An epiphany -- Early childhood -- Education -- Recognizing homeland -- America needs Indians -- Peyote mind -- Navajo Mountain -- Reentry -- Life as a fire lookout -- Life as a curator -- Meeting the Udalls -- Adventuring in Mexico -- Radical environmentalism -- Black Mesa -- Evolving perspective -- Minding the flow of nature -- Reflections : the Black Mesa defense fund -- Spiritual restoration -- Listening as an art form -- Time to consider -- Looking to the bigger picture -- Indigenous mindedness -- Counterculture -- Edward Abbey, anarchism, and the environment -- More on Gary Snyder -- More reflections -- The lore of the land -- A landscape under siege -- A change of perspective -- Restoring indigenous mindedness -- Enduring reflections -- Rural? Urban? -- Thinking like a watershed -- A few suggestions -- Toward a new cultural paradigm.
Summary:
"With the temperament of Santa Claus and the tenacity of a badger, Jack Loeffler reveals his compassion and concern for Southwestern traditional cultures and their respective habitats in the wake of Manifest Destiny. He speaks of his resistance to the corporate and political machinations that have turned the Southwest into the National Sacrifice Area in order to promulgate growth for the sake of growth. Working both as an individual and with comrades -- including Edward Abbey and Gary Snyder -- he was part of an early coterie of counterculturalists and hardcore radical environmentalists who fought to thwart the plunder of natural resources in the Southwest to serve presumed human needs. Loeffler, a former jazz musician, fire lookout, museum curator, bioregionalist, and self-taught aural historian, shares his humor and imagination, his adventures, observations, reflections, and meditations along the trail in his retelling of a life well-lived in the American Southwest. He also reveals the perspectives of authors, philosophers, scientists, and the salt of the Earth he has interviewed for his radio programs, sound collages, and books. In this honest memoir, he advises each and every one of us to go skinny-dipping joyfully in the flow of Nature to better understand where we're headed"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.