glenmomesa, arbryzion

Having resided in Southern California for over 40 years, I was yet to visit the many beautiful national parks and monuments in our neighboring states of Arizona, Utah, and Colorado. So when a friend couple suggested/invited us to join them for a 9-day road trip to these crown jewels of the West, we gladly obliged.

​Glen Canyon
An eight and a half hour drive from Orange County took us to Page, Arizona, a one-time "Government Camp" for construction workers turned tourist gateway to this National Recreation Area. We stayed two days there to explore the photogenic sandstone caves of Antelope Canyon, a beautiful, circuitous bend of Colorado River, and the grand dam that flooded its namesake canyon to create the second largest artificial reservoir (Lake Powell) of the US.

 

 

 

​​Monument Valley
A rough but steady 17-mile drive on a semi-dirt road took us through a dozen awe-inspiring giant redstone pillars with shapes and names like "The Mittens", "The Cube", "The Camel", "Three Sisters"... that formed the iconic backgrounds of many Western movies.
 

 

​Mesa Verde

A grand "cave house" ancient native Americans built and lived in some eight hundred years ago right underneath a cliff top 7000 feet high was a site we visited after entering Colorado and seeing more mountainous green than stony red as in Arizona.

​Arches
We hiked to stand underneath a Window Arch, watched from afar the Skyline Arch and the Delicate Arch, stayed a canyon-wide gap away from the Fiery Furnace, and enjoyed the shady cool inside the Sand Dune Arch as we toured this popular national park in Utah.

 

 

Bryce
After some breathtaking views of the canyon at a high overlook point and a hike along its ridge, we came back early next morning to watch the sunrise that lit up an amphitheater of hoodoo phalanx in stages.
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Zion
A glittering red paveway seemed to welcome us to this deep canyon flanked by wild rock formations and tugged by a gentle stream meandering through it once we passed the park's entrance station. We took its convenient shuttle service to the in-park lodge for lunch and then hiked to a pond where mule deer appeared and water flared down from cleft rocks.
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Wendy and Al are a couple we knew who sold their restaurant business in Orange County 22 years ago and moved to a little town in Colorado to start anew. They successfully built and ran and then sold their restaurant business there to retire with a new three-acre home Al built himself. We stopped by to visit them during our trip, they welcomed us with great hospitality that included a gourmet steak dinner Al the great chef cooked himself and a hearty breakfast with organic eggs direct from their farmer friends.
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To travel is to learn. Did you know there is a national presidential campaign going on within the US right now? It is in a "Navajo Nation" whose territory covers portions of Arizona, Utah, New Mexico and is bigger than ten US states, with its own constitution, government, and even taxing power.

​And have you heard of Great Basin, Colorado Plateau, and Mojave Desert? They are the three geographical "provinces" that pretty much make up the American Southwest:

I felt more connected with my American Southwestern kin states as we drove through our own Mojave Desert towns of Barstow and Victorville on our way home.

the religion of man

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was a world renowned Indian poet, writer, philosopher, and the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913. "The Religion of Man" is a compilation of his lectures given at Oxford University in May 1930 that deals with the universal themes of divine experience, illumination, God and spirituality. The following are highlights and notes (in blue Italic) I take from the book.

Man and Nature are one

What we call nature is not a philosophical abstraction, not cosmos, but what is revealed to man as nature. In fact it is included in himself and therefore there is a commingling of his mind with it, and in that he finds his own being.

The elementary unit of things, or the "innocent" state of consciousness, does not necessarily stand higher grounds than their subsequent, more complex formations

A certain condition of vacuum is needed for studying the state of things in its original purity, and the same may be said of the human spirit; but the original state is not necessarily the perfect state. The concrete form (flower, tree, animals, for example) is a more perfect manifestation than the atom, and man is more perfect as a man than where he vanishes in an original indefiniteness (such as in the thoughtless, "blank" state of transcendental meditation).

The dynamic nature of Truth

"Truth is both finite and infinite at the same time, it moves and yet moves not, it is in the distant, also in the near, it is within all objects and without them." This means that perfection as the ideal is immovable, but in its aspect of the real it constantly grows towards completion, it moves.

Humanity fills an otherwise dull, vacuous universe with creativity

The difference between the (musical) notes as mere facts of sound and music, as a truth of expression is immense. For music, though it comprehends a limited number of notes, yet represents the infinite. It is for man to produce the music of the spirit with all the notes which he has in his psychology and which, through inattention or perversity, can easily be translated into a frightful noise. In music man is revealed, and not in a noise.

For man by nature is an artist; he never receives passively and accurately in his mind a physical representation of things around him. There goes on a continual adaptation, a transformation of facts into human imagery, through constant touches of his sentiments and imagination... It is what we are conscious of, by which we are affected, that which we express. When we are intensely aware of it, we are aware of ourselves and it gives us delight. We live in it, we always widen its limits. Our arts and literature represent this creative activity which is fundamental in man.

"What is Art?" It is the response of man's creative soul to the call of the Real.

Inspired, not contrived; "god-sent", not "man-made"

The vision of the Supreme Man is realized by our imagination, but not created by our mind.

Man is more than just a social animal

Man has not been moulded on the model of the bee and therefore he becomes recklessly anti-social when his freedom to be more than social is ignored.

What constitutes true freedom and true knowing

Freedom in the mere sense of independence has no content, and therefore no meaning. Perfect freedom lies in a perfect harmony of relationship, which we realize in this world not through our response to it in knowing, but in being. Objects of knowledge maintain an infinite distance from us who are the knowers. For knowledge is not union (if we keep our objects of knowledge at a distance)... We reach truth, not through feeling it by our senses or knowing it by our reason, but through the union of perfect sympathy.

The truly wise and the busy-body can make a good team

I refuse to think that the twin spirits of the East and the West, the Mary and Martha, can never meet to make perfect the realization of truth.

We have to keep in mind the fact that love and action are the only intermediaries through which perfect knowledge can be obtained; for the object of knowledge is not pedantry but wisdom.

Don't automatically equate poverty with virtue

I refuse to imagine any special value in poverty when it is a mere negation. Only when the mind has the sensitiveness to be able to respond to the deeper call of reality is it naturally weaned away from the lure of the fictitious value of things... The callousness of asceticism pitted against the callousness of luxury is merely fighting one evil with the help of another, inviting the pitiless demon of the desert in place of the indiscriminate demon of the jungle.

Hang on for the real thing

When, groping in the dark, we stumble against objects, we cling to them believing them to be our only hope. When light comes, we slacken our hold, finding them to be mere parts of the All to which we are related.

All broken truths are evil. They hurt because they suggest something they do not offer. Death does not hurt us, but disease does, because disease constantly reminds us of health and yet withholds it from us.

Ultimately, it's about God and human reunion

For all the abundance of His inherent joy, God is in want of my joy of Him; and Reality in its perfection only blossoms where we meet.

kids humor

Teacher: How old is your father?
Kid: He is 6 years.
Teacher: What? How is this possible?
Kid: He became father only when I was born.

Logic!! 👌😀
Children are quick and always speak their minds. 
_______________________________
Teacher: Maria, go to the map and find North America.
Maria: Here it is.
Teacher: Correct. Now class, who discovered America?
Class: Maria.
_______________________________
Teacher: Johnny, why are you doing your math multiplication on the floor?
Johnny: You told me to do it without using the tables.
_______________________________
Teacher: Glenn, how do you spell 'crocodile?'
Glenn: K-R-O-K-O-D-I-A-L
Teacher: No, that's wrong.
Glenn: Maybe it is wrong, but you asked me how I spell it.
_______________________________
Teacher: Donald, what is the chemical formula for water?
Donald: H I J K L M N O.
Teacher: What are you talking about?
Donald: Yesterday you said it's H to O.
_______________________________
Teacher: Tom, why do you always get so dirty?
Tom: Well, I'm a lot closer to the ground than you are.
_______________________________
Teacher: Clyde, your composition on 'My Dog' is exactly the same as your brother's... Did you copy his?
Clyde: No sir. It's the same dog.
_______________________________
Teacher: What are you drawing, Lucy?
Lucy: A picture of God.
Teacher: Oh honey, nobody really knows what God looks like.
Lucy: They will in a minute.
_______________________________
Teacher: Now, Simon, tell me frankly, do you say prayers before eating?
Simon: No sir, I don't have to, my Mom is a good cook.

Happy summer 😀

san francisco–monterey

My friend Brian is a cyclist, who, along with a couple fellow cycling enthusiasts, have been riding up and down Southern California for the past 10+ years, traversing between San Diego and Santa Barbara many times over. Having done that, they set their eyes on the California coastline and decided to extend their bicycle reach all the way to San Francisco, one tour at a time.

They were near reaching that goal after successfully completing two major tours in recent years: one between Santa Barbara and Cambria, the other between Cambria and Monterey.

All that was left was a ride between Monterey and San Francisco.

For such an effort to be successful, they need some logistic help: someone to drive with them (and their bicycles) to the starting point and drop them off, then continue to drive to the destination point to pick them up at the end of their ride, so they won't have to ride the same way back to the starting point which would be too exhausting and time consuming for these weekend warriors who need to report back to work the next day.

They had found their driving help, booked the hotel/motel rooms, done the training, etc., when at the last minute their designated driving help had a family emergency and could not make it. They were disappointed and about to cancel the trip when Brian called me and asked if I could be that driving help instead, and I said yes.

So on the Memorial Weekend last week, all four of us–Brian, his two cyclist friends, I–and three road bikes hopped on a Subaru SUV and drove all the way to a little town a couple miles north of San Francisco and started our two-day, 140-mile coastline tour to Monterey.

The plan was simple: While they rode their bikes on the bike paths, which mostly paralleled Pacific Coast Highway (State Route 1), I drove the car on PCH, might stop by anywhere anytime I wanted, as long as I met them at designated lunch stops (Burger Kings, for lack of In-N-Out Burgers which were our favorite in those areas) and hotel check-in and the final destination of their ride the second day.

So here were what a free roaming soul like myself encountered along a beautiful stretch of Golden State coastline on a sunny Memorial Weekend:

I saw:

cliffy beach

​sandy beach

​tide pools beach

​lost pier beach

​busy beach

​lighthouse

​bridge

​wind/kite surfing

I walked on:

wide berm trail

narrow rocky trail

​marshland trail

​railroad track

​At the city of Santa Cruz, where we stayed for the night, I visited the historical Santa Cruz Mission in the morning, a much humbler version of the world famous San Juan Capistrano Mission in my hometown, but a quieter (I was the single visitor there) and closer setting that allowed me to study the artifacts better.

 
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I also took a bench seat at the little fountain garden outside the Cathedral to have a read of a short story from the book I brought with me.

I met and picked up my three amigo cyclists at a McDonald's outside the Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey as planned and we headed home from there. Mission accomplished, we were all happy and chatty. Brian had been my long time friend, but Jason and Liming were no total strangers either. I had ridden with them a couple times before, and both were from Taiwan and of IT backgrounds. We exchanged our life stories and cracked jokes from time to time. What stood out most about them for me was their enthusiasm for the outdoors: Besides cycling, Jason was a seasoned angler, Liming a camper, and both were training (they purposely slept on the floors of the motel/hotel rooms we stayed) for a multi-day backpacking trip in deep Yosemite mountains they planned to take in the coming summer.

But I would be amiss if I did not mention the athleticism and positivity of my dear friend Brian, who–imagine that–was on a hospital bed due to a stroke he suffered just a little more than a year ago! Through grit and tenacity, regimented diet and exercises, he had regained full health and enjoyed the challenge and fun of this long ride just like Jason and Liming did! What a comeback story, what an awesome inspiration for us all!!

new york, new york

Michael Lin and I were high school buddies and went to the same university/department in Taiwan then came to the States the same year some 40 years ago. He ended up settling in NoCal while I in SoCal. My wife and I were looking forward to attending the wedding reception in October for his daughter whom we had watched growing up as a little girl when he called and suggested we go to New York City this month where his daughter and her fiance resided for the "real thing"–the official ceremony and celebration with only a few close friends and parents of the bride and the groom–and some touring and time together in the City... A trip of purpose and pleasure, I thought... and, why not! So off we went!

This was my third visit to the Big Apple, the first two being one or two-day stop-by's that merely counted, while this time I spent six days and seven nights

Having a variety of ethnic foods, Chinese (dumplings), Japanese (ramen), French (sandwiches), Italian (veal), Latin (fusion), and world famous New York pizza, all so authentically delicious, at surprisingly reasonable prices.

​​Going to a Broadway show, Lion King, not so much for the storyline or dialogues, but the theatrical fanfare and acrobatic acting and dancing, singing and costuming.

Watching sunset on East River shore, shimmering sunlight on the river, Manhattan skyscrapers silhouetting in the back.

​Lying on the immaculately maintained spongy grass of the city park, at day and at night, blue skies or shiny city lights above.

Witnessing a wedding on a rooftop, watching the city as the city watched back, two fine young man and woman pledged and hailed their new life together.

​And taking the subway to and fro like veteran New Yorkers do every day.

You realized this was indeed a city that never slept when you saw the nightly crowds flooding Times Square, a town where "everything's happening" with scaffoldings everywhere and construction machinery humming and heaving all day long...

Yet when I visited the city library, I was struck by its palace-like decorations and the generous donations it received from many, showing great respect for learning and knowledge. As I looked up from the little but ecologically friendly zoo inside Central Park and saw a giant spider mock-up crawling on a wooden pole against the concrete high rises outside and blue skies above, I chuckled and marveled at this perfect blend of nature and civilization the city was.

​​Lastly, but not least, spending a whole week meeting and bantering and playing ping pong and billiard balls like we used to do as teen-agers with an old friend that went back half a century, watching his lovely daughter holding a rabbit doll she once forgot in our house when she's little, becoming a mature, beautiful, soon-to-be eye-doctor wife of another promising young man, the soul mate of her life... surely these were things worthy of taking a twenty-five hundred mile trip for!

 

vasily grossman

"Human history is not the battle of good struggling to overcome evil. It is a battle fought by a great evil struggling to crush a small kernel of human kindness. But if what is human in human beings has not been destroyed even now, then evil will never conquer."
— “Life and Fate”, Vasily Grossman

"Humanity is fundamentally good", that is probably one basic tenet many secular humanists hold. But how does an atheistic world keep this flickering flame of good from going out without help from an almighty God, Existentialist philosophers and do-gooders, besides pointing out the absurdity of human existence and suggesting "do good for goodness' sake", don't seem to have other exciting ideas or survival guides to offer. In contrast, Vasily Grossman, a Russian Jew whose mother was murdered by the Nazis and who himself had endured the tyranny of Stalin Soviets and the horror of siege warfare with the invading Germans during World War II, held this simple belief that "as long as some little act of kindness can be found somewhere in the world, humanity prevails." That's a heartening thought!

Flip the coin to the other side: Even God-believers have many hard times struggling between doing good and doing evil. Just look at these exemplar characters in the Bible: King David, God's beloved, committing heinous crimes such as adultery and murder; St. Paul crying out "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death!"; and Job, a "righteous man", bickering with God about the many "unfair" treatments he's been dealt... All indicating that spiritual living in a rough-and-tumble world is not one super battle where a victory is claimed and then smooth sailing all the way, but more likely a long and winding journey where God is often heard saying, "I have heard your suffering, now go suffer!"

I am one who believes Truth is not exclusively written in the Bible, but exists all around the world and within human hearts for all to see and feel. That is why when I read that passage by Vasily Grossman–an apparent non-believer–I was elated: Yeah, good triumphs over evil, darkness yields to light, isn't that the simple, universal truth we knew all along since we were kids?!

There is vast unknown in the subconscious/unconscious mind of humans, psychologists/human rationalists agree. Could conscience, or the ultimate good of humanity, be one elusive, precious unknown that deserves and demands persistent pursuit by a humanist, in the same manner a believer goes after the Holy Spirit hidden in him/her, with piety?

"God took seeds from other worlds and saved them on this earth, and raised up his garden; and everything that could sprout sprouted, but it lives and grows only through its sense of being in touch with other mysterious worlds; if this sense is weakened or destroyed in you, that which has grown up in you dies. Then you become indifferent to life, and even come to hate it."
— "The Brothers Karamazov", Fyodor Dostoevsky