Lunch Ticket
  • Current Issue
  • Archive
    • Issues Archive
      • Issue 26: Winter/Spring 2025
      • Issue 25: Summer/Fall 2024
      • Issue 24: Winter/Spring 2024
      • Issue 23: Summer/Fall 2023
      • Issue 22: Winter/Spring 2023
      • Issue 21: Summer/Fall 2022
      • Issue 20: Winter/Spring 2022
      • Issue 19: Summer/Fall 2021
      • Issue 18: Winter/Spring 2021
      • Issue 17: Summer/Fall 2020
      • Issue 16: Winter/Spring 2020
      • Issue 15: Summer/Fall 2019
      • Issue 14: Winter/Spring 2019
      • Issue 13: Summer/Fall 2018
      • Issue 12: Winter/Spring 2018
      • Issue 11: Summer/Fall 2017
      • Issue 10: Winter/Spring 2017
      • Issue 9: Summer/Fall 2016
      • Issue 8: Winter/Spring 2016
      • Issue 7: Summer/Fall 2015
      • Issue 6: Winter/Spring 2015
      • Issue 5: Summer/Fall 2014
      • Issue 4: Winter/Spring 2014
      • Issue 3: Summer/Fall 2013
      • Issue 2: Winter/Spring 2013
      • Issue 1: Spring 2012
    • Genre Archive
      • Creative Nonfiction
      • Essays
      • Fiction
      • Flash Prose
      • Interviews
      • Lunch Specials
      • Poetry
      • Translation
      • Visual Art
      • Young Adult
  • About
    • Mission Statement
    • Lunch Ticket Staff
      • Issue 26: Winter/Spring 2025
      • Issue 25: Summer/Fall 2024
      • Issue 24: Winter/Spring 2024
      • Issue 23: Summer/Fall 2023
      • Issue 22: Winter/Spring 2023
      • Issue 21: Summer/Fall 2022
      • Issue 20: Winter/Spring 2022
      • Issue 19: Summer/Fall 2021
      • Issue 18: Winter/Spring 2021
      • Issue 17: Summer/Fall 2020
      • Issue 16: Winter/Spring 2020
      • Issue 15: Summer/Fall 2019
      • Issue 14: Winter/Spring 2019
      • Issue 13: Summer/Fall 2018
      • Issue 12: Winter/Spring 2018
      • Issue 11: Summer/Fall 2017
      • Issue 10: Winter/Spring 2017
      • Issue 9: Summer/Fall 2016
      • Issue 8: Winter/Spring 2016
      • Issue 7: Summer/Fall 2015
      • Issue 6: Winter/Spring 2015
      • Issue 5: Summer/Fall 2014
      • Issue 4: Winter/Spring 2014
      • Issue 3: Summer/Fall 2013
      • Issue 2: Winter/Spring 2013
      • Issue 1: Spring 2012
    • Achievements
    • Community
    • Contact
  • Weekly Content
    • Friday Lunch Blog
    • Midnight Snack
    • Amuse-Bouche
    • School Lunch
  • Contests
    • Diana Woods Award in CNF
      • Issue 26: Winter/Spring 2025
      • Issue 25: Summer/Fall 2024
      • Issue 24: Winter/Spring 2024
      • Issue 23: Summer/Fall 2023
      • Issue 22: Winter/Spring 2023
      • Issue 21: Summer/Fall 2022
      • Issue 20: Winter/Spring 2022
      • Issue 19: Summer/Fall 2021
      • Issue 18: Winter/Spring 2021
      • Issue 17: Summer/Fall 2020
      • Issue 16: Winter/Spring 2020
      • Issue 15: Summer/Fall 2019
      • Issue 14: Winter/Spring 2019
      • Issue 13: Summer/Fall 2018
      • Issue 12: Winter/Spring 2018
      • Issue 11: Summer/Fall 2017
      • Issue 10: Winter/Spring 2017
      • Issue 9: Summer/Fall 2016
      • Issue 8: Winter/Spring 2016
      • Issue 7: Summer/Fall 2015
      • Issue 6: Winter/Spring 2015
      • Issue 5: Summer/Fall 2014
      • Issue 4: Winter/Spring 2014
      • Issue 3: Summer/Fall 2013
    • Gabo Prize in Translation
      • Issue 26: Winter/Spring 2025
      • Issue 25: Summer/Fall 2024
      • Issue 24: Winter/Spring 2024
      • Issue 23: Summer/Fall 2023
      • Issue 22: Winter/Spring 2023
      • Issue 21: Summer/Fall 2022
      • Issue 20: Winter/Spring 2022
      • Issue 19: Summer/Fall 2021
      • Issue 18: Winter/Spring 2021
      • Issue 17: Summer/Fall 2020
      • Issue 16: Winter/Spring 2020
      • Issue 15: Summer/Fall 2019
      • Issue 14: Winter/Spring 2019
      • Issue 13: Summer/Fall 2018
      • Issue 12: Winter/Spring 2018
      • Issue 11: Summer/Fall 2017
      • Issue 10: Winter/Spring 2017
      • Issue 9: Summer/Fall 2016
      • Issue 8: Winter/Spring 2016
      • Issue 7: Summer/Fall 2015
      • Issue 6: Winter/Spring 2015
    • Twitter Poetry Contest
      • 2021 Winners
      • 2020 Winners
      • 2019 Winners
  • Submissions
  • Search
  • Menu Menu
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • X

Moths to a Flame

October 14, 2016/in Blog / Juliann Allison

In July 2012, my teenaged daughter Reiley and I hiked into the San Gorgonio Wilderness—a landscape of rolling foothills, canyons, and steep slopes that marks the eastern boundary of the Los Angeles Basin. Our destination was Mt. San Gorgonio. The 11,503-foot peak, fondly called “Old Greyback,” is the highest mountain between the Sierra Nevada mountain range and the Mexican border.

sang45_rj

Ridgeline to San Gorgonio Peak (http://scoutfitters.org/trip/san-gorgonio-ultralight-summit/)

 

The steep Vivian Creek Trail to the peak begins with an easy “warm up” hike through Mill Creek Canyon before climbing 1,000 feet and over a mile of switchbacks to reach the forest surrounding Vivian Creek. The dark, luxuriant woodland is more than beautiful enough to sustain hikers to the 10,000-foot point where a long ridgeline traverse to the summit begins. The remaining hike consists of a steady climb across a field of rock and boulders well above the tree line, and completely exposed to the sun. The view of nearby Mt. San Jacinto and the Inland Valley below is stunning. Still the long haul across that blinding gray-white moonscape is grueling, even absent the sensation of skin burning, or the headache and nausea that accompanies altitude sickness.

524169_10151050315378739_726591368_n

Reiley and me at the top.

Reiley and I were training for our summit of Mt. Whitney—elevation 14,505 feet—later that summer. Summiting a “fourteener,” in reference to peaks over 14,000 feet in elevation, is a rite of passage for teens in our family. Meeting this challenge is empowering, and provides perspective on the many trials a young person faces as she makes her way through high school and college, enters the workforce and establishes her career, and builds a family of her own. Break up, layoff, health crisis? I can already hear Reiley saying, “Pshaw. I climbed a mountain, in a snowstorm, with my food, clothing, and home on my back.”

Three years after that trek with Reiley, a devastating wildfire forced my son Parker and me to abandon our plan to hike Mt. San Gorgonio in preparation for his fourteener. Old Greyback marks the horizon northeast of my home in western Riverside County. During the early days of the summer 2015 Lake Fire, smoke billowed and then dissipated into a band of yellow-gray haze that hid the peak from view. The fire ultimately consumed more than 30,000 acres of the San Gorgonio Wilderness, and all trails in the area remained closed for weeks after the fire was contained.

lake_fire

Lake Fire consumes forests in San Gorgonio Wilderness

My disappointment about forgoing our trip was compounded by despair over the loss of favorite species and beloved locales that I shared with hikers, scientists, and those who live nearby the Wilderness, which is known for its abundant waterways, lakes, lush green meadows, pine and cedar forests, aspen groves, wildflowers and wildlife, and hundreds of miles of trails. “My heart is breaking,” Kandy posted to the San Gorgonio Wilderness Association’s Backcountry forum, along with a map marking the fire’s spread over the South Fork (of the Santa Ana River) drainage, revered for its alpine meadows, old growth pine forests, a treasured grove of quaking aspen, and awe-inspiring views of the San Bernardino’s granite peaks. Zippetydude posted in response, “I just can’t imagine life without the South Fork/Aspen Grove area.”

We naturally become attached to particular places, and are saddened when they are harmed or destroyed. According to biologist E.O. Wilson’s biophilia hypothesis, “human beings subconsciously seek connection with the rest of life.” Social geographers Joyce Davidson and Christine Milligan explain that the way we feel about a place “connects” our psychological and physical experiences to geographic locations” (524). “The…environment literally gets into the individual,” Teresa Brennan once said. The distress caused by environmental damage or loss due to natural disasters, industrial pollution, or institutional change is called “solastalgia,” a portmanteau of the words “solace” and “nostalgia.”

Nature and place-based writing can heal solastalgia by identifying, interpreting, and transforming environmental loss. This literature—from Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, to modern classics such as John Muir’s writings, Aldo Leopold’s “land ethic” in A Sand County Almanac, Rachel Carson’s groundbreaking Silent Spring, and Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax, and current best sellers, including David Georg Haskell’s The Forest Unseen, Helen Macdonald’s H is for Hawk, and Michael McCarthy’s The Moth Snowstorm—draws attention to the natural world, recognizes human connections to it, and frequently calls for its protection.

people-climate-march

Start of Peoples Climate March

Bill McKibben’s The End of Nature is a critical case in point. Published in 1989, it is among the first books about global warming intended for a general audience. McKibben argues that our capacity to change “the wind, the sun, the rain” (41) destroyed the idea of nature as pristine and unaltered by human ways of life. He cries out, “What will I do without [it]?” And he admits self-loathing for his part in humanity’s failure to avert climate disaster (86). McKibben managed to survive this existential crisis, and went on to found the campus-based 350.org, protest the Keystone XL oil pipeline, and organize the September 2014 People’s Climate March that brought more than 400,000 demonstrators to the streets of New York City.

images

Moths swarming.

More recently, McCarthy’s argument in The Moth Snowstorm weaves together memoir, science and natural history, and environmental ethics to craft a powerful call to action reminiscent of McKibben’s early work. But McCarthy seeks to inspire more sustainable behavior by appealing to our inherent sense of joy and wonder about the natural world, rather than bemoaning an ecologically diminished future. He recalls a time, before industrial farming consumed so much natural habitat in northwestern England where he grew up, when swarms of moths appeared, magically, like snow on warm summer nights. The threat of wildfires, tropical storms, and rising seas haven’t inspired conservation, but the possibility of magic just might.

The Lake Fire occurred during the fourth year of California’s ongoing drought. Though California wildfire season is May-September, late spring storms and a heavy snowpack in the San Gorgonio Wilderness have historically persisted well into summer, protecting the area from annual wildfires. By summer 2015, an overabundance of dried out trees, shrubs, and grasses and the record low precipitation had generated an unusually abundant supply of fuel, even at elevations well above 6,000 feet, where wildfires have long been uncommon.

nq4j7k-penbigbearfire0618adwb

Lake Fire

Scientists attribute the region’s changing climate to the accumulation of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Average annual temperatures in California and throughout the Western United States have increased nearly 2 degrees since the 1970s, causing the winter snowpack to melt up to four weeks earlier than was the case forty years ago, and forests to dry out sooner and remain dry longer than before. A thousand more wildfires occurred in California during 2014’s extended seven-month fire season than the state’s historical average.

More than twenty-five years after the publication of The End of Nature, we remain a long way from sustainable adaptation to a significantly warmer climate. Still, I’m hopeful. A majority of people in every nation polled now agree that climate change is serious problem, one that is very likely to diminish the natural environments that we call home. And many of us are writing about it.

 

References

Brennan, Teresa. 2004. The Transmission of Affect. Cornell University Press.

Davidson, Joyce and Christine Milligan. 2004.“Embodying Emotion Sensing Space: Introducing Emotional Geographies.” Social & Cultural Geography 5.4: 525-532.

Kellert, Stephen and E. O. Wilson. 1995. The Biophilia Hypothesis. Island Press.

McCarthy, Michael. 2015. The Moth Snowstorm: Nature and Joy. John Murray.

McKibben, Bill. The End of Nature. Random House.

Juliann Allison, author's photo

Juliann Allison is a feminist scholar, environmentalist, homeschool advocate, yogini, runner, rockclimber, mate, and mother of four with a passion for the outdoors. She is Associate Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies and Public Policy at UC Riverside, and an MFA student at Antioch University Los Angeles.

https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/SanG45_RJ.jpeg 360 540 Juliann Allison https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/lunch-ticket-logo-white-text-only.png Juliann Allison2016-10-14 11:30:082022-02-09 15:01:51Moths to a Flame

Friday Lunch Archive

  • 2025
  • 2024
  • 2023
  • 2022
  • 2021
  • 2020
  • 2019
  • 2018
  • 2017
  • 2016
  • 2015
  • 2014

Midnight Snack

Take a bite out of these late night obsessions.

Tonight’s bites:

Dig Into Genre

May 23, 2025/in Midnight Snack / Lauren Howard
Read more
https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Lauren-Howard-credit-Terril-Neely-scaled-773x1030-1.jpg 1030 773 Lauren Howard https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/lunch-ticket-logo-white-text-only.png Lauren Howard2025-05-23 23:59:492025-05-20 16:45:44Dig Into Genre

The dreams in which I’m (not) dying

April 25, 2025/in Midnight Snack / paparouna
Read more
https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/paparouna-photo.jpeg 960 720 paparouna https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/lunch-ticket-logo-white-text-only.png paparouna2025-04-25 23:55:312025-05-23 23:22:02The dreams in which I’m (not) dying

On The Map

March 28, 2025/in Midnight Snack / Ariadne Will
Read more
https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/20220807-ariadnesaxt-MurielReid-01.jpg 1123 2000 Ariadne Will https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/lunch-ticket-logo-white-text-only.png Ariadne Will2025-03-28 23:55:152025-03-31 11:49:32On The Map

More Midnight Snacks »

Amuse-Bouche

Little bites every third Friday to whet your appetite!

Today’s plate:

Tale of the resistant apple tree

June 6, 2025/in Amuse-Bouche / Tahar Bekri, translated by Patrick Williamson
Read more
https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/TaharBekri.jpg 512 340 Tahar Bekri, translated by Patrick Williamson https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/lunch-ticket-logo-white-text-only.png Tahar Bekri, translated by Patrick Williamson2025-06-06 11:00:072025-06-02 19:06:30Tale of the resistant apple tree

Talyshi Wall Graffiti and other poems

May 30, 2025/in Amuse-Bouche / Ghazal
Read more
https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Ghazal-headshot.jpg 867 590 Ghazal https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/lunch-ticket-logo-white-text-only.png Ghazal2025-05-30 11:00:492025-05-30 06:09:09Talyshi Wall Graffiti and other poems

we don’t spend our lives in the belly of the fish

May 16, 2025/in Amuse-Bouche / translated from French by Gabriella Bedetti and Don Boes
Read more
https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/headshot-translator-Gabriella-Bedetti.jpg 400 400 translated from French by Gabriella Bedetti and Don Boes https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/lunch-ticket-logo-white-text-only.png translated from French by Gabriella Bedetti and Don Boes2025-05-16 11:00:362025-05-14 17:05:21we don’t spend our lives in the belly of the fish

More Amuse-Bouche »

School Lunch

An occasional Wednesday series dishing up today’s best youth writers.

Today’s slice:

I’ve Stayed in the Front Yard

May 12, 2021/in School Lunch, School Lunch 2021 / Brendan Nurczyk
Read more
https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/SL-Insta-Brendan-Nurczyk-2.png 1500 1500 Brendan Nurczyk https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/lunch-ticket-logo-white-text-only.png Brendan Nurczyk2021-05-12 10:18:392022-02-01 13:24:05I’ve Stayed in the Front Yard

A Communal Announcement

April 28, 2021/in School Lunch, School Lunch 2021 / Isabella Dail
Read more
https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/SL-FB-Isabella-Dail.png 788 940 Isabella Dail https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/lunch-ticket-logo-white-text-only.png Isabella Dail2021-04-28 11:34:132021-04-28 11:34:13A Communal Announcement

Seventeen

April 14, 2021/in School Lunch, School Lunch 2021 / Abigail E. Calimaran
Read more
https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/SL-Insta-Abigail-E.-Calimaran.png 1080 1080 Abigail E. Calimaran https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/lunch-ticket-logo-white-text-only.png Abigail E. Calimaran2021-04-14 11:22:062021-04-14 11:22:06Seventeen

More School Lunch »

Word From the Editor

The managers of Lunch Ticket all agreed that issue 26 needed to have a theme, and that theme had a responsibility to call for work relating to what we are seeing in society. We wanted a theme that resonated with Antioch University MFA’s mission of advancing “racial, social, economic, disability, gender, and environmental justice,” and we felt it was time to take a stand…

More from the current editor »
Current Issue »

Connect With Us

lunchticket on facebooklunchticket on instaX
Submit to Lunch Ticket

A literary and art journal
from the MFA community at
Antioch University Los Angeles.

Get Your Ticket

We’ll keep you fed with great new writing, insightful interviews, and thought-provoking art, and promise with all our hearts never to share your info with anyone else.

Newsletter Signup
Copyright © 2021 LunchTicket.org. All Rights Reserved. Web design and development by GoodWebWorks.
Scroll to top