Vance Dubberly

Wilderness is where the known breaks down. Where one becomes lost. Where the pavement, dirt roads and even, the most rudimentary of trails come to an peter out. It is where the known fragments, whether the known be geo-physical or psycho-graphic. When we enter the wilderness we leave the what is safe.

The wilderness is physical it is that place where our feet tread on new surfaces,  our eyes see new sites, where our hearts race with exhilaration and anticipation and fear, where we fear for our safe return to civilization.

The wilderness in intellectual is that place where we our reality is in jeopardy. Where what we know, what we trust, and what we believe become subject to new truths.

Wilderness is a continuum. For some people wilderness may be a short walk on a nature trail, for others it a hundred mile trek into lands uncharted. For some it may be reading about a new religion, for others creating one.

Wilderness is a condition a state of being. It is the antithesis to civilization, but only the antithesis because civilization dictates that which is not part of it, is it’s opposite. Wilderness is the antithesis of civilization but civilization is not the antithesis of wilderness. Wilderness encompasses civilization, it gives birth to it.

Wilderness is important not for it’s thrill or it’s aesthetic value but above all to our very survival.

The only place something new ever occurs is in the wilderness.  Everything else is derivative. Not in ones personal life, not in society, not in nature is anything ever created except under the conditions of wilderness.

Alliance proposes establishing Route 66 national monument

Interesting idea which I doubt will pick up enough steam to go anywhere.  Hope to see it happen though, more for reasons of history than for simply containing the growth the the 29 Palms Marine Waste, err, I mean base. Had the pleasure of doing a mile based travel guide at http://www.themotherroad.com about 8 years ago ( looks like the Daily Presses servers have been hacked and they don’t know it yet ), got to talk to alot of people at the Mojave River Valley Museum, Goffs, and and the Needles Regional Museum. There are a lot of stories along this route, alot of history, not only of Route 66 but also of early California prior to 66. Is well worth preserving what is left of it.

‘ wish this wasn’t necessary. I tend to side with the citizens of the East Mojave when it comes to restrictions on public land, the government should stay out. Unfortunately it seems these days the only way to protect yourself from one government agency is to align yourself with another. What’s worse? Restricting land so nobody can get on it– filling the quite desert nights with bomb blasts, interrupting bighorn sheep migrations with acres of solar panels — blotting out beautiful quite vistas with power lines, hauling in billions of tons of LA crap to dump in a beautiful serene environment, or putting up placards, gates, and drawing in another 100,000 casual tourists whose noisy city habits should stay in the noisy city. They all suck, but I’ll take the last above any of the others. I can point out to a tourist that the beauty of this place is it’s quite expansive sereneness. It’s kinda hard to do that with a freight train or a missile.

Just love this bit from Boondock Saints.

Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family.
Choose a fucking big television, choose washing machines,
cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers.
Choose good health, low cholesterol and dental insurance.
Choose fixed-interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends.
Choose leisurewear and matching luggage.
Choose a three-piece suite on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics.
Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on a Sunday morning.
Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing,
spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth.
Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pishing your last in a miserable home,
nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked-up brats you have spawned to replace yourself.
Choose your future. Choose life.
But why would I want to do a thing like that?
I chose not to choose life: I chose something else.

Had a pretty mellow day after a really unmellow week. Found the used bookstore that’s just down the street and spent $100 on not-in-print Mojave Desert Books. Then spent the evening at Water Canyon Coffee Company working on the forth coming The Mojave.

For the first time in quite awhile I got some hours in reading.  Wandered through the words of Jorge Lious Borges for awhile. The end result of which is that I now think Descartes and Berkeley were cowards, who ran screaming back to their god like frightened little children after glimpsing the abyss. Cogito Ergo Sum should simply be Cogito,  the object, I, is not required.  Anyway there is little truth in what I’ve just said, only it’s seeds.  Going to clean house now.