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Outlive the bastards

Morning on Clapham Common

“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 is still there. So go 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, and bag the peaks…. and I promise you this much: I promise you this one sweet victory over your enemies, over those deskbound people with their hearts in a safe deposit box… I promise you this: you will outlive the bastards.”

-Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire

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Comments

  1. alonso Posted

    your life is a dream, a my life is too a dream because i read yours adventures pls go to the end of the road and tell me what you see there

    Reply
  2. Reminds me of this quote from one of my stories ‘Letter to a Father Unknown.’
    “Let us return to facts Jim. Strange that we are designed, as it were, for the vicissitudes of the African savannah and yet, here we are in our centrally heated houses with our jobs, our cars, our insurance plans, our share options, our ongoing dental work, our package holidays, our telephones and internet, our hand pulled beer, our television sets, our B&Q, our BBQ’s, our get rich get fit get sexy get something but get it NOW culture. Is it then any wonder that we sense the continual clash of all this crap with our genetic predisposition towards the hunt, the hearth and the ever present threat. Above all I wonder how we really manage the loss of the heartspace-the tribe. The relationship with community.”

    Reply
  3. Thanks for that, Tony.
    Your comment, in turn, reminds me of Trainspotting –

    Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family.
    Choose a fucking big television, choose washing machines, cars,
    compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good
    health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choose fixed
    interest mortage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your
    friends. Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose a
    three-piece suite on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics.
    Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on a Sunday morning.
    Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing
    game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose
    rotting away at the end of it all, pishing your last in a miserable
    home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked up
    brats you spawned to replace yourself.

    Choose your future.

    Choose life.

    Reply
  4. just a note to say this quote is from a speech he gave though there are plenty og great ones in desert Solitaire too. One of them is along the lines of anyone walking or cycling will see 100 times more than a tourist in a car.

    Reply
  5. Alastair – thanks for that quote, I needed it today. I was having a bit of a freakout about quitting the job and heading out on the road, but now I’m all fired up again. Looking forward to getting the book.

    Reply
  6. Ed Abbey’s book The Monkey Wrench Gang is also worth a read. Its a great thriller about a bunch of ecotage saboteurs, but also has some wonderful descriptions of the landscape.

    Reply
  7. Just so you know, this quote is from the ending notes of Ed’s Earth day speech given in Missoula, Montana in 1978.

    Reply

 
 

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