Mono Lake Quotes

I've been thinking about what it means to bear witness. The past ten years I've been bearing witness to death, bearing witness to women I love, and bearing witness to the [nuclear] testing going on in the Nevada desert. I've been bearing witness to bombing runs on the edge of the Cabeza Prieta Wildlife Refuge, bearing witness to the burning of yew trees and their healing secrets in slash piles in the Pacific Northwest and thinking this is not so unlike the burning of witches, who also held knowledge of heading within their bones. I've been bearing witness to traplines of coyotes being poisoned by the Animal Damage Control. And I've been bearing witness to beauty, beauty that strikes a chord so deep you can't stop the tears from flowing. At places as astonishing as Mono Lake, where I've stood knee-deep in salt-water to watch the fresh water of Lee Vining Creek flow over the top like water on vinegar....It's the space of angels. I've been bearing witness to dancing grouse on their leks up at Malheur in Oregon. Bearing witness to both the beauty and pain of our world is a task that I want to be part of. As a writer, this is my work. By bearing witness, the story that is told can provide a healing ground. Through the art of language, the art of story, alchemy can occur. And if we choose to turn our backs, we've walked away from what it means to be human.

Yesu alipokuwa msalabani watu wengi walimzunguka. Askari wa Kirumi aliyekuwa na chongo, na mkuki, alikuwa na jukumu la kumtesa Yesu hadi kufa kwa amri ya Pilato. Yesu alipolia kwa sauti kuu, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabakthani?”, yule askari alikurupuka na kumwendea Yesu. Lakini Yesu alishakata roho. Kuthibitisha kama Yesu alishakata roho, askari alimchoma Yesu mkuki kwenye mbavu kwa nguvu zake zote. Mkuki huo ukamtoboa Yesu hadi upande wa pili, ukatoboa hata moyo wake. Askari alipochomoa mkuki, damu na maji viliruka na kupiga jicho lake bovu. Papo hapo askari akapona na kuona vizuri. Alipoona kweli amepona na kuona vizuri, askari alipiga kelele, alipiga magoti na kuomba Mungu amsamehe dhambi zake. Msamaha una nguvu kuliko dhambi. Askari huyo atakwenda mbinguni. Haijalishi umechukia watu kiasi gani. Haijalishi umetesa watu kiasi gani. Haijalishi umeua watu kiasi gani. Haijalishi umetenda dhambi kiasi gani. Mungu anachotaka kutoka kwako, tubu.

...though by then it had become increasingly difficult to distinguish the acts of God from the endeavors of men. The wind was God; of this they were confident. As were the mountains funneling the wind. But the sand, all that monstrous, infinite sand. Who had latticed the Southwest with a network of aqueducts? Who had drained first Owens Lake then Mono Lake, Mammoth Lake, Lake Havasu and so on, leaving behind wide white smears of dust? Who had diverted the coast's rainwater and sapped the Great Basin of its groundwater? Who had tunneled beneath Lake Mead, installed a gaping outlet at its bottommost point, and drained it like a sink? Who had sucked up the Ogallala Aquifer, the Rio Grande aquifer, the snowpack of the Sierras and the Cascades? If this was God, he went by new names: Los Angeles City Council, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, City of San Diego, City of Phoenix, Arizona Water and Power, New Mexico Water Commission, Las Vegas Housing and Water Authority, Bureau of Land Management, United States Department of the Interior.

With this scientific information in hand, the courts decided that Los Angeles would have to stop the removal of water that flowed into Mono Lake. By 2008 the lake still had not recovered to the level required by the courts, indicating that diversion of water had been undesirable for the lake and its ecosystem.