Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Desert Solitaire

So I know I said that I might not post that much this week, but things change. So I got a gift card from a local bookstore as a Christmas present from my boss. Due to the lack of selection in the Christian section (my usual book purchasing section) I chose to use the gift card on a different kind of read. About a month ago I was camping out in Cayonlands and while on a hike an author by the name of Edward Abbey came up. Abbey is a modern writer that writes about his experiences in places like Moab, UT in a fiction perspective. So the book I bought is called Desert Solitare. I just started reading it today and I am enjoying it. Here is a passage from the beginning of this book.

The wind will not stop. Gust of sand swirl before me, stinging my face. But there is still too much to see and marvel at, the world very much alive in the bight light and wind, exultant with the fever of spring, the delight of morning. Strolling on, it seem sto me that the strangeness and wonder of existence are emphasized here, in the desert, by the comparative sparsity of the flora and fauna: life not crowded upon life as in other place but scattered abroad in sparseness and simplicity, with a generous gift of space for each herb and bush and tree, each stem of grass, so that the living organism stand out bold and brave and vivid against the lifeless sand and barren rock. The extreme clarity of the desert light is equaled by the extreme individuation of desert life forms. Love flowers best in openness and freedom.

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