As many of you know, I’m a man of The West. I love open spaces, and when I find someone who understand this region, and can write about it, well, I just about fall in love. David Gessner’s “All the Wild that Remains,” focuses on the west but through the lives and writings of both Edward Abbey and Wallace Stegner, two very different individuals who shared a love with and life in The West. There are certain passages in this book I REALLY wanted to include here but figured someone might get pissed. But, I did note the pages. 253-256. 286. Trust me, great stuff. One concept I took away is that all of us have territory. And based on our culture, society and technology, many of our territories have reduced in size, year over year. “It depends on how you are yarded,” according to Thoreau. This make complete and total sense to me, but I hadn’t really thought about it in quite this way. This past week I paid four guys to spend eight hours tuning up my yard here in California. This morning I found myself wandering the yard, just looking at things I hadn’t considered in many months. I do have a territory, two actually, and although both are tiny they are MINE. Roots. If you like Abbey and Stegner then this is required reading