Archive for April, 2010

Happy Birthday Earth.

Earth’s Day © Jim Korpi

EARTH
b. 4.55 billion BC d.
“The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy, and after all our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it and to foster its renewal is our only hope.”
— Wendell Berry
What’s the alternative? There’s no planet in the solar system better suited for such a wonderful life. Mars looks nice in photographs but appears chilly. Pluto… well… it’s not really… close.

Pavement to Paradise

Pavement to Paradise © Jim Korpi

Driving the road from San Clemente to Yosemite National Park is like slowly boiling on asphalt and evaporating into the presence of clouds.
The traffic through Los Angeles guided me in a frantic and tense blur of break lights. Gradually the streams of cars pour off their exits like reverse tributaries from this river of tar. The landscape dilates and the mind begins to relax. Buildings of polished stone and glass crumble, become raw materials, and man’s grasp of the world loosens.
Greater minds have spoke often of the need for pure wilderness, so I won’t speak so plainly. An untouched wild, I’ve come to believe, broadens human thought to the condition of cleansing, to the point at which the tendency for possibilities is loosened and wonder is left to settle into the unknown.

The Aging Process

An immediacy has begun to creep into my conscience. The end seems more visible.
Aging is beginning to feel like the hike up a mountain. When you begin you’re full of strength and ideals. One foot replaces the next up the steep switch-backs. Slowly you realize the immensity of your endeavor and you slow your pace. Tucked in the thicket of the tree-line, you look down at your feet. The path is rocky. The peak is hidden in the clouds.
Maybe now I’ve cleared the tree line. The path is not smoother but more predictable. I’m able to lift my head from my self-significance and look to the mountaintop. It’s high, but closer.