Monday, April 26, 2010

One Heron and Two Fishermen

Yesterday I introduced my friend Lynne to Yosemite and it was a great day filled with exuberant waterfalls, enough spring-green to feed my greedy soul, a blue heron who only tolerated us a little, a Chinese wedding with an exquisitely beautiful bride and these two fishermen who meet every year to fly-fish the Merced river.  Life bubbles over and cascades with abandon from the snow-capped mountains to the sea.


It was one of those perfect days where peace and beauty seeped into every pore and reminded me of this reverently irreverent statement from Edward Abbey:
"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, encounter the grizz, 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, that lovely, mysterious and awesome space.

Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and you 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 people with their hearts in a safe deposit box and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators.  I promise you this:  you will outlive the bastards."
 

4 comments:

  1. What a wonderful day you must have had. Such beautiful country you're in.

    Abbey has it right, maybe even that part about being "a half-hearted fanatic". Great quote.

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  2. The grizzled fishermen-right out of a story-yours. Aren't we glad Yosemite was set aside to enjoy? :) Nice day you had.

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  3. Sounds like a lovely time you had! Wish I could have been there! Loved the words from Edward Abbey!

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  4. good to have you back, I forwarded your post to Dennis and he absolutely loved it, thank you
    Doris

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