Desert Solitaire

Musselman Arch, Canyonlands © Robert Sommers 2016

"I fixed myself another drink, returned to the table in the backyard and sat down to await the rising of the moon.

My  thoughts were on the road and the crowds that would pour upon it as inevitably as water under pressure follows every channel which is opened to it.

Man is a gregarious animal, we are told, a social being. Does that mean that he is also a herd animal? I don't believe it, despite the character of modern life. The herd is for ungulates, not for men and women and their children. 

Are men no better than sheep or cattle, that they must live always in view of one another in order to feel a sense of safety? I can't believe it.

We are preoccupied with time. If we could learn to love space as deeply as we are now obsessed with time, we might discover a new meaning in the phrase to live like men.

At what distance should good neighbors build their houses? Let it be determined by the communities mode of travel: if by foot, four miles; if by horseback, eight miles; if by motorcar, twenty-four miles; if by airplane, ninety six miles.

Recall the Proverb: "Set not thy foot too often in thy neighbor's house, lest he grow weary of thee and hate thee.""

Desert Solitaire, a season in the wilderness pg. 58

Edward Abbey