Blog #12 Abbey

I have been fortunate enough to visit many of the National Parks that Abbey mentions in this rant of his and honestly, I completely agree with him. I remember going to Yellowstone and noticing how beaten down the paths were just from foot traffic. Or how you would drive along the highway and suddenly it would stand still because everyone and their mother is gawking at the mountain goat a little off the road ahead. I think his plan is brilliant. I was sad to realize that this was written in 1968 and (to my knowledge) nothing of that nature has been done with the parks. I will say that in parks like Denali in Alaska there is definitely limited car traffic seeing as you have to take a bus into the park. I thought this was a really good idea and kind of an intermediate step. I do like his idea of riding bicycles much better though. I am terribly interested to see how this article impacted the park service at the time. Obviously it didn’t because he’s told us that it didn’t, but maybe it has impacted the park service today. I also really enjoyed his dry sense of humor. He has a way of writing that really draws you in and makes you feel comfortable. He sounds very honest. I think this is my favorite piece of work we’ve read so far.

Blog #11 Momaday

I liked how Momaday describes the man as the lord of his particular universe. He talks about how he could not possibly exist outside this time and this place. I think this is a very interesting observation and could be true for a lot of settings. I also love how this story flows nicely without seeming to. It is composed of a bunch of different Native American stories (mostly one’s based off of Momaday’s experiences) but manages to all fit together with the overall theme, that we should follow the Native American’s example of how to view the land. Not to own the land, but to love it. There was also one line that I really loved. He says that “we are what we imagine ourselves to be” I think that is really true and powerful. It fits in with that self fulfilling prophesy thing. It makes all of our life goals and efforts seem a bit more attainable.

Blog #10 Thoreau

In this passage Thoreau is talking about building a house, among other things. I found a few parts particularly interesting. I thought that when he was talking about how it would make sense for students to build their own houses that that would indeed make a lot of sense. It was interesting that he mentioned wanting to paint your house the color of dirt and then related your home to you final home, a coffin. I also thought it was interesting how he brought up how he has a bit of a beef with the mail and the media. I think I would agree that many times all that is in the media is death, destruction, and despair. I feel like I don’t really learn anything useful that I would want to know about another country. The story about the messenger being sent out to receive information for his master was a good one. I think you have to go for yourself though. You can’t rely on someone else’s second hand opinions to give you a clear understanding of things. Overall, it is quite easy to see how this relates to Christopher McCandless from Into the Wild. They both were ready to denounce society and try to find some higher understanding by being closer to nature.