The Desert
photo:seema jain
This Friday I leave for the West once again, and this year’s journey, like all the previous ones, is holds special significance.
Each year I pick a place that has some geographical importance or to visit people that are dear to me. Every journey yields its own rewards and lasting memories.
This year’s trip is special because it will be my first visit to the red rock country of southern Utah, and while I’m there, I’ll get to meet some Abbey folx I’ve been corresponding with for some time. Thanks to this fancy pants Internet technology, I’m once again getting to meet friends I’ve never met.
And this, of course, is Abbey country. Home of Canyonlands and Arches, where Abbey “unleashed Desert Solitaire upon an unsuspecting public” in 1968.
Abbey’s writings have obviously had a profound effect on my life, so in many ways, this is a pilgrimage. I expect to encounter many powerful emotions the first time I set foot upon this varied, mysterious land he wrote so eloquently about.
Sometimes, it seems so odd. Me, a Southerner deeply connected to my own land, yet powerfully drawn to the land of rock petroglyph’s. The contrasts are profound. The South is wet, lush and green, blessed with the dark brown soil of the delta. Haunting. The desert is arid, full of color. A land of “red dust and burnt cliffs.” Lonely. Despite the differences, I’m drawn to both and can just as easily envision myself living somewhere in Four Corners as in the Lower Delta.
While Abbey seemed to forever leave Appalachia behind, I’m not sure I could ever completely leave the South. But who knows. The South is firmly in the stranglehold of neo-conservative, Christian fundamentalists that seem to have forgotten the agrarian, rebellious ways of their forefathers. Maybe the time to leave is nigh.
The South and the West share similar histories and a common threat. The South has the burden of slavery, and we share with the West a common history of racial inequity and genocide directed at native peoples. We both face the pestiferous realities of industrialization and human growth, although the South capitulated to those threats long ago. The West may still have a chance.
As I write this, my garden is full of life. Blooming chives are filled with honeybees. Fat-jawed Chipmunks scurry beneath my feet on their way to the feeder to gather fallen bird seed for their winter stash. A few stop at a water bowl to catch a cool drink. Chickadees, Red-bellied woodpeckers, Tufted titmice, immature male Northern cardinals, female Northern Cardinals, a family of Bluejays and Ruby-throated hummingbirds flutter about, each taking their turn at the feeder. Well, except for the hummers.
I’ve noticed some very aggressive behavior in the hummingbirds this season. They’re very territorial, and engage in mid-air combat around the feeder. The chipmunks are the same way around the seed feeder. Maybe they’re Republicans.
The squirrels seem omnipresent and are quite opportunistic.
We’ve had several hawks circling lately. Seems they’ve discovered the high population of birds and chipmunks around the feeder. Yesterday, I found a tuft of Mourning dove feathers scattered on the ground, no doubt the result of a hawk collecting a morning meal.
Soon, these images will be replaced by new ones. Perhaps by a Gila monster. Javelina. Diamondback rattlesnake, scrub jay and canyon wren. Different, yet equally beautiful and wondrous.
Categories: Backpacking-Travel, Community
Tags: adios
Comments: 2 Comments.
You are gonna have so much fun. It will blow your shit away my friend.
My recent trip to New Orleans reminded me of some of the things I love and hate about the south:good food, culture and history but poverty, crime, racism etc to balance it out into the negative catagory in my book. The West is the Best.
bird seeds should be choosen so that they are 100% organic and does not contain genetically modified stuffs ‘