What do I like in my vacation spots? Well, the basics: drinkable water, fresh vego food, and a comfortable place to sleep and shower. But moreover, I am captivated by the natural planet: the cool giant Gaia system that dwarfs its clever monkeys' machinations. I also like a bit of posh: good, safe, trustworthy service and amenities.
Most Americans are insular so they ironically do not realize how magnificent their country is in terms of natural landscape, flora, fauna, culture. The USA derives it's immense wealth from agriculture, not manufacturing: its blind devotion to the human alliance with various intoxicating plants that care for us, and a handful of meat-machine animals, for whom we insure life for their offspring, food, and protection against other preditors. that is really all they care about as a species. Scientifically, our symbiotic Gaian alliance with a handful of plants and animals is plainly evident in the skewed total biomass of these organisms on earth compared to the less cleverly arranged alliances. Most people think we just found sugar and dope, but i think they evolved to target ithe clever monkeys with opposable thumbs, intoxicate and seduce then, since they could insure not just survival of their genes, but unparalleled distribution. Do you think it is accident that cannabis makes primates so calm and content?
My Gaia extension of darwin's theories pose a challenge to my thirty years of vegetarianism, veganism, and now pescatarianism. But I am a stubborn old man, and I still think it is cruel to cage animals and eat them, and I won't do it, even if they do submit willingly to being meat machines.
I go to Yosemite every time I have a chance. It just takes a couple of days to become part of the terrain. Summers are relaxing but winters are beautiful, too. This year Parker liker, eric and I dipped right through the valley and up glacier point road for a reasonable hike and climb to a dome with a view as spectacular as half dome's. In fact, it's better since it has an amazing view of half dome, sort of like why smart tourists go to the top of Rockefeller center rather than the Empire State Building.
I had actually never thought to do this trek, but eric researched this trip and insisted we fit it in. They brought hiking poles, which were a godsend with my disintegrating left knee and two fake hips. So what does one do when he has finally found the coolest spot on earth? What do you do to be in the moment when you see a revered, celebrated landmark?
Most tourists detach themselves emotionally from grand sights and go snap happy. I do that, too. I needed to do something different and appropriately engaged this time for the coolest spot in the world with a diorama-like view of tortured geogical madness.
I waited for the few tourists to hike off the dome, so we were alone in the barren granite flat dome-top with impossible beauty on all sides. I set my iPhone to play cascada's eurotrash club tune "Evacuate the dance floor", took off all of my clothes except my running shoes and grooved and spun with Gaia. I'll always remember being present in my body for that 3:26. There really can't be better so deeply satisfying experiences for us monkeys.
Harnessing the chi of Lower Yosemite Falls with Tai Chi: got it!
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