Creating Culture to Match the Scenery
Power of Story
Publisher Robert Underwood Johnson created Yosemite National Park
In the late 19th century a publisher named Robert Underwood Johnson set out from Boston by train to California in search of a new writer who could make an impact. When he arrived in San Francisco he began asking around for where he might find a man by the name of John Muir. He was directed toward a remote valley to the east in the Sierra Nevada mountains where he set out by horse and wagon. He found Muir in Yosemite Valley, camped with him and invited Muir to start writing articles for Johnson’s Century Magazine. Johnson was understandably inspired by both the valley and the man. A powerful and effective friendship ensued. Johnson was well connected, introducing Muir to such names as Theodore Roosevelt, John Burroughs, Nikola Tesla, Mark Twain, and Rudyard Kipling. Muir’s articles captured the nation’s thrilled attention and Johnson began to turn them into books. Johnson then took Muir to Washington D.C. were both men successfully lobbied Congress to create Yosemite National Park. Muir subsequently founded the Sierra Club. Continue reading
Deep Ecology can save the planet – and grow your soul.
I am revising the premise of Thots and Shots to the notion that cultural change brought about by adherence to the philosophy of Deep Ecology can save the planet-and expand our souls. I changed the tagline for the website to “Deep Ecology and the American West.” I even made a logo.
New Thots and Shots logo
The Problem is Cows, not Trees
Repost from The No Bull Sheet, 1/4/2019
We are bulldozing our public lands for a few very privileged private ranchers.
Utah’s state symbol might as well be the cowpie. We turn ourselves inside out making sure they are everywhere, all the time. In campgrounds, in national parks and monuments, in the forests, on the steppes, in our streams, all down the roads, and right there, next to your favorite picnic table. Cowpies. One might wonder why.
Utah’s state symbol
Evolving Culture at Winter Solstice
On the longest night of the year, under a full super-moon, a ritual evolves in a small Utah town.
Bluff, Utah, December 21, 2018
A full super-moon rose as complete dark enveloped a crowd gathered in the December cold around campfires and torches to celebrate the longest night of the year with art, culture, and sculptural pyrotechnics.
For those like me who are not motivated by the Christian religious myth of Christmas, Winter Solstice is the natural time to celebrate the turn of the seasons. A ritual is called for and one is evolving in rural Bluff, Utah, with all the resulting tensions that come with change and growth.
Torrey House Press publisher, Kirsten Johanna Allen, in search of words from the land. 12/21/2018 in Bluff, Utah
Malicious prosecution in San Juan County
I will be posting updates soon.
Democracy on the brink
It is election day and our democracy teeters on the brink.
We might have already lost it. Republicans appear willing to trash our democracy in order to keep their dwindling, minority rule, grasp on power.
- Republicans refused to seat a Supreme Court justice for a twice elected and popular president. Then they rammed through an apparent sex abuser because of his credentials as a Republican partisan.
- Republicans are practicing flagrant voter suppression.
- The Republican Congress demonstrates an utter dereliction of duty to provide checks and balance to the White House.
- The White House, unchecked, continually attacks the free press.
- The rule of law is under attack. Because the FBI is pursuing abundant evidence that the Trump administration conspired with a hostile foreign power to interfere with the 2016 election, Republicans are attacking the FBI.
- The abundant evidence of rampant Trump family tax fraud is being ignored.
- The military is being sent to the border as an obvious political stunt.
- One can add to this list.
Considering the trend and how there is no apparent bottom to what the Republicans will do and put up with, I ask myself if we should be prepared for when Trump loses the next election and there is not be a peaceful transfer of power, the hallmark of democracy.
Blasey Ford versus Kavanaugh: Truth versus Power
September 28, 2018
Kavanaugh sensing something ominous coming his way?
The free press is under attack by the current administration. Which makes it all the more important. A pitfall the press must avoid at this time when facts are under assault is false equivalence. Saying there are two equivalent sides to the reality of man made climate change, for instance. Or implying that the Kavanaugh appointment boils down to, “he-said, she-said.”
There were headlines in both The Washington Post and The New York Times this morning that amounted to “he-said, she said.” It is unfortunate. What Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh had on the line is not only not equivalent, it is polar opposite. Dr. Blasey had everything to lose. She had nothing to gain besides the pride one has in acting with massive courage to do one’s civic duty. Kavanaugh, on the other hand, has a lifetime appointment to gain, as a political hack, to the U.S. Supreme Court. One has to weigh the evidence in this light. What does Dr. Blasey have to gain by lying? Nothing. What does Kavanaugh have to gain by lying? Everything. It is not equivalent. Continue reading
Gaslighting our Sacred Public Lands
One of the ugly features of the new Trumpian Republican Party is the tendency to frequently and blatantly lie. Trump, according to fact checkers, averages 6.5 lies a day. To cover up, he twists reality in a way known in psychological circles as gaslighting. It is a practice used by narcissists, wife abusers and dictators alike. Trump says and does things and then denies it. But it is more devious than mere denial. As Frida Ghitis frames it at CNN, he lies then blames others for misunderstanding, disparages their concerns as oversensitivity, claims outrageous statements were jokes or misunderstandings, and otherwise twilights the truth. Now Utah’s Republican junior U.S. Senator Mike Lee is giving gaslighting a shot by attempting to make Utah’s much beloved public lands out to be a conspiracy for and of some mystery “elitists.”
For “elitists” only
In a June 2018 speech to the reactionary right’s Sutherland Institute he called “Honoring the Founders Promise on Federal Lands” (you can see the full speech here) Lee stands on his head and claims that our sacred public lands are for a private elite and in order to liberate the lands for the people they must be privatized.
I kid you not. Continue reading
The Zen of stuck
I recently sent this letter to my daughter, Kristen, of adventures and unexpected lessons from the observatory.
Mounting the beast (Celestron C-14)
Hi Bug!
I had an experience this week that is sticking with me as a terrific little metaphor. I am the student. The thing has cast a spell. I am pondering how to take in the message.
Last Friday Kirsten [my wife] went to NYC to the annual Torrey House distributor conference and to see her dad and sister. While she was gone I scooted down to Torrey to see if I could install one of my dad’s telescopes in the observatory, one that I had not used before. It is his most powerful scope and it is a big beast. I didn’t know if I would even be able to lift it up to the mount, slightly over my head, into its dovetail fitting. I could have used help, but Torrey is far away and I have already imposed on a willing neighbor there too much. I put on some old work gloves. I hefted the thing up, got the dovetail started, but then it jammed. Before my muscles gave out I set the scope back down and waited a while. The gloves left incongruous dust prints on the pristine instrument. Throughout the day I tried 7 more times and went to bed that night thinking I should lift weights more. I thought about it and the next morning tried a new angle. On the second try I finally got it. I sat down to marvel at myself while I gave the mount the command to move to its home position. As it did so I laughed as I realized I had put the beast on upside down.
But that was not the full lesson. Continue reading