When “the world is too much with us, gathering and spinning,” –pretty much every day, especially at rush hour–, I spin back to Cactus Ed.  Edward Abbey, –renegade, curmudgeon, author par excellence–, is a worthy Western spin-off of Henry David Thoreau.  I can hardly bear the earth without the two of them.

After daily contentions with road rage seasoned by entitlement, it’s essential to come home to no-nonsense Ed, to learn what really matters :  “Heaven is home. Utopia is here.  Nirvana is now.”

Watching new destruction of deep greenery along (but by no means limited to) Canal Pointe Boulevard, I hear Ed declaim, “To disparage the world that we know is to be false to the mother who sustains us.”

When I succumb to despair over politicians, whom we used to call ‘Leaders’, Ed tells it like it is:  “The highest treason, the meanest treason, is to disavow and deny this lone but glorious planet.” Read the rest of this entry »

Conservationist and champion of desert preservation Edward Abbey, lovingly referred to as ‘Cactus Ed’, has become mentor and hero, along with Henry David Thoreau. 

Both spent sacred time alone on trails, returning reluctantly indoors to warn the rest of us what are losing in our ruthless march toward universal productivity.  Henry eerily described this century, observing that “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” 

Ed, noting the same, taking Thoreau’s Walden along on high water canyon runs, penned the powerful wish, below. 

Within these posts, I promise to show you where, in our beleaguered state of New Jersey, “something more beautiful and full of wonder than your highest dreams waits beyond the next turning…” 

Such as pristine Ken Lockwood Gorge up near Califon and High Bridge, a trout-rich rocky enclave, crowned with ferns, right out of high Colorado.  But that’s another story!… Meanwhile, Abbey’s blessing: Read the rest of this entry »