John Guare, one of the better playwrights of the late 20th century, is appalled by the NOW - appalled by what has taken place and what is taking place since 9/11 (as the most current benchmark of human madness).  Eric Bartels, writing in the Portland Tribune, quotes Guare as saying “The last six years have been so horrendous, about lies and self-deception, you can’t get your feet on the ground.  If you would write something, reality would top it.  Abu Ghraib would top it.  The Blackwater mercenaries would top it.” 

We could add Enron and WorldCom and the other corporate greed - much of which, and the scale itself, we still know nothing about - that has cost tens of thousands their life-savings and literally ruined lives.  Put simply, human trust has all but vanished.

“These are very hard times to write about because of the horrors.  It’s a time when truth and mercury are the same.  By the time a play gets on - something will happen that might demolish its underpinnings.”  The whole world is uneasy.  A couple of World War Two vets said “it’s much much worse than during the war.  People trusted each other then like they never had before.  But now, well now, it’s pretty much over.”  

Cynicism and fatalism are rampant.  Bartels writes that Guare is more comfortable setting his plays in the past because “You can control the madness” of those times.  

Friday Night Exodus

More and more people can’t wait for Friday night - they want to get out of Dodge so badly.  Many head straight home, pack, get in their cars, and head for the trees.  But sadly, most are not fully prepared to enter and stay in the wild places - even for a couple of nights.  And few to none of them are packing a toilet kit.  And so they end up pooping on the wilderness floor and leaving it.  Maybe it’s because they don’t know that the Packit Toilet kit exists.

All we hope is that 10 million people - on any given Friday - don’t collectively decide to head out.  There could be panic in the streets.  Chaos and traffic accidents by the thousands could ensue.  You may or may not have heard of the Mercury Theater broadcast back in the late 1930s - Orson Welles and his buddies - broadcast a radio show of an alleged live account of a Martian landing.  The Martians began doing terrible things to people, to property, etc.  People by the thousands left everything they had and hit the road.  It was mayhem.  People died.  People stomped on each other trying to buy supplies.  It was a huge ‘Macy’s Sale’ gone wild into the night.  And we at Ultralight wonder if it could happen again.

We want people to use the wild places.  We want people to be able to re-create themselves - to try and remain as sane as possible - which the wild places can help us do.  But we want them to take responsibility for their actions while using these pristine places.  So many are caught up in the fatalism of the times.  Particularly since 9/11 - people carry around a sense of foreboding.  So many have the feeling that the whole world is about to go up in smoke - so what difference does it make how they behave toward the wild places and the wild things.  Well, it truly does make a difference how we behave toward the wild places - toward nature everywhere.  For if we stop caring for the things of the earth, then yes, it may be that man has decided to eradicate himself from it.  But if each of us - as a single remote individual - decide to do the right thing by nature, and if enough of us make the same decision around the world, then we can become a ‘tribe’ of  people who beat the drum for nature’s protection.  And just maybe, just maybe, we CAN make a difference.

We truly believe in Thoreau’s conclusion “In wilderness is the salvation of the world.”  We invite you to sign up for our FREE GOSWI blog.  As you know, your name remains anonymous.  But if we BOTH subscribe to the same philosophy toward the wild places and the wild things that inhabit them, what difference does it make what OUR name is?