Edward Abbey-like

Abbey-1      I read Edward Abbey’s book “Desert Solitaire: a season in the wilderness” quite some time before Pamela and I visited Arches National Park a few years ago. Abbey has always been one of my environmental heroes whom I have quoted frequently.  On that trip to Arches we had just spent several day camped on the Colorado River at a beautiful spot south of the Hite Crossing Bridge and about sixty miles from the nearest crossroads that passed for a “town”. We drove from there to Moab.  Moab was bustling with young people and cyclist of all ages.  We followed the highway on north through town and past what is known locally as the “new” front gate to Arches.  When Edward Abbey worked for Arches it was still a memorial and this entrance didn’t exist.  We drove on about twelve miles or so and turned into the desert.  It was a popular area, but the desert is big and we were able to find a place.  It wasn’t until the next day, when we visited the park, that we realized that we were staying on the road that Edward Abbey used to get to his trailer when he worked for Arches in 1956 and 1957.  Suddenly the road became like a monument causing me to think of Abbey every time we returned home, and, if not the first thing out of my mouth when someone mentions Arches, the fact that we stayed on “Abbey’s Road” is like a badge of honor that I will, at some point, share.  Of course, the road isn’t actually called “Abbey’s Road”.  In fact, if you look at Google Maps on my computer you will only find a yellow starred drop-pin in the middle of the desert. The road doesn’t even appear.

This memory was refreshed when Pamela was visiting her youngest son and his family recently.  Her son said that he had recently discovered Edward Abbey and evidently made the comment that “that’s Russ”.  Now isn’t that a compliment to beat all compliments!  She didn’t tell me at first, but later it came out that he also said that I have some of Abbey’s anger.  Well, if the proverbial shoe fits . . .   That didn’t upset me.  It would have sounded nicer if he had said I have Abbey’s fire, but I’ll accept ‘anger’.  I remember noticing how you can sense Abbey’s anger grow throughout his book, Desert Solitaire, until you know he wants to scream and yell and throw a tantrum. I can relate.  Looking at my own work I can see the same pattern as I force myself to reign in the anger and frustration to conclude with a positive recommendation or hopeful words.

There are ten Abbey quotes that are favorites and ones which I have used from time to time.  In 2018 I wrote an essay based upon his statement “Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.”   I don’t know which of his quotes is my favorite.  The Sierra Club likes “wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread.”   Two of his quotes seem to be particularly appropriate to our current social/political crisis.

The idea of wilderness needs no defense, it only needs defenders,”  expresses the frustration many of us feel. A 2012 student article on the University of Utah’s news writing class blogsite, written by R. Ammon Ayres, tells of a special presentation to showcase the university’s collection of Abbey memorabilia. Part of the presentation was by Ken Sanders, known to most as an appraiser for the popular television program “Antiques Roadshow”.   Sanders made the statement “Ed Abbey still lives … Abbey is selling books better than ever now that he’s dead.”  No disrespect was meant. That is a sad reality for authors. The young news writer, Ayres, went on to say “Sanders said Abbey’s books are an important part of history, the radical words in his novels drive his ongoing growing fandom towards going green and advocating the environment to preserve the earth and its beauty.” (i)  Though these words are over eight years old, their importance remains.  The United States has regressed as far as protecting our precious treasures. The ‘man who shall not be named’  has made a forty-three month long attack on our parks, our public lands and our wilderness. He has given Cabinet positions and government jobs intended to protect our natural treasures to the very people who own corporations intent upon destroying them for profit.  This, in a time of global climate crisis, is appalling to say the least.

This reality; viz. that ‘he who shall not be named’ is purposely raping our country for personal wealth; brings up the second Abbey quote which I believe is apropos today; viz. “A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.”  Before we go any further we need to remember that there are two ways in which we use the word ‘government’.  One way is when we talk about the type of government a country has. The United States is a Republic with a representative democracy. That isn’t what Abbey is talking about defending against.  The second way we use ‘government’ is when we talk about the people who carry on the day-to-day activities of the United States; bureaucrats and politicians. (ii)  When speaking about the behavior or actions of bureaucrats and politicians people will say “the government did …”  This, I am certain, is that to which Abbey was referring.  Right now we do need to defend our country, our way of life, our Constitutional rights, and our environment against bureaucrats and politicians in Washington who are doing their level best to destroy it.  It is neither illegal, immoral, unethical or unpatriotic to oppose the government. Our Constitution clearly states that it is our right to “petition the Government for a redress of grievances”  in other words oppose the behavior and/or decisions of our elected officials.

Abbey was an anarchist. I don’t agree with that, but what I do realize is that we both walked the same path to our conclusions about government, religion and capitalism. Most of you know that government, religion and capitalism are Social Systems I identify in many of my essays.  For me the criteria for a Social System is that it exploits and oppresses those whom it encounters, is run by an elite few who do so for their own wealth and/or benefit, and is the basis for conflict, as well as real and psychological suffering. (iii)  I’m absolutely certain that Abbey would agree with me. He just wouldn’t have put it so politely. Even in college, when he was the editor of the college newspaper, he published Voltaire’s famous quote “man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.” (iv) The university seized all the copies and fired Abbey.  In regard to government, my position is that, because of the extreme over-population of the world, governments are a necessary evil.  While Abbey and I don’t come to the same conclusions, I know exactly the rage and pain which determined his position.  We also are total opposites concerning the use of force. I’m a total pacifist. Abbey was not.

I’m not sure that Edward Abbey and I would even be friends, had we met, but we do have a lot in common. If we had been friends I’m sure it would have been a very fiery relationship. What would have kept us friends is our passion for the wilderness; for the environment. I look at pictures of him in the desert and I even know some of the places.  I too love the desert, especially the area near his final home, Tucson, AZ., and Pamela and I have boondocked in the desert very near his grave where he was buried in a sleeping bag because he wanted his body to feed the plants.

Like us all, Edward Abbey came with his own personal set of flaws.  In an apologetic of his life I believe that his assets, his gift to people and to the planet, far outweigh his flaws.  I identify with his love of nature and I know his anger and rage at a society, a system, a government that would turn its back on our only hope and source of life.  And I would have to say, thank you, Will, for reading Edward Abbey and saying “that’s Russ.”

FOOTNOTES:

(i)   https://unewswriting.org/tag/edward-abbey/   R. Ammon Ayres.

(ii)  https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/government

(iii)  https://www.old-conservationist.com/post/what-constitutes-a-social-system

(iv)   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Abbey

Photo credits: Outside Magazine. www.outsideonline.com

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