Abbey

Abbey grabbed my attention right away as a reader. He uses a weird dry sense of humor such as I like my job, and I might even say munificent pay at 1.95 per hour. Abbey then goes on to say that the joy of nature is his incentive for what he does. I think the point that Edward was trying to make was that even though people create large National Parks and think of these places and natural untouched preserves, there is still a touch of grey to every park brought by tourism and industrialism. Edward wants to bring attention to the public that there not yet ruining nature at any means to this extent, but to bring awareness to the point that near future destruction could happen.

In Theodore Roosevelt's speech at Grand Canyon I think the intended audience is people who have a feeling and touch with nature but who just needed a little more inspiration to get out there and do something. His intention of the speech was to draw attention to the way of the Indians way of life and how they used every resource they could. We tend to waste a lot of garbage and don't give a shit what we throw away or recycle. Roosevelt saw this a long time ago and felt it needed to be brought to everyones attention.

In Scott Momaday's writing "A First Views of His Land the message he is trying to give to the audience is the one of respect for the beauty of nature. He says "The earth is our mother. The sky is our father." Momaday believes strongly in Indians way of life. They used nature to its fullest and didn't waste resources. Momaday then goes on to write that in our society as a whole we conceive of the land in terms of ownership and use. This sense of belief is no different then our views on our cars and appliances. Momaday wishes people would learn to respect the land and nature and preserve the earth and life upon it.

After this reading Walden I found the views of both Thoreau and McCandless to be very similar in many ways. Both are individuals that feel something is wrong with the way people live their lives today and seek freedom by reverting to nature. Thoreau states on pg. 19 "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately , to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." McCandell's and Thoreau both wanted to live with nature and what it offered to them. Another thing that struck me was the fact that both knew that they still had human needs such as shelter. Thoreau built his shelter out of trees and constructed a house, while McCandless found a bus that hes used for shelter. I feel McCandless was more of a visual and comprehensive learner than Thoreau and found his knowledge by reading materials and information given to him by others. While on the other hand Thoreau learned through experience and was a doer and learned by mistake.

Wildness Symposium

I attended the last scheduled event on the schedule and the speaker was to be Rick Bass. So far I had enjoyed the reading from Rick so was more excited than I thought I would be. I had never been to such an event before so I had no clue what to expect. So I went into the sun room with and open mind. It was also my first time sitting in the sunroom. The sunroom is very cozy and perfect for such events.

First up there was a young lady who is a student at ISU and she was giving Rick's introduction. She did a wonderful job and there were quite a few people there but she showed to nervousness. Then Rick took the stage.

Rick was going to read two stories for us. He had a glass of what looked like some kind of beer in it. I found myself wondering what kind of beer was Ricks choice, I'd like to think he was drinking budwieser. Rick began reading the first story which was about food and experience. I choose my picture of the owl perched on the car because I though it was a funny picture I had in my head from his story. The first story was good but the story that caught my attention was the second one. I forgot the name of it, but it was about the experience he had when he was young when the freshwater met the saltwater. He talked about how the fish would get stunned and you could catch them. But the message he gave was important to me. He said this was the last one that ever happened. I think the message Rick was trying to get across was a lot bigger than it seemed. He is saying things are happening to the environment from human regularities and action needs to be taken quickly or things will start to disappear.

Free

I lay on my back starring up,

the sun beats down and if it wasn't for these sunglasses I might go blind,

Another advantage of wearing these shades is the fact no one can see my lazy eyes,

I can also check out every babe walking bye in their sexy suits without any notice,

I dig a little hole with my feet pushing the warm sand to the sides,

Little two foot waves move from north to south down the mighty Mississippi,

I feel FREE