indoor animal light ~ 4

indoor animal light ~ 4
Double O Arch, Arches National Monument

I will write more about this author in the future. His thoughts on our relationship to nature, and parks, shaped much of how I feel about them today – or at least validated my own thoughts. Edward Abbey died in Arizona in 1989. He was a park ranger at Arches National Monument* in Utah for 3 years in the 60s. He wrote a book about it. In a review of said book, the New York Times Book Review called Abbey "a rebel and an eloquent loner."

Today, I want to share an excerpt from the nonfiction book Desert Solitaire, which was first published in 1968. It is nature writing at its best in my opinion.

The excerpt:

At first look it all seems like a geologic chaos, but there is method at work here, method of a fanatic order and perseverance: each groove in the rock leads to a natural channel of some kind, every channel to a ditch and gulch and ravine, each larger waterway to a canyon bottom or broad wash leading in turn to the Colorado River and the sea.

My takeaway: If you look closely, you can see that it all makes sense, that it all goes somewhere. Everything plays a part, no matter how small the thing. Looking closely – a thing we could all be better at – comes up often in Abbey's work. Thanks for writing about it, Ed. Let's all pick something to look closely at today – at least for a few minutes. The end.

* I have yet to visit Arches, but I have always wanted to go there. Ever since a young Indiana Jones visited...

A still from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

indoor animal is curated by a human: Tim Papciak. On Mondays, he shares one link to one music video to help spark creativity in himself and in other creative types. On Thursdays, he recommends a book, movie, show, art piece, or link to some dusty corner of the internet that he believes either 1.) adds to the human experience, or 2.) serves as a coping mechanism in the year 2025. Note: this is not, and never will be, self-help content.