Thursday, August 16, 2012

Outlive Them All

Courtesy of the Wilder Quarterly:

“One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am – a reluctant enthusiast… a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this; You will outlive the bastards.”

-- Edward Abbey

It's digging season, the best season of all of them. While you're out there messing around, put in plants native to your locale. You'll hit two birds with one stone that way and please Abbey most assuredly. 

Here in Nebraska go to the Nebraska Arboretum's annual fall plant sale on Saturday, September 8. That'll show all those desk jockies who are too busy mowing their evil lawns and thinking it's time well spent with nature.

5 comments:

Gaia Gardener: said...

What sort of natives do they have at the sale? Would it be worth a drive all the way up there from Wichita?

Benjamin Vogt said...

I dunno, that's an awfully long drive. But here's a not-always-accurate list of what they offer. http://arboretum.unl.edu/onlinestore/new%20online%20store%20backup/Nebraska%20Statewide%20Arboretum.htm

Gaia Gardener: said...

Thanks! I'll have fun looking through the list, whether I opt to drive up or not.

mary said...

Except do you think that accusing people with desk jobs of being brain dead, and calling their lawns "evil" will really win them over to the earth-friendly cause?

Benjamin Vogt said...

Mary--I guess not. But those people aren't here. I make no pretense about what my blog is and who it's for. I'm as bad as my liberal facebook friends who constantly slam anything republican, polarizing our broken government even more.