Rides, ramblings and rants on a motorcycle.
- We are scientists, too!
1.26.2007,12:36 PM
Canyon addict's lament
As an unrehabilitated canyon addict, I'm already planning, thinking, dreaming, preparing for my next canyon visit on two wheels. And two hiking boots.
Each visit to the canyons presents a new perspective: the landscape, weather, topography, vegetation, animals, history; the colors, smells, sounds and different flavors of life and death. The expanses and vistas have their own magic, the canyon floors their own world, the weather so elemental that you can't help but be awed by the forces that make it unique and powerful.
Canyons are where you find life and death and the gradual march of geological history. If you look closely, you might find traces of our own history as humans living, struggling and dying in these lands. Many saw and believed what they wanted to see or believe, many died trying not to see. These lands have no mercy.
For once, all the knowledge you accumulated as being useful on a daily basis means nothing there. The only knowledge is respect and resourcefulness. With a dose of courage. You're tested on what it means to be alive. If you fail, you risk dying.
Maybe that's part of the thrill. Maybe it the rawness, the dichotomy of beauty and danger as strange bedfellows. Regardless, for those visitors, those pilgrims that are willing and brave to open themselves up to this landscape, you might find just who and what you really are. You may be afraid of yourself, but you can't hide from yourself there.
If you do, you may cease to exist.
To experience that you have to shrug off your protective coat of civilization, shed your expectations and preconceptions. Let the canyons swallow you and it will provide you with a new robe of courage, strength and respect. You will leave as a new person, empty yet whole.
You will remember what it is like to be human.
Big Bend is calling me, whispering to me every day. I can't refuse it.
Each visit to the canyons presents a new perspective: the landscape, weather, topography, vegetation, animals, history; the colors, smells, sounds and different flavors of life and death. The expanses and vistas have their own magic, the canyon floors their own world, the weather so elemental that you can't help but be awed by the forces that make it unique and powerful.
Canyons are where you find life and death and the gradual march of geological history. If you look closely, you might find traces of our own history as humans living, struggling and dying in these lands. Many saw and believed what they wanted to see or believe, many died trying not to see. These lands have no mercy.
For once, all the knowledge you accumulated as being useful on a daily basis means nothing there. The only knowledge is respect and resourcefulness. With a dose of courage. You're tested on what it means to be alive. If you fail, you risk dying.
Maybe that's part of the thrill. Maybe it the rawness, the dichotomy of beauty and danger as strange bedfellows. Regardless, for those visitors, those pilgrims that are willing and brave to open themselves up to this landscape, you might find just who and what you really are. You may be afraid of yourself, but you can't hide from yourself there.
If you do, you may cease to exist.
To experience that you have to shrug off your protective coat of civilization, shed your expectations and preconceptions. Let the canyons swallow you and it will provide you with a new robe of courage, strength and respect. You will leave as a new person, empty yet whole.
You will remember what it is like to be human.
Big Bend is calling me, whispering to me every day. I can't refuse it.
Labels: essays
