A Fool’s Progress

Oh, Edward Abbey you are my heart. Everything you wrote is the oxygen in my blood, my cup of coffee by the campfire, that perfect hand crack, the sunshine while its raining, better than any lover or any friend. Henry Lightcap, speaks the story of my soul and my mind. Never have I read something and literally cried because of the shear similarities between myself and this incredibly flawed character. Of course, I cannot relate to having a child but I can relate to overwhelming responsibility that has not been taken on. If I could sit for 15 minutes with Edward Abbey in the flesh I would be wiser. If I could talk to Edward Abbey for 15 minutes I would die of an aneurism and if I could play cards with Abbey I would fold every hand because he would know my mind all too well. If Edward Abbey where here on this god awful day well he would take after Lightcap and shoot his refrigerator. There is something devious about causing instability in a country clearly prone to such conditions (due to our senseless application of our nation-state model. Abbey would not agree with such foolishness because the land is the land and that is that.) If all these people decide to kill each other off then we have the opportunity to build a "nation". But what of the land and the people that are the land? Do you think they would say if they had a choice "I come from Iraq or I come from the desert or such and such tribe/family." Edward Abbey said "The tragedy of modern war is that the young men die fighting each other - instead of their real enemies back home in the capitals." All these kids are being manipulated by the same type of people, people that only want the power to make others conform to their standards, their rules, and their beliefs. Let us gather around and ask the collective conscience to grant everyone the ability to burn through this propaganda, break down these walls, and breath.