I don’t have an ADK story to tell, nor have I ever been. So
here I’d like to offer the perspective most opposite the wilderness
lifestyle. One of the arguments that McKibben likes to make is the case for the
wilderness of the Adirondacks over the safe, cookie-cutter lifestyle of New
England towns. McKibben is almost disdainful of the towns with their white
churches, self-governance, their cobblestone roads, and uniform-colored wood.
But McKibben has no base to denounce this lifestyle when all
he knows and all he breathes is the wilderness. The way I see it, living in a
stereotypical New England town is safe and happily void of surprises. Folks
know to expect the same everyday. They can wake up and be assured that they’ll
make it to work on time and make it home for dinner.
The wilderness, on the other hand, is quintessentially wild
and unpredictable. McKibben says the Adirondacks are higher, colder, wilder – a
challenge just to make it through to the end of the day. Yet the Adirondacks
are full of surprises, both good and bad. McKibben’s opening anecdote is a
great example, how he spent 10 hours walking in circles, trudging through the
same thickets to look for his starting spot. But he knew that if he put his
faith in the mountains, they would reward him. The day turned from one of his
worst to the best of his life after he decided to go out for 20 more minutes.
It’s not fair for McKibben to say the Adirondacks are
better. They’re just not for everyone, and thankfully so.
Your post interested me because I interpreted McKibben's treatment of New England towns entirely differently. McKibben has spent considerable time in Vermont and in the Adirondacks, and he thinks of them as one region largely because of the value he sees in both places. I think the following passage is particularly telling: "This region (Adimont? The Verandacks?) includes the fertile farms and small woodlots directly beneath me in the Champlain Valley, where a new generation of settlers is trying to figure out new ways to responsibly inhabit the land - ways to farm and log and invest that enrich in the fullest sense of the word. It encompasses the fine small city of Burlington to the north. And across the lake it is made whole by the matchless eastern wilderness of the Adirondacks."
ReplyDeleteoops, also that quote was on pg. 15
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