Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

From June 28th through July 3rd, I had the privilege of being on a raft on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. This was part of a family trip “for the guys.” On a trip put together by my father-in-law Allan, his two sons, me (a son in law), my three sons, two other grandsons, one grandson-in-law, and one great grandson spent five days and five nights on the Colorado River. These blog posts are part of the story.

One thing often leads to another. Such was the case of chasing the poem with the line “three cheers for the bureau boys.” Instead of writing the name of the book that contained that poem, I figured that I would just find it quickly on the Internet. I didn’t find it quickly. I had to search several times before I found it.

While searching, I stumbled across Edward Abbey.

Wikipedia has a good article on the deceased Abbey. He wrote books and essays about the area around the Grand Canyon. He worked part-time for many years for the National Park Service. Those years and experiences influenced his writing.

Famous works by Abbey:

• The Brave Cowboy – fiction – Published in 1956, this became a movie titled Lonely are the Brave that starred Kirk Douglas. I’ve seen that movie on TV several times. I always thought it to be the best film ever made about a cowboy in the 20th century.
• Desert Solitaire – non-fiction – a collection of writing by Abbey on the southwest.
• The Monkey Wrench Gang – fiction (at least so far it is fiction as no one is yet to do these things, I repeat yet) – a gang of misfits blows up man-made things out in nature. I’ve read that in 2010 or 2011 someone will make this into a movie. I hope so.

I am reading “The Monkey Wrench Gang” chapter by chapter when I find myself in the library with a few spare moments. I love it.

Abbey writes like Mark Twain. I guess most people call it irreverent. He makes fun of things that you are not supposed to make fun of. He is a bit crude, but I find him funny. Sort of like me. For example, I went to the Grand Canyon on a glorious trip, but I took photos of the porta-potty that we used. Oh well.

Read Abbey. You may enjoy him.