I still can't believe that Ruess's body has been found on Comb Ridge.
Radio West did an interesting show on the discovery of his body and on his life today.
After reading his journals and other books written about him it seems like he was very comfortable being who he was and that he had a pretty good idea on what he wanted from this life. I hope I feel the same way when I leave.
"Music has been in my heart all the time, and poetry in my thoughts. Alone on the open desert, I have made up songs of wild, poignant rejoicing and transcendent melancholy. The world has seemed more beautiful to me than ever before. I have loved the red rocks, the twisted trees, the red sand blowing in the wind, the slow, sunny clouds crossing the sky, the shafts of moonlight on my bed at night. I have seemed to be at one with the world. I have rejoiced to set out, to be going somewhere, and I have felt a still sublimity, looking deep into the coals of my campfires, and seeing far beyond them. I have been happy in my work, and I have exulted in my play. I have really lived."
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A GRAND COUNTY ALMANAC
Wild Quotes
"When I hear the stock market has fallen, I say, "Long live gravity! Long live stupidity, error and greed in the palaces of fantasy capitalism!" I think an economy should be based on thrift, on taking care of things, not on theft, usury, seduction, waste, and ruin. My purpose is a language that can make us whole, Though mortal, ignorant, and small. The world is whole beyond human knowing."
-Wendell Berry, agrarian philosopher
"Where can one find a healthier and purer delight than when on a brilliant winter day one binds one's ski to ones feet and takes one's way out into the forest?... Civilization is, as it were, washed clean from the mind and left far behind with the city atmosphere and city life; one's whole being is, so to say, wrapped in one's ski and surrounding nature"
Fridtjof Nansen, Norwewgian adventurer and Ski Hero, first to cross Greenland on skis.
"Of what avail are forty freedoms without a blank spot on the map?"
Aldo Leopold
"And they did preserve the land south as a wilderness, to get game.."
Book of Mormon, Ether 10:21
Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The wind will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.
-- John Muir
-Wendell Berry, agrarian philosopher
"Where can one find a healthier and purer delight than when on a brilliant winter day one binds one's ski to ones feet and takes one's way out into the forest?... Civilization is, as it were, washed clean from the mind and left far behind with the city atmosphere and city life; one's whole being is, so to say, wrapped in one's ski and surrounding nature"
Fridtjof Nansen, Norwewgian adventurer and Ski Hero, first to cross Greenland on skis.
"Of what avail are forty freedoms without a blank spot on the map?"
Aldo Leopold
"And they did preserve the land south as a wilderness, to get game.."
Book of Mormon, Ether 10:21
Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The wind will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.
-- John Muir
3 comments:
I read that quote at the end of every Grand Canyon Trip. I'm sad they found him, and it's not just that the mystic is gone but that I don't think he ever wanted to be found.
Yes but I don't think a skull crushing blow to the back of the head was his idea of "never being found"
My only previous exposure to Ruess was in Krakauer's book on McCandless. I'm just now digging into A Vagabond For Beauty. Thanks for the quote!
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