May 12-13 2021 Day 25-26: Page AZ (Lake Powell and Antelope Canyon)

Too tired after 4 weeks traveling and really we need a rest. My hands almost couldn't move after kayak. Just enjoy the lakepowell, very special place.

May 12 2021 Day 25: Page AZ (Lake Powell and Antelope Canyon)

Fire, color, roasting stuff, constellations, phone stuff, thoughts about constellations. Rest day, meetings, real life, zoom. Getting away from technology but reliant on technology, reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Walked around the lake and kind of got lost. Elation. Same elation in the stars, the lack of understanding.

Today we rested. RV-ing to National Parks around the country seems idyllic because the image is of a cozy camper van in the middle of beautiful scenery, sun tans and hats and lawn chairs. I had Zoom meetings and my dad had Slack messages and we all had our phones in our hands. We are not off-grid and we all had work.

I think the idealism of nature, especially when everything necessary seems to be associated with screens and technology, comes from a perception of escape from that world. The book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance elucidates this much more clearly than I could. I happen to have read this book most of the day (on paper, not screens.) We did have a campfire at night, toasting marshmallows, blissfully unaware of the source of the pork gelatin in the marshmallows we ate or how it was produced. Even in this classic scene, we have the manmade metal grate which is preventing the fire from getting out of control, the firewood wrapped in plastic and bought from the store, the fire paste produced who knows how. It’s our imitation of an earlier era in humanity when everything was simpler. It’s an escape but an incomplete one.

I’ll tell you about two moments of what I felt as elation and true freedom. The first is looking at the stars. I didn’t recognize any constellations besides the Big Dipper. When you look up, you forget about the stuff around you. There’s an incomprehension in the darkness. I thought about looking up the constellations on my phone. The elation, I think, would not have come if I had approached the stars with an analytical mind. We understand no more of them if we understand what humans eons ago have made up. We only understand the ability of humans to mimic understanding a little better.

I had the same feeling of elation from the stars in a walk when I got lost earlier in the morning. I wandered to the beach and looked at snails and algae and when I started back I realized I was in the wrong campground. This was not imitation adventure. I was annoyed and hot and not very much in control, which was a feeling that I desperately needed, I think. The elation came because somehow the incomprehension united me with the area around me, which I was not part of and a simple visitor.

We’re an RV parked in an idyllic setting, sure. But we’re living in a chunk of metal and plastic and we are skimming the surface of the time here that made these formations. The recognition of how unaware we are of the true depth of meaning in these areas is important. We don’t have any personal connection to the land. We enjoy it and we leave.

May 14 2021 Day 27: Page AZ -- Tusayan AZ

Drove and did nothing

May 13 2021 Day 26: Page AZ

Did nothing