mile journey, the women gain confidence in their skills, from pitching tents to paddling through rapids to righting a capsized raft. They hike through magnificent canyons, leap off cliffs into the icy river, coat each other with clay in mud pools and eagerly soak up the knowledge of their river guides. Reading from their journals or talking quietly as the sun sets, the four writers reflect on the power of their journey.

"What puzzles me is why floating this river should be so compelling," writes Kirk. "I have known awe elsewhere, sensed other shivers of reverence dance along my spine. Why now is the canyon living up to its reputation? What is its magic?"

When she returns to the city, Linda Ellerbee writes that she tries to live as if the cancer were never coming back. "But at night, lying in bed, troubled by death and overwhelmed by life, I find I can shut my eyes and whisper, 'Take me there,' and the magic begins. Gold light slides down a red canyon wall. A green river sings. I am a shining thing in a shining place, far from here."

Kathleen Jo Ryan and Anthony Tiano are executive producers. Producers are Ryan and Katharina Rill.

Writing Down the River is part of KAET's Arizona Collection, a continuing series of programs that explores the land, history and people of Arizona.

KAET-TV/Channel 8 is a part of Arizona State University. ###