Spring: Excerpt

Written by  //  April 21, 2010  //  Bike, Moab  //  3 Comments

The following is a small excerpt from Spring, an essay I’ve been plunkering out for the last few weeks. With the White Rim centering itself in my ideological and delusional crosshairs, the following seemed appropriate:

With the coming of the sun and the warmth also comes the ritualistic worship at the altar of the most high and holy and beautiful temple nature has had the audacity to create with its temperate control of wind and heat and cold and sun and water. The White Rim. A sprawling expanse of monotony so overwhelming that it leaves one exhausted and awe-struck just gazing out at its empty void. To explore and ride through the red and the white and the blue on a bike is something akin to religious communion. A connection with the intangible and mythical and sacred. I cannot pretend to understand or to even claim primal knowledge in why that is, but the ancient and godly presence of the other and the unseen lurks in those canyons in a thick reality. The unknown Maze, the unmapped cavernous boxes of boulder and dirt and trickling, life giving streams seem to cling precariously on the edge of extermination and existence. It feels otherworldly, antiquated, primitive. And yet, being in that open and wide and amazing place is an affirmation of life and vitality and beauty that is as unique as the landscape itself.

Related posts:

  1. Summer: Excerpt
  2. January: Excerpt
  3. That Essay Project (Excerpt)
  4. Spring. Classic.
  5. White Rim: From the Sublime to the Ridiculous

About the Author

Grizzly Adam is the author of Mythical and Tangible: Tales of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Singletrack. He is also a frequent contributor to Cycling Utah and XXC Magazine. He spends his free time chasing the advice of Ben Franklin, that is, trying to "write something worth reading, or do something worth writing about."

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3 Comments on "Spring: Excerpt"

  1. Greg April 22, 2010 at 7:45 am ·

    Excellent! What is the essay for? Are you going to try to get it published, or is it going to be just an excellent, very long blog post?

    • Grizzly Adam April 22, 2010 at 8:35 am ·

      I’d love to get something published. Hoping to have something “shoppable” by the end of the year.

      • Greg April 27, 2010 at 8:29 am ·

        Shoppable, like an e-book? Shoppable is good!

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