Arches and Nature

Today, Oct. 30, I visited Arches National Park in Moab Utah. The sights continue to be overwhelming, but it got me to thinking, which I can do a lot of alone for thousands of miles. There are actually stretches of days where the only person I talk to is "Samantha" who is the assigned Garmin Navigator voice. "Samantha, I know I am driving off course...I set the course and I have no idea where I am going." reply: "recalculating, recalculating, recalculating.... make next legal u- turn....recalculating" Reach for off button.

For almost 4 weeks now I have traveled the United States, and small parts of Canada and Mexico, looking at rivers, lakes, oceans, rocks, mountains, holes, one art museum (which not ironically featured an artist who is famous for photographing nature), trees, animals, and canyons. And I am not alone. Everywhere I go there are lots of other people looking at, photographing, enjoying, inhaling, becoming part of, all of these same things. There are people of every nationality, race, color, creed, language, orientation, size, shape, income....all of us obsessing over stuff of nature...rocks, trees, hills, water. Why? I can't figure it out. Why is this stuff so intoxicating? Why in the middle of one of the top 10 presidential elections in our history (still pales compared to the slander of Adams and Jefferson in the 'biggun of 1800), why are all of these people out here doing the same thing I am doing...looking at things and enjoying it? There is no power in enjoying the aesthetics of nature, there is no glory in it, there is nothing other than, really, enjoying it. The Arches park is a great example. It is well conceived, well maintained, and well used. There were hikers, bikers, lookers everywhere...yet the brochure admits that they don't really know how long the arches have been here and they don't know how long they will last, but they won't last forever. So, around this temporary natural occurrence, sandstone worn by wind and water, we have a wonderful national park that is just liberating to the eye and soul.

I sure can't figure it out. It seems like there are a lot of other important things, but we always go back to looking at the simple (extremely complex) things that are just natural.

Oh, and I also wonder what is the right age to bring children to these sites. My mother always told me to take kids where then can do something (swim, run, play) anything, but don't expect them to be happy looking at things. I saw a very unhappy young fellow today playing his video game in the back of a van while mom and dad were packing the daypacks for the 3 mile hike ahead. Hiking at national monuments, after endless hours of driving to get to the monuments, is not a great day for a kid. As it is, I told this kid to stay in the car and I would hike with the parents and eat his peanut butter and marshmallow sandwich.

Finally, well not really, I wonder if it is possible to do this kind of journey other than alone. I know a million reasons to travel with other people...I know 2 million and have lived half of them, but on this voyage I turn around 20 times a day to go back and see an animal. I stop 100 times a day to just stop. I don't drive after sundown and if such is the case I sleep in the van at a rest stop. I don't have any idea where I am going more than one day in advance. If I want to stop and read or write this silly blog, I stop and do it. I just don't know.