The Name of this Blog

The name of this blog is taken from a quote by Edward Abbey, an author I like, although I wouldn’t call myself a fanatic.

Be as I am—a reluctant enthusiast… a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure.

Edward Abbey

Following that advice, the three categories for the posts here are…

  • Crusader
  • Pleasure
  • Adventure

Clever, huh? You can find links to these posts in the menu. (Along with a “None of the Above” category.)

When I started this blog, in 2008, I didn’t know the source of the quote. It wasn’t in any books that I had read. I just trusted that it was a legitimate Abbey quote. Now, I can (more) confidently say that is from a book that I still haven’t read, written by someone other than Edward Abbey: Saving Nature’s Legacy: Protecting And Restoring Biodiversity, Reed F. Noss, Rodger Schlickeisen

I should probably buy a copy.

Here is the full quote:

One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am—a reluctant enthusiast… a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure.  It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here.  So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this; You will outlive the bastards.

Edward Abbey—Quoted in Saving Nature’s Legacy : Protecting and Restoring Biodiversity (1994) by Reed F. Noss, Allen Y. Cooperrider, and Rodger Schlickeisen, p. 338 ISBN 1559632488