SACRED TRUSTS
Essays on Stewardship and Responsibility
edited by Michael Katakis
Katakis (The Vietnam Veterans Memorial—not reviewed) pulls together 30 original essays, some stunning and a few forgettable, hinging on the environmental buzz notion of ``stewardship.'' Essays like Gary Paul Nabhan's memoir of his strange night spent camping amid the dump heap of a desert bordello (``That was the first time I had come to read trash. I am a richer man for it'') or Frederick Turner's appreciation of the French wine landscape (``Drink a glass of good wine, drink the soul of the earth'') get the point of stewardship across—how loving the land can create a transcendent place—without resorting to brow-beating. Jack Turner's homage to the white pelican is equally powerful, and Gerald Vizenor's short bursts of dense, astonishing prose (``The salamander earth is a wiser name than obtuse tribute to an abused mother'') prompt serious introspection. Among the other, high-profile contributors are Wendell Berry, Mary Catherine Bateson, John Nichols, Bill McKibben, and Dan O'Brien. Given a wide readership, there are enough powerful essays here to make a real dent in our collective environmental consciousness. (Illustrations)