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Blood Orchid: An Unnatural History of America QUOTES

Blood Orchid: An Unnatural History of America QUOTES

1 " Now I dream of the soft touch of women, the songs of birds, the smell of soil crumbling between my fingers, and the brilliant green of plants that I diligently nurture. I am looking for land to buy and I will sow it with deer and wild pigs and birds and cottonwoods and sycamores and build a pond and the ducks will come and fish will rise in the early evening light and take the insects into their jaws. There will be paths through this forest and you and I will lose ourselves in the soft curves and folds of the ground. We will come to the water’s edge and lie on the grass and there will be a small, unobtrusive sign that says, THIS IS THE REAL WORLD, MUCHACHOS, AND WE ARE ALL IN IT.—B. TRAVEN. . . . "

― Charles Bowden , Blood Orchid: An Unnatural History of America

2 " There will be no first hundred days for this future, there will be no five-year plans. There will be no program. Imagine the problem is that we cannot imagine a future where we possess less but are more. Imagine the problem is a future that terrifies us because we lose our machines but gain our feet and pounding hearts. Then what is to be done? "

― Charles Bowden , Blood Orchid: An Unnatural History of America

3 " Imagine the problem is not physical. Imagine the problem has never been physical, that it is not biodiversity, it is not the ozone layer, it is not the greenhouse effect, the whales, the old-growth forest, the loss of jobs, the crack in the ghetto, the abortions, the tongue in the mouth, the diseases stalking everywhere as love goes on unconcerned. Imagine the problem is not some syndrome of our society that can be solved by commissions or laws or a redistribution of what we call wealth. Imagine that it goes deeper, right to the core of what we call our civilization and that no one outside of ourselves can effect real change, that our civilization, our governments are sick and that we are mentally ill and spiritually dead and that all our issues and crises are symptoms of this deeper sickness. Imagine the problem is not physical and no amount of driving, no amount of road will deal with the problem. Imagine that the problem is not that we are powerless or that we are victims but that we have lost the fire and belief and courage to act. We hear whispers of the future but we slap our hands against our ears, we catch glimpses but turn our faces swiftly aside. "

― Charles Bowden , Blood Orchid: An Unnatural History of America

4 " I am not of sound mind. I cannot seem to stop moving - as I write this I have clocked 7,000 miles by truck in the last thirty days and I am hunkered in a motel room high in the Rocky Mountains and yet no nearer to God. I seek roots, just so long as they can accommodate themselves to around seventy-five miles and hour and no unseemly whining about rest stops or sit down dinners. I am, I suspect, a basic American, a perpetual violation that loves the land and cannot kick the addiction of velocity. A person fated never to settle yet always seeking the place to settle. Like cocaine-powered athletes, lying presidents, Miss America, and the Internal Revenue Service, I am not a role model. I am always hungry. "

― Charles Bowden , Blood Orchid: An Unnatural History of America

5 " At present I am shedding about one or two thousand dollars a month. None of the money I give away is tax deductible. I have gotten it into my head that if the government will sanction my giving, then I am giving to a cause or place or thing that is either ineffectual, malignant, or the enemy. So I do not give to such places. I have no job, I have no money. My child support runs $600 a month, the wave is getting larger behind my back. I will see what will happen. That is my advantage: something will happen. I have done my damnedest to make sure of this fact. I live in a world and time where all is limbo. I am no longer of this world and time: I have lit some kind of fuse. True, I drink cheap wine. But I eat good meat. There is an expression for my condition: The wolf is at the door. But I want the wolf at the door. I am tired of living in a world without wolves. "

― Charles Bowden , Blood Orchid: An Unnatural History of America

6 " At present I am shedding about one or two thousand dollars a month. None of the money I give away is tax deductible. I have gotten it into my head that if the government will action my giving, then I am giving to a cause or place or thing that is either ineffectual, malignant, or the enemy. So I do not give to such places. I have no job, I have no money. My child support runs $600 a month, the wave is getting larger behind my back. I will see what will happen. That is my advantage: something will happen. I have done my damnedest to make sure of this fact. I live in a world and time where all is limbo. I am no longer of this world and time: I have lit some kind of fuse. True, I drink cheap wine. But I eat good meat. There is an expression for my condition: The wolf is at the door. But I want the wolf at the door. I am tired of living in a world without wolves. "

― Charles Bowden , Blood Orchid: An Unnatural History of America