It seems strange that visitors to Yosemite should be so little influenced by its novel grandeur, as if their eyes were bandaged and their ears stopped. Most of those I saw yesterday were looking down as if wholly unconscious of anything going on about them, while the sublime rocks were trembling with the tones of the mighty chanting congregation of waters gathering music that might draw angels out of heaven. Yet respectable-looking, even wise-looking people were fixing bits of worms on bent pieces of wire to catch trout. Sport they called it. Should church-goers try to pass the time fishing in baptismal fonts while dull sermons were being preached, the so-called sport might not be so bad; but to play it in the Yosemite temple, seeking pleasure in the pain of fishes struggling for their lives, while God himself is preaching his sublimest water and stone sermons.
I find this passage to be very poetic and conscientious at the same time. Muir is referring to Yosemite as a holy temple with baptismal fonts in it. He is outraged by tourists putting worm pieces on a bent wire to fish. He finds it sacrilegious to find pleasure in the pain of the fishes struggling to breathe and even more to call it a sport. He thinks that the whole Yosemite is a temple where God preaches his sublimest water and stone sermon. The sound of the water hitting against the rocks is like God's voice preaching. Muir resents the tourist because he fells that even though they are there, they don't have the capacity to appreciate the holiness and splendor of Yosemite with the respect that he does.
Friday, May 14, 2010
A Sound County Almanac
February
There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other that heat comes from the furnace. To avoid the first danger, one should plant a garden, preferably where there is no grocer to confuse the issue.
to avoid the second, he should lay a split of good oak on the andirons, preferably where there is no furnace, and let it warm his shins while a February blizzard tosses the trees outside. If one has cut, split, hauled, and piled his own good oak, and let his mind work the while, he will remember much about where the heat comes from, and with a wealth of detail denied to those who spend the week end in town astride a radiator.
I find this to be very true, most of the time we are so preoccupied with so much going on around us in the city life that we don't stop to think where the simple thinks come from and we just take them for granted. It is so easy for anyone to turn a knob on the stove and get instant heat for cooking, that we don't appreciate it. I remember one time I went to a ranch and we were going to have a bohemian get together (Spanish term for gathering of friends around the fire at night singing while somebody plays an acoustic guitar) and I was trying to start the fire with wood logs and matches and I could not get it to start. After many failed attempts my husband came to help me and I was the most excited when we were finally able to light it up. It felt like a great accomplishment and I was proud of that fire all night long. It is things like this that we miss out on when we are not in touch with nature. We go through life all hurried up and stressed out over so many things, that we miss out on life itself.
Good Oak
There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other that heat comes from the furnace. To avoid the first danger, one should plant a garden, preferably where there is no grocer to confuse the issue.
to avoid the second, he should lay a split of good oak on the andirons, preferably where there is no furnace, and let it warm his shins while a February blizzard tosses the trees outside. If one has cut, split, hauled, and piled his own good oak, and let his mind work the while, he will remember much about where the heat comes from, and with a wealth of detail denied to those who spend the week end in town astride a radiator.
I find this to be very true, most of the time we are so preoccupied with so much going on around us in the city life that we don't stop to think where the simple thinks come from and we just take them for granted. It is so easy for anyone to turn a knob on the stove and get instant heat for cooking, that we don't appreciate it. I remember one time I went to a ranch and we were going to have a bohemian get together (Spanish term for gathering of friends around the fire at night singing while somebody plays an acoustic guitar) and I was trying to start the fire with wood logs and matches and I could not get it to start. After many failed attempts my husband came to help me and I was the most excited when we were finally able to light it up. It felt like a great accomplishment and I was proud of that fire all night long. It is things like this that we miss out on when we are not in touch with nature. We go through life all hurried up and stressed out over so many things, that we miss out on life itself.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
The Monkey Wrench Gang, Edward Abbey
This is a fun book, Abbey is able to raise awareness through some very bizarre characters. This is by far my favorite book from the assigned list. I had read The Monkey Wrench Gang in the past and I would like to share a monologue that I wrote. I hope the whole class enjoys reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Ms. Bonnie Abbzug, that’s who I am, I am a free-spirit, not bad looking gal. No man owns me; I come and go as I please with nothing more on my conscious than making sure my cat gets fed while I’m gone. In all honesty, I don’t know how I got my bud in all this mess!!
I should have seen it coming, nothing good could come out of a boating trip down the Colorado, not if by fait brings together such enigmatic, impulsive, bandido spirited characters.
Some characters all right! There’s that Hayduke, pyromaniac, paranoid gun happy punk. He fits the typical beast like man profile, chauvinist pig, insecure S.O.B.; holding a beer on one hand and a gun on the other as his source of sorry manhood; so hairy, and sweaty, that stocky body with short stubby, thick manly hands and…. But a swine never the less!!
Then there’s that Seldom Seen, he’s a good guy that Seldom Seen; he means well but he is clueless on how to do it. Him and those stupid Jack Mormon ideas; when a man marries a woman, he has inevitably condemned her to be pissed off at him for the rest of her life.
What in the world would possess that Seldom Seen to willingly have three unsatisfied, pissed for life women? I just don’t get it! That’s just a tragedy waiting to happen, if you ask me.
Then there’s Doc, with his head stuck up his bud hole most of the times, wondering and fantasying about the way things out to be, but with the rare virtue in a man to say the right thing at the right time; Generous, kind and caring, but as dependent and fragile as a child.
If anyone, he is the one who brings some kind of balance to this whole mess!
What are we doing??
Where will all this lead to??
Are we doing the right thing??
Is it even worth the trouble??
I don’t know it probably isn’t, nobody knows, but it gives us a false sense of peace of mind to know that we didn’t just take it from the industrial monsters, who would not think twice about selling their souls to the devil for money.
How long She'll Last in This World
Ponytail out the back of her headgear, she punches air, swings at the mirror, prepares for eye contact in the ring. Her own eyes now are not her own, they stand in for the opponent. Me, I could never punch a girl. But I might like a girl to hit me so I could feel the power in a female fist. (pray for me now) Oh, split my lip! But she steps in there alone, leans on the ropes, shoulders back, arms falling slack like water off of stone; checkin' the scene like a king surveying funked-out hinterlands, hands just beginning to sweat in her red leather gloves.
Art of Combat is only one of the poems in this book. It caught my attention from the beginning because even though not everyone would agree with the fact that it is describing the relationship between the character in the poem and her own environment, I perceived it that way. My interpretation of the poem was about a woman looking at her reflection in the mirror as her adversary in a boxing match. I understand that many times we limit ourselves when it comes to success. We underestimate our potential to the point where many times we don't even try because we have already pre-disposed ourselves for failure. When I read this I felt like it's a battle within myself, between my frustrations, deficiencies and insecurities v. my talents, virtues and capabilities, which at the end, it's not even a match.
Art of Combat is only one of the poems in this book. It caught my attention from the beginning because even though not everyone would agree with the fact that it is describing the relationship between the character in the poem and her own environment, I perceived it that way. My interpretation of the poem was about a woman looking at her reflection in the mirror as her adversary in a boxing match. I understand that many times we limit ourselves when it comes to success. We underestimate our potential to the point where many times we don't even try because we have already pre-disposed ourselves for failure. When I read this I felt like it's a battle within myself, between my frustrations, deficiencies and insecurities v. my talents, virtues and capabilities, which at the end, it's not even a match.
Beyond 100th Meridian, Wallace Stegner
In this book Wallace Stegner recounts the successes and frustrations of John Wesley Powell, the distinguished ethnologist and geologist who explored the Colorado River, the Grand Canyon, and the homeland of Indian tribes of the American Southwest, A prophet without honor who had a profound understanding of the American West and warned long ago of the dangers economic exploration would pose to the West and spent a good deal of his life overcoming Washington politics in getting his message across. Only now, we may recognize just how accurate a prophet he was.
This book was very much like Powell's, Stagner goes on describing the mountains, cliffs and the environmental richness of the Southwest. A very marked difference is that Stagner's Beyond the 100th Meridian focuses more on the scientific data and analysis as well as environmental policies. Powell's Exploration of the Colorado was more descriptive of the landscapes and the Indian tribes.
Personally, I enjoyed Powell's approach better.
This book was very much like Powell's, Stagner goes on describing the mountains, cliffs and the environmental richness of the Southwest. A very marked difference is that Stagner's Beyond the 100th Meridian focuses more on the scientific data and analysis as well as environmental policies. Powell's Exploration of the Colorado was more descriptive of the landscapes and the Indian tribes.
Personally, I enjoyed Powell's approach better.
The Exploration of the Colorado and its Canyons. John Wesley Powell
Enupits, who are pigmies dwelling about the springs and Rock Rorers, who live in the cliffs. Their gods are zoic, and the chief among them are the wolf, the rabbit, the eagle, the jay, the rattlesnake, and the spiders. They have no knowlwdge of the ambient air, but the winds are the breath of beasts living in the four quarters of the earth.
For most of the first half of the book, Powell goes on and on about his description of the mountains and everything he sees around him. Later in the reading he begins to describe his encounters with he different tribes of Indians. It is very noticeable that he has a very negative opinion about them, he does not hesitate to express his sincere opinions against them. Further into the book I discovered that his views and opinion about the Indians shift in a positive way. Powell expresses himself with respect for their traditions and the way they care for their families he also learns to recognize the Indians like human beings and not like savages who honor animals as gods .
For most of the first half of the book, Powell goes on and on about his description of the mountains and everything he sees around him. Later in the reading he begins to describe his encounters with he different tribes of Indians. It is very noticeable that he has a very negative opinion about them, he does not hesitate to express his sincere opinions against them. Further into the book I discovered that his views and opinion about the Indians shift in a positive way. Powell expresses himself with respect for their traditions and the way they care for their families he also learns to recognize the Indians like human beings and not like savages who honor animals as gods .
The Journal 1837-1861 Henry David Thoreau
For the Indian there is no safety but in the plow. If he would not be pushed into the Pacific, he must seize hold of a plow-tail and let go his bow and arrow, his fish-spear and rifle. This the only Christianity that will save him.(Thoreau 8).
This is very powerful because it talks about the Indians being forced to leave their bow and arrow. They learned the trades that were imposed on them, and they were forced to convert to Christianity. Even though they believed in the concept of a "higher power", they related more to nature as the "higher power" rather than the acceptance of Jesus Christ as their savior.
This is very powerful because it talks about the Indians being forced to leave their bow and arrow. They learned the trades that were imposed on them, and they were forced to convert to Christianity. Even though they believed in the concept of a "higher power", they related more to nature as the "higher power" rather than the acceptance of Jesus Christ as their savior.
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