Where To Place Troffer Lights In Dental Rooms

A Tramp in the wilderness - John Muir, "My first summer in the Sierra" (Vivaldi editions)

John Muir in contemplation. below: views of Yosemite, in a photo by Ansel Adams;

Muir with President Roosevelt; Muir was young; map of the John Muir Wilderness Area, California, U.S. postage stamp with John Muir.

"Never as tired, he will fall along the way who had the grace of a day of mountain, whatever his fate, long or short the life that is on the lot, stormy or calm, he is rich forever. "

"Here there is no trouble either now empty, there is no fear of the past, nor care for the future. These blessed mountains are so filled with the beauty of God that there is no room for our petty hopes and personal experiences. "

(John Muir)

John Muir, of Scottish ancestry, emigrated to America at the age of eleven, after many trades in 1869 at the age of thirty-one years, left "walking with a herd of sheep" the mountains of the Sierra, becoming employed as assistant pastor. Not having a penny in my pocket, Muir found himself the way to achieve what he wanted: wandering in the wilderness in search of "beauty".

Muir is the prototype of the "Tramp": "... word dear to the American tradition: it evokes wide open spaces and men who walk through them - a tradition, literary or otherwise, who comes from pioneers to the poets beat of this century "(introduction). The spirit of "Tramp" is well exemplified in this sentence Muir: "throw a handful of tea leaves and a little 'bread in an old sack and jump the gate of the garden of the house."
The book "My first summer in the Sierra", refers to his diary that Muir held every day during the period of his wanderings among the mountains of Yosemite.

Great is the descriptive skills of Muir, who in great detail, contains detailed observations about plants, flowers and animals encountered in the course of his wanderings.

But , although he shows great talent as a naturalist (the comments are an example of the glacial origin of Yosemite Valley), Muir's approach is that of "mystic," the contemplation of nature, the human being in search wonder that the wilderness is able to infuse the human soul with its beauty; Escursions Muir is a tireless and you run no opportunity to leave the sheep alone and leave the exploration of mountains, valleys and waterfalls. As Paola Mazzarelli says in the introduction: "after the naturalist who meticulously, even pedantically special reports, which emerges the mystical experience of ecstasy all offers." The exaltation of the beauty of nature and the vision of its majestic scenery retraces a bit 'all the pages of the book. Here are some of the many passages referring to the emotions aroused by the vision of Muir in Yosemite Valley, state of mind where you can find anyone who has personally experienced the euphoria and joy aroused by contact with wild scenarios ...

"Never have I found so impotent before the show, so an unlimited wealth of sublime beauty of the mountains. Who has not admired at least once a similar view with your own eyes any description, however elaborate, can not communicate an idea of \u200b\u200bthe grandeur and spirituality that emanates from this view. In a surge of irrepressible enthusiasm, screaming and gesturing, with great wonder of the St. Bernard Charles ... "

" Every time ritiratomi from those points of view of the enthusiastic view, I say, 'Enough, I will not be on the edge'. But what can the council's caution at the spectacle of Yosemite? Seduced by the spell goes where the body's most s'aggrada, motivated by a desire on which there appears to have little power. "

Muir calls the sanctity of the wilderness, and many times will use terms such as "temples" and "cathedrals" with reference to the wilderness. "It is not surprising mountains and forests that were the first temples of God, the more I cut them and strikes to build churches and cathedrals as far away and the Lord appears opaque. The same can be said for the temples of stone ... "

Muir, although West was a farsighted man, that went beyond the prevailing mentality of his era (characterized precisely by the fever of conquest the West, the "progress of civilization"), because he had already realized the importance of thinking about nature as something that held a "intrinsic value" regardless of its use for utilitarian purposes and for the satisfaction, however, the emotional needs of man. "Like so many other things whose utility is not obvious to humans, this plant has few friends and is often heard to repeat the stupid question 'Why was it created?'. It's never occurred to anyone that perhaps it was first created for itself. " The "intrinsic value" refers to the conception of the nature fiolosofica who later formed the cornerstone of the American conservationist movement, of which Muir was an early pioneer. A forward-looking man said, he had already guessed the consumerist aspects of the trendy tourist town, which by then began to invade the immaculate Yosemite Valley. Muir sees the tourist as a wealthy individual who almost can not appreciate the beauty of the places you visit, as it is concerned about the practice of sports in which it is committed. "It seems strange that tourists visiting Yosemite are so little touched by such unusual splendor, as if they had blindfolded and ears plugged (...) As well, people look quite respectable, even people who seem wise to look at, is to spearing pieces of worm on a piece of wire bent in order to catch trout. This activity called sport. "

Muir is Even so sensitive complain several times about the devastating poaching of sheep in the valleys bloom Yosemite, which he accompanies himself!

Maybe you can only blame Muir lack of consideration with which he assesses the Native Americans in a few pages, not seen as "more natural" civilized whites, and which does not bear the "filth" (it is certainly to consider the impact that white civilization was on the habits of the Indians). Muir, however, also admit that: "Maybe if I knew them better appreciate them more," . But it is not Muir could not accuse of discrimination, as elsewhere, is conscious of the perfect harmony of India with the rest of nature, in contrast to the white man, who leaves Muir signs everywhere destructive. "The Indians have a light step and hurt the landscape a little more of the birds and squirrels, and their huts of leaves and bark will last about as much as the nests of voles and even their most enduring monuments disappear within a couple of hundred years except the traces left by the fires in the forest ... "

The travelogue of Muir is also a description of the adventurous life of rugged mountain, not at all idyllic of shepherds who live in solitude, "dumbed down by fatigue" and the dirty clothes so as to form a stratification of interest almost "geological" situations in which the bread is scarce and the dreams of the night. And then there are the crossings of streams and the flock of bears in the night raids, and bivouacs night outside in the moonlight.

E 'to Muir that we owe the first description of the protected areas in America. As the editor of the book introduction: "the shy lover of wilderness will dedicate the last fifteen years of his life fighting for the creation of protected areas. All American parks are stablished in those years, starting with the Yosemite, owe their existence largely to his work. " Muir will lead the battle against the interests of speculators, industrialists and farmers threaten the destruction of the great American wilderness sanctuaries.

Muir is one of the "founding fathers" of the Wilderness Movement, in him the four poles of fiolosofia wilderness: the ' experience in the wild, the feeling the scientific knowledge and struggle for the preservation intersect, in its contribution to human culture and which he gave to the understanding and conservation of wild nature.