"the ancient Greeks reduced goodness to a sub-species of truth; they encapsulated goodness in the law. And their children, the Europeans, relied on the law to establish the good. Human beings were seen as fundamentally flawed, lacking moral fiber. They had to be told what's good. Law established morality."
- Glover "In Adam's fall, we sinned all", the kids used to chant but it never made much sense to me. It's not really in the Bible. A constant refrain from the pulpit is that all men are sinful, but the Book of Job contradicts this with God himself bragging in front of his arch-enemy, "Hast thou considered my servant Job? Upright and perfect in all his ways?" The enemy replies, "yeah, well give man pragmatic reasons for his behavior and you can get him to do anything." Me, I don't go camping or hiking much anymore. I'm settling in I guess. Makes me a settler, I guess. But I used to adventure. Ever since the Cheese Sandwich at the solstice, I tried to honor the passages of the sun, sostices and equinoxes with getting out and about and spending a few nights out of doors to mark my collaboration in the cosmic scheme of things. This particular adventure occurred during the Vernal Equinox, at Point Reyes State Park, which includes Drakes Bay, being a favorite spot for Francis Drake to hide and raid and generally make himself a pain in the ass to the Spanish enemy in the service of his queen. I didn't have a queen. I was between queens, at the time, but I wanted to go away by myself and do some thinking and meditating and Point Reyes seemed a good choice, being a temperate location on the ocean. At the trailhead, they had a bunch of forms to fill out for getting a permit, but I've never really been much of "permit" kinda guy myself. I also prefer a square of nylon tarp to any pre-fab tent, so me and Dan have that in common as well. It's more conducive to dynamic configuration. Adaptable to circumstances. Trick is, to keep from blowing away in a storm you simple wrap yourself in it like an extra blanket and use your rope to tie your own ass down. Not that I've ever had to. I usually find better shelter in a storm. This particular camping adventure, I definitely had better shelter available than Dan mentioned in his story. See, what happened is that I hiked for about five miles along the coastal ridge, found a spot about as far as any ranger patrol was likely to venture, but set up in a designated campground area so I would not stick out so like a camper in a non-designated area would. And they had these barbecue stations, the free standing kind with the grill set at various notches, a single post leg and an open rectangle you can swivle into or out of the wind. I gathered up some wood and made a fire in one. A little nervously because this was completely against the rules. Using wood to make a campfire? In California? What am I? Nuts? What if everybody did it? There wouldn't be any scrap wood in the world. I heartily approve of this rule. It means I can always find firewood in well-regulated areas. Providing most people follow it and the rangers are lax in enforcement - I get all the firewood I need. Which isn't much. The rule is also good because it encourages small, unobtrusive and efficient fires. Which is what I had going in the grill, when a young lady came up to me and asked in a strange accent if I wouldn't mind her tea pot nestled next to mine. Heck no I wouldn't mind! Being the shy and quiet type, any interaction with girls my own age was always a gift from the gods, far as I was concerned. She was comely. Girl shaped and plump, not boy shaped and skinny like is all the fashion now. Her mate was small, dark and slender so they made quite a complementary pair. We chatted and giggled over our uncivil - but communal disobedience. She and her mate had graduated college last year, and their parents had sponsored them on a trip to America. They were from South Africa. I guess it's something of a tradition to South Africans to go off after college and knock about a bit. Get a feel for the world before you settle down into your place in it. Seems a highly sophisticated and well-thought system to me. She invited me to come to their tent for dinner and cards after, but I, typically, declined. My supper was on the grill and I said I'd eat it and then join them maybe for a game of cards after. And so I did. The only game we knew in common was poker. And a funny sort of thing happened. I thought of it when Justin gave his little bravado performance of "I'll show you mine if you show me yours" because the way the girls said back and forth, "yea, the only problem with poker is you need something to be the stakes." "Yes, that's right. We need something to gamble... Now what could we use...." Long meaningful pause with hand on chin looking thoughtfully to me for an answer. Yeah. What could we use indeed. I felt so stupid and blushing but at the same time, I just couldn't quite go there. I've never had a more clear and open invitation to "hey, I've got an idea. Let's play strip poker." And they were both such nice girls. Attractive enough and fun to talk to and interesting and now I could see that getting a bit of experience abroad wouldn't be a bad thing or immoral for them. I just couldn't quite bring myself to go there. Partly it was that it was the day before Easter Sunday, and I'd kinda come up this mountain on a serious spiritual quest, to get in touch with my soul and my ultimate being. The pleasures of the flesh are not a welcome distraction. But mostly it's more that I'm just not like that. I'm not into one-night-stands or quick flings. Coyotes are monogamous and if you're willing to breed with me, then I expect you to be willing to stay on and help raise the pups. Besides. I probably got more pleasure fantasizing about those two S. African Hotties than I'd ever have had in the realization of their biological bounty. And I felt good the next morning, righteous and right and comfortable with them and we hiked out together, friendly with no awkwardness. So I'm glad I turned down the subtle offer. I asked them what they missed most about their home, now that they'd been away for a while and they both enthusiastically responded, the music. The scenery and beauty too, but mainly the music. "You just don't hear music like that in the states". They were very enthusiastic about Paul Simon's new album, Graceland, which had just come out and they loved, loved, loved it. It was a taste of home, the rhythms and harmonies. One of them had a cassette in a walkman and put headphones on my ears and smiled and said, "Listen" and so I did. I listened to Graceland for the first time, spring in my step and in the morning sun slanting through the fresh sea-tinged air. Next year I spent one night out of doors, and then drove on to Lu's house in Mountain View. Thus leading me to the conclusion that things just keep getting better all the time. There is a girl in new york city Who calls herself the human trampoline And sometimes when I'm falling, flying Or tumbling in turmoil I say Oh, so this is what she means She means we're bouncing into graceland And I see losing love Is like a window in your heart Everybody sees you're blown apart Everybody sees the wind blow In graceland, in graceland I'm going to graceland For reasons I cannot explain There's some part of me wants to see Graceland And I may be obliged to defend Every love, every ending Or maybe there's no obligations now Maybe I've a reason to believe We all will be received In graceland <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXgQtL3aEmQ> Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
