The road to the San Rafael Swell
This past Saturday I watched the movie “Wrenched” with two dear friends so it seemed only fitting to share a quote from Edward Abbey some time this week.
The idea of wilderness needs no defense, it only needs defenders. ~ Edward Abbey
After watching the movie we all felt like throwing a wrench of our own to defend wilderness. I know I felt deeply inspired.
Each time I take a journey into the wilderness I have mixed emotions because I am immersed in what I hold dear and each of my senses is elated by the wildness around and within me. But another part of me can not forget the daily and monumental assaults on the wilderness and its inhabitants. A part of me wonders what will be there in 2050.
Still, I go there. I relish it. I am part of it.
And in my own small way, I defend it.
There are so many defenders of the wilderness and our voices are getting stronger. For those of us who can not get into the trenches to throw our wrenches we can still do that by writing our representatives, by supporting the groups that are defending the wilderness through donations, by protesting and volunteering to help. We can write about it on our blogs and through social media share what we can to enlighten people who may not yet understand…
We need to defend the wilderness we have left.
Mia
Mia, I relate deeply to this comment: “Each time I take a journey into the wilderness I have mixed emotions because I am immersed in what I hold dear and each of my senses is elated by the wildness around and within me. But another part of me can not forget the daily and monumental assaults on the wilderness and its inhabitants.”
Sadly — because it gets in the way of joy sometimes — I feel this way when I photograph animals, having the bittersweet recognition for all that befalls them at our hands, the same assaults that inflict their habitat.
We do what we can, right? As I always post at the top of my blog, “add your light to the sum of light.”
The sooner we realise that it isn’t all about us, and the earth wasn’t put here for us to use (and abuse) the better. And I loved Desert Solitaire.
HI!
I am very upset that Our Government and the people of America do not take care of Our wilderness and the creatures that live on the land and waters! Wake up PEOPLE!!!!!!
Have you read much Edward Abbey, Mia? I need to read more but titles I’ve read have included: Monkey Wrench Gang, Hayduke Lives (sequel), Good News (satirical post-apocalyptic view of the desert southwest), and Desert Solitaire. I would recommend them all if you haven’t already read them.