Last Updated on September 3, 2009 by James Dziezynski
“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 for yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure.” -Edward Abbey
I’m sure many of you know the rest of this famous Edward Abbey quote. Like many people, I read Edward Abbey when I was younger, at a time in my life when the free-spirited values of adventure and exploration felt as if they were entitled to be mine by the virtues of youth. Adventure was second nature and without the numbing practicality of experience, easy to pursue with enthusiasm.
I am glad to stumble across this quote today.
For many of us, when life slips out of balance it’s not so much the result a single jarring event, rather a series of smaller incidents that accrue with inperceptible impact. And because the whole process is insidious by design, it can be difficult to know exactly which components of one’s life are disrupted and which only need slight adjustments. I’ve had good conversations with the editor of my latest book that feel like they apply directly to old Ed’s advice. My essays are unapologetic and well presented, but there’s a purposeful element of the part-time crusader.
This is not to be confused with half-hearted stances.
An emerging theme through the combined chapters is the voice of positive atheism, something I’m not necessarily aiming to self-proclaim myself the voice of. Like a lot of the great writers, scientists, and philosophers I respect, I would summarize that I believe in the system self evident in the universe, of the mysteries we have been probing and exploring and that will almost undoubtedly be unknown in our lifetimes. I believe in minds unburdened by the politics of religion, that freedom and tolerance should be understood as basic human conditions. The way I see it, the world is far too beautiful and far too wondrous to be distracted by expired dogmatic myths. All major religions born in the dark recesses of the past have a double-edged duality in that their perseverence into the modern age asserts a faux validity by virtue of longevity, yet declarations of truth and authority made in the blind absence of science not only invite disbelief, they eventually undermine the credibility of the supernatural elements imparted into the most base tenets. So is that be definition, atheism? At some point I leave that argument to others, even if my alligience is more clearly rooted in atheism and agnosticism.
You see, I’m a reluctant enthusiast for the cause. When my beloved dog Talus was succumbing to a fatal illness this spring, I took unexpected comfort that I never felt compelled to pray, to invoke the universe or send out any other plea for divine intervention. It wasn’t that I was at peace with the events at hand; on the contrary it felt like a waking nightmare that shattered my heart to the core. If there was some magical being haphazardly granting random prayers and callously ignoring others, that’s not a power to whom I want to request heartfelt favors. If there’s a universal spirit, it already knew my passion and desire to save my canine friend, there was no value in trying to beleaguer the ledger of karmic forces to sway in my favor. What is self evident is that the events that thrill and destroy us are indifferent in their causes and if quantum physics are to be believed, merely one branch of possible outcomes that play-out in endless universes. The “Will of God” is nothing more than rational human reasoning hoping to cope with devestating circumstances, a polarized negative of Christianity, Judiasm and Islam whose beliefs are entrenched in the irrational.
And yet, I will fight no further because you see, I’m only in this debate part-time. There are too many mountains to climbs, rivers to run, sunsets to appreciate and friends to laugh with to let these debates overwhelm my days. I am at peace with the world as I can possibly understand it and as basic Socratic thought advises, admit your ignorance but leave no day unexamined. As a human that is subject to the human condition, I have wrongs to right, flaws to address and passions to unlock.
But only part-time. To the mountains…
