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“The greatest danger of all is losing track of the great danger.” — James Hatley
In a world that seeks to master nature in the pursuit of comfort and security, wilderness has become a scarce resource. Wilderness has been tamed and must now be consciously preserved; the commons has been enclosed and privatized—with each being sold back to us as a commodified, Disneyfied “experience.” This is not to say that nature is no longer dangerous—that grizzly bears do not attack or falling from a cliff is not deadly—nor even that touching the soft, dewy grass of a morning field is no longer “real” when compared to the typical digital domains we generally inhabit. But there is also no denying that something has been lost in this transaction.
The great danger of being a conscious mortal being has lost its “edge.” And yet, many of us feel that we are now living on the edge of something far worse: a great abyss, and that with the slightest provocation the ground beneath us will disappear and nothing will stop our descent. It is no wonder that we cling so tightly to our ideologies today and have tied ourselves so tightly to the political wheel of fortune—it prevents us from looking down from the dizzying heights to which we have climbed and realize the truth of our situation: it is all an illusion.
A great gulf seems to have grown between the decreased mortal danger in which we abide and the increased spiritual danger in which we writhe. But as Dr. Hatley explains, for Henry Bugbee these two phenomena are intimately related, and in fact, have a symbiotic relationship. Our problem, Bugbee believes, is that we no longer understand what “wilderness” is.
If you want to know more about Henry Bugbee check out the introductory essay we published by our friend Joseph Keegin, Thinker, Wanderer, Fly-Fisherman, or dive into the podcast study guide we are releasing on Bugbee’s singular work The Inward Morning.
