Here are a few quotes from one of my favorite books,

Desert Solitaire
(A Season in the Wilderness)
by Edward Abbey


"Time and the winds will sooner or later bury the Seven Cities of 
Cibola, Phoenix, Tucson, Albuquerque, all of them, under dunes of 
glowing sand, over which blue-eyed Navajo bedouin will herd their 
sheep and horses, following the river in winter, the mountains in 
summer, and sometimes striking off across the desert toward the red 
canyons of Utah where great water falls plunge over silt-filled, 
ancient, mysterious dams." p. 145

- - -

"The love of wilderness is more than a hunger for what is always 
beyond reach; it is also an expression of loyalty to the earth, the 
earth which bore us and sustains us, the only paradise we shall ever 
know, the only paradise we ever need, if only we had the eyes to 
see. . . . No, wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the 
human spirit, as vital to our lives as water and good bread."

- - -


"Water, water, water... There is no shortage of water in the desert 
but exactly the right amount, a perfect ratio of water to rock, of 
water to sand, insuring that wide, free, open, generous spacing among 
plants and animals, homes and towns and cities, which makes the arid 
West so different from any other part of the nation. There is no lack 
of water here, unless you try to establish a city where no city should 
be.

"The Devlopers, of course - the politicians, businesssmen, bankers, 
administrators, engineers - they see it somewhat otherwise and complain 
most bitterly and interminably of a desperate water shortage, especially 
in the Southwest. They propose schemes of inspiring proportions for 
diverting water by the damful from the Columbia River, or even from the 
Yukon River, and channeling it overland down into Utah, Colorado Arisona 
and New Mexico.

"What for? 'In anticipation of future needs, in order to provide for 
the continued industrial and population growth of the Southwest.' And 
in such an answer we see that it's only the old numbers game again, 
the monomania of small and very simple minds in the grip of an obsession. 
They cannot see that gowth for the sake of gowth is a cncerous madness, 
that Phoenix and Albuquerque will not be better cities to live in when 
their populations are doubled again and again. They would never 
understand that an economic system which can only expand or expire must 
be false to all that is human." pp. 144-145

- - -

"As I sit there drinking water from cupped hands, I happened to 
look up and see on the oppositie wall, a hundred feet above the 
floor of the canyon, the ruins of three tiny cliff dwellings, the 
erosion of eight centuries has removed whole blocks of rock which 
formerly must have supported ladders and handholds, making the 
ghost viallge now in accessible.

"I am content, however, to view the remains frombelow. Neither a 
souvenir collector nor an archeologist, I have no desire to stir 
the ancient dust for the sake of removing from their setting a 
few potsherds, a few corncobs, a child's straw sandal, an arrow 
point, perhaps a broken skull."

"What interests me is the quality of that pre-Columbian life, 
the feel of it, the atmosphere.  We know enough of the homely 
details: the cultivation of maze, beans, melons; the hunting of 
rabbit and deer; the manufacture of pottery, baskets, ornaments 
of coral and bone; the construction of the fortlike homes - for 
apparently, like some twentieth century Americans, the Anasazi 
lived under a cloud of fear." - pp 201-202



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