North Routt County, Colorado // Being alive is a lot like being an improper fraction. Here we are, these little gangly amalgams of atoms, molecules, cells--systems layered on each other in time and space. Automatons perpetuating themselves, only separated from the rest of the physical universe by our superficially unusual skill at self-replication. This much is objective. But somewhere in those systems, those layers, some cosmic accident gave us the ability to ignore all of that, to be subjective. We have the unique power of ignorance, of being unable to comprehend the whole of reality, of projecting our hopes and fears and imaginations onto the thematically blank canvas around us, to see not less but more than there is, more than the sum of physical parts, to experience beauty, to experience anything at all. We humans, nature's honor-roll idiots, faced with the whole 1 of creation, see 3/2. At least, in my opinion.
Willow Lakes, Eagles Nest Wilderness, Colorado // "Here, this, is It. The world as it is, is Heaven, I'm looking for a Heaven outside what there is, it's only this poor pitiful world that's Heaven. Ah, if I could realize, if I could forget myself and devote my meditations to the freeing, the awakening, and the blessedness of all living creatures everywhere I'd realize what there is, is ecstasy." From Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums.
Flat Tops Wilderness, Colorado // Here's one from our rainy hike up to the Devil's Causeway, back in the Flat Tops. The Alpine Sunflowers were going crazy up there, making for a bright contrast to the moody clouds that filled the sky and even surrounded us a few times. On this trip we were bringing along a close friend who'd never been up into the flat tops, and even with the weather her reaction was pretty appropriate: "This is probably the most beautiful place I've ever been."
