« If you whistle and hum at the same time... | Main | "Don't let a monkey steal your sunglasses, Adam." »
June 30, 2008
Notes from the Desert.
I've enjoyed spending time in Arizona decompressing. Perhaps the highlight of my time since graduation was my river trip through the Grand Canyon last week. It's only the last part of the Colorado--from Diamond Creek down if there are any canyon buffs among my imaginary readership--but it's still the mighty river and the humbling canyon.
The joint force and full effect of a river trip is hard to describe, but it can be a life-changing experience. Firstly, there's the immense complexity of the canyon itself. It's the kind of place that makes you want to become a geologist, especially viewed from the bottom where all the really interesting strata are. I recommend especially the Vishnu Schist if you ever get a chance--it's like modernist sculpture formed before the dawn of man. And the stars at night...ye gods, so many of them it makes me wonder how much you really miss living in a city. It's humbling, and as I talked with one of the guides we agreed that any good journey of discovery should be humbling in a good way. The canyon reminds you of where you stand in the grad scheme of things--not in any mean or intimidating way, but simply through its awesome presence. I'm hoping my year in Cambodia will do the same, albeit in a different way. No matter who you think you are or how important or wise you think you are, a good discovery will change that.
As a side note, It's an amazing feeling to escape time as a number: I woke up when it was light, I went to sleep after the moon came up. Did it really matter what exact time it was? In my case, however, it did have the side effect of making me an early riser.
I'm back in my hometown of Yuma for the next week, which is now proud to be sending sending not one but two of its homegrown heroes to Asia this August. Firstly there's little old me, who just got a nice story in the paper. Secondly and more notably there's Yuma's own Jackie Johnson is going to Beijing to represent the United States. I wish her the absolute best. I went to high school with Jackie, and I can assure you that she's not only a phenomenal athlete, but also a great person, and I think she has big things ahead of her.
It's kind of funny, Yuma is one of the bigger cities in Arizona outside the Phoenix metropolitan sprawl, but in many ways it still thinks of itself as a small town. That's really not a bad thing, but it certainly means that "being from Princeton" means something more here than back east, where you can't swing a copy of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations without hitting an Ivy League liberal arts major offering to close-read for food. It's not any judgement, it's just different, and I wonder if it might make a good warm-up for Asia.
Posted by flynn at June 30, 2008 4:00 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
https://blogs.princeton.edu/mt/mt-tb.cgi/3994
Comments
you laugh, but that offer still stands, and I have knawed many a crust of bread thanks to the parataxical anti-relationship between lines of verse.
Posted by: kunstlerin at July 3, 2008 8:28 PM