Some Personal Exemplars

These people have had a profound effect on me, and I invite you to experience them, and perhaps never see the world the same way again.

If there is a common theme, it is recovery from trauma... personal trauma followed by the trauma they say we all suffer from industrial civilization. Their lives are as moving as their books.

Some names link to websites.

abbeyEdward Abbey defied all labels, but one of his novels, The Monkey Wrench Gang, has caused a lot of joyful misbehaviour, and another book, Desert Solitaire, opened peoples eyes to the beauty of the American Southwest. His best fictional character was based on Doug Peacock.

peacock Doug Peacock, in his book "Grizzly Years", describes the horrifying effects that Vietnam had on his soul, his retreat into the American wilderness, and the healing that was brought about by his contact and growing love and respect for grizzly bears.

jensen Derrick Jensen is truly extreme and probably wrong about so much. But I know in my soul he's right about the big things. Helped me to make the bravest decision I ever made. His book "A Language Older Than Words" is powerful and moving.

Chellis Glendinning shows her bias in her book title, "My Name is Chellis and I'm in Recovery from Western Civilization". She believes we all suffer post traumatic stress because we have been wrenched out of what she calls our "Primal Matrix".

john_seed

John Seed is a deep-ecologist and rainforest activist. I was fortunate enough to work with him briefly and found him deeply moving. If ever there was an example of a beautiful soul, full of the healing and empowerment to be received from mother earth, this is the man. Don't miss him if he comes to town.