“Democracy is a shared power, not granted from above, but demanded from below.”
“Public pullback from politics is a double-edged sword. All I know is that I want the American people wielding that sword and not the American government.
I want Americans to see their reflection in that sword and see people holding hands — like they did in the desert a millennium ago, like they do in the desert now.”
Powerful prose once again. The thing I struggle with the most is not being able to galvanize or even get through to those closest to me. I’m building community with likeminded folks, but every conversation with family leads to heartache and gaslighting. It’s heavy seeing a lack of caring from those we love.
These are the exact excerpts I was going to copy/paste into the comment section. Know that you are NOT alone in securing a community that can support and sustain one another.
I’ll vote for Biden, as it’s literally the *least* I can do as a white woman. Let's move beyond the 'vote blue' rhetoric. Simply keeping Trump out and giving Biden another term isn't enough. The facade is already broken.
Wonderful piece, thank you. As a former NPS Park Ranger, I love that you are taking your family to the parks during this time. I hope y’all find some peace in those places, as I always have. You have an uncanny way of being able to truly express what so many Americans are feeling right now. Just reading your piece and knowing someone is really “getting it”, makes me feel understood, and somehow a little better. Thank you.
Thank you! I love the national parks. I’ve been to 28 of them but I want to see them all! I do find peace and happiness there, more than elsewhere. Same with state parks, especially here in Missouri. Anyway thank you for reading!
Struggling to plug in, or perhaps simply unwilling to after 8 weeks volunteering in Ukraine 🇺🇦 . Maybe I don't want to plug in anymore, the clarity of a nation fighting for its existence against a genocide can offer a belonging like nothing else. It is truly intoxicating to be among people who think, feel, value and love the same things and the same way. It is like an endless road trip, with as yet no end in sight.
Thank you for volunteering in Ukraine. I don’t know about [re-]plugging in, but I still think that keeping pressure on our electeds to aid Ukraine — by calling them or writing to them — has a chance of having an impact.
I made a web site that makes it easy — it looks up your reps and drafts your letters that you can then copy, edit (or not), and send. Sarah — I don’t know if it is ok to share the link here, please delete my note if not. https://helpukrainewin.com/
Already do that - you'd be surprised how a Ukrainian phone number can get noticed. I have already met with my rep's director and am aiming for Jayapal's director now.
And, about plugging in? Can't do it - off to Prague on Thursday, I am running an exhibit of Ukrainian Children's artwork, their experiences, dreams and hopes while thye try to survive a genocidal war there on Monday 15th. Thanks for support, Слава україні
I've started sending Congressman Johnson, "Speaker off the House", Winston Churchill postcards, noting on the back, "This is not you", knowing it's entirely likely he'll just shrug and continue serving extreme wealth accumulation, and those who are sufficiently cold-blooded to shed the blood and treasure of others to garner more of it.
40% of Italians no longer vote. They have checked out after all the Berlusconi years and the collusion and corruption of most of the parties on all sides.
The current right wing gov only has a third of the country votes, but with electoral laws tailor made they can have a majority in Parliament, and they are quickly proceeding to change laws and change the asset of the Italian Republic.
I had BETTER HOPES for this country, because it is a federation of FIFTY states, and possibly much harder to totally subjugate.
I still hope the majority of Americans that basically want the SAME things (livable wage, a safe and clean environment, a decent life for their kids) will find a way to band together. We say in Italian that hope is always the "last one to die."
Thank you for your writings. They are a testimony of the heartfelt anticipatory grief of our times.
Thank you! My hope is that people don't take their merited frustration on the presidential candidates out on the down-ballots candidates. They should still vote. Those other races mean more, to some extent, as they can help create a bulwark against what's coming.
Yes, local school boards, city councils, county commissions, etc. are very significant! Need to elect responsible & knowledgeable people, not self-serving zealots! This is also applicable to state & national elections too!
Some justified fears here, perhaps, but no loathing, only timeless visions of loving and human possibility. Who else gets that from a trip to Vegas in 2024?
My parents taught school, our summers were spent in a VW Microbus and a tent, criss-crossing the country. There is so much beauty. So much. Thank you for your stories! Thank you for sharing your vision, your vulnerabilities, and your hopes. I don't always agree with you about everything, but you make me think, and help me to recall what I hope was a clear-eyed passion for justice and honor that I had when I was younger. I need to find that again. It's still a passion, but it's less clear now. Walk in beauty.
Dear Sarah! In previous comments, I have referred to you as America's Cassandra: correctly predicting the future, but never believed. Here in Canada, we have our mini-Biden and rank- amateur Trump vying for political power, so when you speak you clarify things for more than Americans. I am so glad that you are finding solace in the wild places. They have much to offer.
Our Native peoples know that they offer wisdom and insight as well as peace for the soul.
Please keep expressing your truths, especially the ones that reveal themselves in those wild spaces. Your insights are so valuable and very badly needed. (Your pictures are worth much more than a kiloword!)
Well said. Wisdom and insight are available to those willing to put aside their biases, cultivate their sensibilities and put their egos on a leash, a short one. Those wild places were once endless and considered holy ground. In conversation about these places I frequently urge people to look, and see with their ancient eyes. Silly? Maybe, but only to the newcomers. Canada is in my heart, thanks.
I agree completely. As a "Settler" I have tried to understand the Native view of a river not as a stream of water flowing somewhere, but as an entity that just "is". It swells and recedes seasonally as a heart beat. Now I cannot see a river in any other way.
There is so much to learn, so much wisdom our "modern cultures" dismiss.
I got goosebumps reading this. Having spent countless hours on western rivers with a paddle or flyrod, sometimes both, occasionally neither that illusive wisdom resides there always. The lifeblood and yes the heart beat. Wisdom is found at the rivers edge.
Neither the Joshua tree nor American democracy ever had a fiercer, playful and compassionate lover. You may have passed unmolested through those jumping chollas, but every time I read one of your essays, I am covered with sparkling – even, or especially, when barbed – SK aphorisms, one–line manifestos, and glorious declarations of Independence.
Thank you Sarah for your wonderful writing and photos. I do hope you take the time to go over to the Grand Canyon. I can’t describe how overwhelming a sight it is from the North Rim.
Thank you! I’ve been to the Grand Canyon, I drove there from St Louis in 2007 when I was seven months pregnant! That was an adventure. I’d love to see the North Rim, we only saw the south.
I love your travel essays, the way you and your family submerge yourselves in the National Parks, the tourist attractions, the landscapes, the people. You inspire me to travel to these places and see with that same mix of wonder and perspective.
The desert is magical. I am comforted in these lonely, heartbreak times by a memory from the first time I went to the desert in southern California, where I came upon a beautiful, delicate flower growing seemingly all by itself out of what appeared like an endless stretch of sandy soil. Surveying the scene a little more carefully, I realized that there were actually many other flowers growing up out of that same sandy soil all around me: a family of flowers, in fact, providing one another with sufficient space so that all could access enough of the scarce resources for living that were available in that environment. A lesson for me, and for humanity.
Thank you for reading! I had a similar experience like that in Death Valley. It's shocking to see the lone flowers at first, and then comforting to realize they were never alone later.
Yes. These deserts are what I call the Beauty and the Beast, failure to respect them is a moral failure. I wish more people could grasp the lessons. Edward Abbey promoted the notion that a person should stop the car, get out and start walking, better yet get down on your knees and look, really look to fully appreciate the desert.
Agreed, and thank you. And indeed, although I am not a religious person per se, I would suggest that we should get down on our knees more often, not just to look at the desert more closely and appreciate ITS beauty, but to look at EVERYTHING and everyONE more closely and carefully and slowly and respectfully. So many of us are just rushing and rushing and paying little heed to what or who is near... for what? No good end, I'm sure.
You are the one political/social writer who I never pass by. Maybe I'm a little biased, as I live in Missouri and also travel the same back roads, state parks, and just returned from a weekend in Eureka Springs, where "They Knew" begins. Your beautiful writing and photos are a gift! Thank you!
I see a person laughing (or screaming?) at the sky in your daughter's photo, and a timeless shabbiness in your pink-tinted LV photo. I guess you captured the "real" LV. Thanks for sharing your family's adventures and your ruminations. United we stand.
beautiful essay! love the photos! great idea to visit all the national parks; so much to see in this country yet i know too many who go on cruises and want to travel overseas but haven't seen that much of America.
glad it isn't my imagination at how hard it is to find information consistently; hard to dissect through it all and look at all the reporting and be fully informed.
this really stood out to me: "There is also a sense of futility about civic engagement as the nightmare rerun election approaches. The Trump years spurred more activism and higher voter turnout than any other time in modern history, and look what it brought us — Trump, again.
And Biden, again promising he will hold Trump accountable after four years of not only refusing to do so, but enacting Trump’s own policies."
i've backed off mainstream news. i listen to podcasts and read newsletters like yours but so hard to stay engaged.
but back to national parks- your photos put lovely images in my brain so maybe i will sleep better tonight
“Democracy is a shared power, not granted from above, but demanded from below.”
“Public pullback from politics is a double-edged sword. All I know is that I want the American people wielding that sword and not the American government.
I want Americans to see their reflection in that sword and see people holding hands — like they did in the desert a millennium ago, like they do in the desert now.”
Powerful prose once again. The thing I struggle with the most is not being able to galvanize or even get through to those closest to me. I’m building community with likeminded folks, but every conversation with family leads to heartache and gaslighting. It’s heavy seeing a lack of caring from those we love.
Thank you for sharing, Sarah.
Thank you for reading!
These are the exact excerpts I was going to copy/paste into the comment section. Know that you are NOT alone in securing a community that can support and sustain one another.
I’ll vote for Biden, as it’s literally the *least* I can do as a white woman. Let's move beyond the 'vote blue' rhetoric. Simply keeping Trump out and giving Biden another term isn't enough. The facade is already broken.
Wonderful piece, thank you. As a former NPS Park Ranger, I love that you are taking your family to the parks during this time. I hope y’all find some peace in those places, as I always have. You have an uncanny way of being able to truly express what so many Americans are feeling right now. Just reading your piece and knowing someone is really “getting it”, makes me feel understood, and somehow a little better. Thank you.
Thank you! I love the national parks. I’ve been to 28 of them but I want to see them all! I do find peace and happiness there, more than elsewhere. Same with state parks, especially here in Missouri. Anyway thank you for reading!
Struggling to plug in, or perhaps simply unwilling to after 8 weeks volunteering in Ukraine 🇺🇦 . Maybe I don't want to plug in anymore, the clarity of a nation fighting for its existence against a genocide can offer a belonging like nothing else. It is truly intoxicating to be among people who think, feel, value and love the same things and the same way. It is like an endless road trip, with as yet no end in sight.
Thank you for volunteering in Ukraine. I don’t know about [re-]plugging in, but I still think that keeping pressure on our electeds to aid Ukraine — by calling them or writing to them — has a chance of having an impact.
I made a web site that makes it easy — it looks up your reps and drafts your letters that you can then copy, edit (or not), and send. Sarah — I don’t know if it is ok to share the link here, please delete my note if not. https://helpukrainewin.com/
Already do that - you'd be surprised how a Ukrainian phone number can get noticed. I have already met with my rep's director and am aiming for Jayapal's director now.
And, about plugging in? Can't do it - off to Prague on Thursday, I am running an exhibit of Ukrainian Children's artwork, their experiences, dreams and hopes while thye try to survive a genocidal war there on Monday 15th. Thanks for support, Слава україні
I've started sending Congressman Johnson, "Speaker off the House", Winston Churchill postcards, noting on the back, "This is not you", knowing it's entirely likely he'll just shrug and continue serving extreme wealth accumulation, and those who are sufficiently cold-blooded to shed the blood and treasure of others to garner more of it.
lol nice. yes. putin's johnson is definitely not that.
40% of Italians no longer vote. They have checked out after all the Berlusconi years and the collusion and corruption of most of the parties on all sides.
The current right wing gov only has a third of the country votes, but with electoral laws tailor made they can have a majority in Parliament, and they are quickly proceeding to change laws and change the asset of the Italian Republic.
I had BETTER HOPES for this country, because it is a federation of FIFTY states, and possibly much harder to totally subjugate.
I still hope the majority of Americans that basically want the SAME things (livable wage, a safe and clean environment, a decent life for their kids) will find a way to band together. We say in Italian that hope is always the "last one to die."
Thank you for your writings. They are a testimony of the heartfelt anticipatory grief of our times.
Thank you! My hope is that people don't take their merited frustration on the presidential candidates out on the down-ballots candidates. They should still vote. Those other races mean more, to some extent, as they can help create a bulwark against what's coming.
Yes, local school boards, city councils, county commissions, etc. are very significant! Need to elect responsible & knowledgeable people, not self-serving zealots! This is also applicable to state & national elections too!
Sarah’s writing is so beautifully heart wrenching. The closing line is remarkably powerful, real and emotional. Bravo, yet again.
Thank you!
Some justified fears here, perhaps, but no loathing, only timeless visions of loving and human possibility. Who else gets that from a trip to Vegas in 2024?
Thank you again, Sarah.
My parents taught school, our summers were spent in a VW Microbus and a tent, criss-crossing the country. There is so much beauty. So much. Thank you for your stories! Thank you for sharing your vision, your vulnerabilities, and your hopes. I don't always agree with you about everything, but you make me think, and help me to recall what I hope was a clear-eyed passion for justice and honor that I had when I was younger. I need to find that again. It's still a passion, but it's less clear now. Walk in beauty.
Thank you!
Dear Sarah! In previous comments, I have referred to you as America's Cassandra: correctly predicting the future, but never believed. Here in Canada, we have our mini-Biden and rank- amateur Trump vying for political power, so when you speak you clarify things for more than Americans. I am so glad that you are finding solace in the wild places. They have much to offer.
Our Native peoples know that they offer wisdom and insight as well as peace for the soul.
Please keep expressing your truths, especially the ones that reveal themselves in those wild spaces. Your insights are so valuable and very badly needed. (Your pictures are worth much more than a kiloword!)
Thank you!
Well said. Wisdom and insight are available to those willing to put aside their biases, cultivate their sensibilities and put their egos on a leash, a short one. Those wild places were once endless and considered holy ground. In conversation about these places I frequently urge people to look, and see with their ancient eyes. Silly? Maybe, but only to the newcomers. Canada is in my heart, thanks.
I agree completely. As a "Settler" I have tried to understand the Native view of a river not as a stream of water flowing somewhere, but as an entity that just "is". It swells and recedes seasonally as a heart beat. Now I cannot see a river in any other way.
There is so much to learn, so much wisdom our "modern cultures" dismiss.
I got goosebumps reading this. Having spent countless hours on western rivers with a paddle or flyrod, sometimes both, occasionally neither that illusive wisdom resides there always. The lifeblood and yes the heart beat. Wisdom is found at the rivers edge.
Glad to see you were out in the park after sunset. Park Rangers say half the park is at night.
Neither the Joshua tree nor American democracy ever had a fiercer, playful and compassionate lover. You may have passed unmolested through those jumping chollas, but every time I read one of your essays, I am covered with sparkling – even, or especially, when barbed – SK aphorisms, one–line manifestos, and glorious declarations of Independence.
Thank you very much!
Thank you Sarah for your wonderful writing and photos. I do hope you take the time to go over to the Grand Canyon. I can’t describe how overwhelming a sight it is from the North Rim.
Thank you! I’ve been to the Grand Canyon, I drove there from St Louis in 2007 when I was seven months pregnant! That was an adventure. I’d love to see the North Rim, we only saw the south.
I love your travel essays, the way you and your family submerge yourselves in the National Parks, the tourist attractions, the landscapes, the people. You inspire me to travel to these places and see with that same mix of wonder and perspective.
Thank you, happy to hear it!
The desert is magical. I am comforted in these lonely, heartbreak times by a memory from the first time I went to the desert in southern California, where I came upon a beautiful, delicate flower growing seemingly all by itself out of what appeared like an endless stretch of sandy soil. Surveying the scene a little more carefully, I realized that there were actually many other flowers growing up out of that same sandy soil all around me: a family of flowers, in fact, providing one another with sufficient space so that all could access enough of the scarce resources for living that were available in that environment. A lesson for me, and for humanity.
Thank you for reading! I had a similar experience like that in Death Valley. It's shocking to see the lone flowers at first, and then comforting to realize they were never alone later.
Exactly! Also, I forgot to say thank you (again) for your profound and beautiful reflections. So... Thank you!!!
Yes. These deserts are what I call the Beauty and the Beast, failure to respect them is a moral failure. I wish more people could grasp the lessons. Edward Abbey promoted the notion that a person should stop the car, get out and start walking, better yet get down on your knees and look, really look to fully appreciate the desert.
Agreed, and thank you. And indeed, although I am not a religious person per se, I would suggest that we should get down on our knees more often, not just to look at the desert more closely and appreciate ITS beauty, but to look at EVERYTHING and everyONE more closely and carefully and slowly and respectfully. So many of us are just rushing and rushing and paying little heed to what or who is near... for what? No good end, I'm sure.
You are the one political/social writer who I never pass by. Maybe I'm a little biased, as I live in Missouri and also travel the same back roads, state parks, and just returned from a weekend in Eureka Springs, where "They Knew" begins. Your beautiful writing and photos are a gift! Thank you!
Thank you very much!
I see a person laughing (or screaming?) at the sky in your daughter's photo, and a timeless shabbiness in your pink-tinted LV photo. I guess you captured the "real" LV. Thanks for sharing your family's adventures and your ruminations. United we stand.
Thank you for reading!
beautiful essay! love the photos! great idea to visit all the national parks; so much to see in this country yet i know too many who go on cruises and want to travel overseas but haven't seen that much of America.
glad it isn't my imagination at how hard it is to find information consistently; hard to dissect through it all and look at all the reporting and be fully informed.
this really stood out to me: "There is also a sense of futility about civic engagement as the nightmare rerun election approaches. The Trump years spurred more activism and higher voter turnout than any other time in modern history, and look what it brought us — Trump, again.
And Biden, again promising he will hold Trump accountable after four years of not only refusing to do so, but enacting Trump’s own policies."
i've backed off mainstream news. i listen to podcasts and read newsletters like yours but so hard to stay engaged.
but back to national parks- your photos put lovely images in my brain so maybe i will sleep better tonight