Friday, January 15, 2010

BEYOND THE WALL: Essays from the Outside.


Call the desert barren, harsh, bitter, dreary and gloomy, acrid and acid, lifeless, hopeless, ugly as sin, ghastly as the gates of Hell--he will happily agree with you. Because in his heart lies the secret belief that the awful desert is really sweet and lovable, that the ugly is really beautiful, that Hell is home. And if others think he's crazy, so much the better; he is reluctant to share his love anyhow.



"...all true, all wonderful, all more than enough to answer such a dumb dead question as "Why wilderness?" To which, nevertheless, I shall append one further answer anyway: because we like the taste of freedom; because we like the smell of danger."

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