Wandering

My husband and I recently hiked to Lover's Leap in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. It was quite an easy hike, much to our surprise. After about forty-five minutes of hiking we began to feel tired but ready to face the next hour or two. Fortunately that was about when we discovered the "false summit" we thought we were looking at was the real summit and our hike was done, at least the uphill segment. We sat and enjoyed a spectacular view of Pyramid Peak, admired pine trees twisted and bent by relentless wind and attempted to comprehend the great height we had achieved in such a short time as we watched ant sized cars winding on Hwy 50 below us. We watched rock climbers ascending a nearby cliff face, impressed by their skill and speed. They reminded me of the aforementioned book "Wild Trees" and I wondered, "Why would I climb a cliff face if I can hike up the backside of it and enjoy the trail with its streams, trees and birds. There is no way up a tree but to climb, but hiking is a much better option for mountain tops in my opinion.

After resting a bit we decided to take the hard way down the mountain and followed the edge of the cliff over to where the rock climbers were ascending. It felt just right to scramble down boulders and past steep gorges in the cliff rather than amble down a smooth trail. Eventually we met up with the trail the rock climbers follow once they've ascended their wall. It was a beautiful hike and I found a spring. I have never seen a spring before and I found this little miracle of water completely wonderful. Imagine, water coming from the mountains. Sure it originated from snow melt somewhere, but here it was gurgling out from under some rocks, with no apparent source but the deep mountain. It kind of reminded me of Tangle traveling to the depths of the earth to find the place the Golden Key belongs to in George MacDonald's "The Golden Key". (You'll just have to read story.)

Eventually we met up with a wider trail and followed it until we discovered an uncompleted house filled with shrubs. It was quite a mystery as to what happened. The house was built of granite cemented together with windows and doors everywhere. We surmised that either the builder was injured or perished, or he was stopped by the Eldorado National Forest people before he could finish. "Hewn out of the very rocks" as Derek said in his brilliantly realistic Scottish accent.

After we finished admiring the granite house we continued on the trail. Unfortunately the trail abandoned us at the south fork of the American River. Knowing we had parked next to the river we decided to follow it back to the car instead of going toward the freeway and following it. That was an adventure in itself. We had so much fun climbing boulders, crossing logs and navigating through the shrubs along the banks of the river. Three hours after we had decided not to take the easy trail back to the car we arrived at our car exhausted but glad for the adventure.

I could, here, discuss the significance of the wilderness experience, or talk about trails in our forests as opposed to roads, or discuss tourist travel versus exploring nature and getting to know God's creation, but really I just enjoyed the adventure and the time alone with my husband, not to mention the delicious pizza after the hike. Sometimes its good just to get out and enjoy God's creation, to get dirty and exhausted exploring the course of a river, or enriched sitting at the base of a really big tree and listening to the wind blow through its high branches, or discover something you've never seen before (like a half built house in the semi-wilderness).
Picture by Derek McHenry

Don't sit around too much or you may miss something wonderful.

Wild Trees, a very good book

I know, I know, I'm terrible at keeping a blog. I almost decided to not bother, but a close friend told me she really wanted me to write more, which I can do because I am reading so many amazing books right now that I have plenty to say.

I just finished reading a book called "The Wild Trees" by Richard Preston. This is a book about the biggest trees in the world and the people who find them, climb them, and research them. It's incredibly amazing that there are trees in California that reach over 350 feet tall and in whose branches can be found more life than anyone ever imagined. The book inspires conservation practices. I don't think I could ever consider owning anything made of redwoods. I realize that we need wood for various products, such as houses, desks, etc., but couldn't we avoid building things out of redwood regardless of how long it lasts?

Even more wonderful in this book were the people. I was so impressed with the people who climb these trees. It must take amazing personalities to be bold enough to climb a tree and cooperate in a group in order to climb over 300 feet. These people seemed so compassionate and good, I feel tempted to drive to Humbolt University and meet Steve Sillet and Marie Antoine myself. What a treat it would be to hear their stories first hand and learn more about the canopy of one of my favorite trees.

The book left me tempted to learn to climb these trees for myself, but with six children, four of whom I'm still raising, I'm not sure I should take such risks....but then again if I'm careful and learn well....
hmmmm, probably not yet, I have enough big goals to keep me busy for a while.

I highly recomend this book to anyone interested in trees, plant biology, geography, or good books.


Picture by Derek McHenry

What defines a country

I got this list from Matt Rosenberg's website .

•Has space or territory which has internationally recognized boundaries (boundary disputes are OK).
•Has people who live there on an ongoing basis.
•Has economic activity and an organized economy. A country regulates foreign and domestic trade and issues money.
•Has Has the power of social engineering, such as education.
•Has a transportation system for moving goods and people.
•Has a government which provides public services and police power.
•Has sovereignty. No other State should have power over the country's territory.
•Has external recognition. A country has been "voted into the club" by other countries

For anybody interested in geography, his website is a great one.

Nations

My very old dictionary (Webster’s 1965 edition) defines a nation as such:
“A stable, historically developed community of people with a territory, economic life, culture and language in common.”

My very new regional geography textbook (Bradshaw et al, copyright 2007) defines a nation similarly:
“A nation is an “imagined community,” or politicized ethnic group, in which people believe themselves to share common cultural features, usually linked to a specific area of land.”

The concept of a nation is not all I once thought it to be. When I say “One nation under God” I would automatically understand the definition of a nation to a country or state with political boundaries, an established government, and most often an established military. However this is not always the case.

While America is a nation based on its common language, government, and culture to some degree there are, within this country other nations. The Cherokee are a nation, as are the Miwok, the Yurok, and various other tribes.

There is a set of reference books called Stateless Nations which gives a reference to an unbelievably large number of groups of people who can be defined as a nation but have no state, no government, and are not recognized by any large group such as the UN. I think of one of those groups often as I peer into the mirror to deal with my eyebrows which show a distinct Welsh characteristic.

Another good example is the Basque people fighting for their own government and country in Spain. This leads me to the first point of my ramblings.

What do we do for all of these various nations without states? Should the Basques have their own nation? Could Scotland survive if it separated from England to form its own government? What about the small nations around India and China, should they be swallowed up by their larger neighbors becoming nations without states?

When one of these nations is localized in one area what is holding them back from becoming their own nation. Usually it is probably economics or political pride on the part of the larger nation.

Often times the nation is interspersed throughout a country and cannot feasibly claim a specific area and the people would be hard pressed to give up their land to move to a more localized place. Likewise the other people of that country would be even more stubborn when asked to give up their land to let the asking nation have it for their own.

Here in America, we have the problem of the native nations that we have removed, attacked, relocated and mistreated. I can’t imagine America actually giving them land to call their own country, although I would cheer if we did (as long as it wasn’t in the middle of some practically unlivable desert.) A friend of mine suggested we give them the national parks to maintain and dwell in. I think he’s on to something.

There is another point to this ramble. We are all a nation without a state. In Christ we have a home that we are waiting for. When he returns and makes everything new we will have a government ruled by Him. So often when we feel a longing for something more it is the desire to live in our homeland with Jesus. We are, for now, a homeless people longing for the King who will bring healing to the nations and make us truly one nation, under God.

God really does have a sense of humor

Today I took my daughter out to dinner because she was having a hard time with the rules we laid down for her recently. I thought a bit of a meal with her would help her. We had Chinese food, and I prayed that God would help us to laugh together. After a tense meal she opened her fortune cookie and read her fortune. It said "You can do things that others say you cannot." We both smiled a little bit and I told her that if my fortune cookie told me to lighten up she could take hers seriously. We talked more easily about the situation after that. Then I finished my meal and opened my fortune cookie. It told me "Your perspective will shift." Of course my daughter really appreciated that and we had a good laugh and a pleasant time after that.

Of course neither of us looks for fortune cookies to tell us how to live, but I think they were a tool for laughter and healing.
Isn't God wonderful, that he would plan it just so in order to help us laugh and communicate when things might otherwise have stayed difficult and tense?

Interesting book

I just finished reading an interesting book called "One Straw Revolution" by Masanobu Fukuoka. Mr. Fukuoka lives (or lived possibly) on a mountain in Japan where he farmed with a method he called the do-nothing method. He doesn't till the soil or use any chemicals whatsoever. It sounded so beautiful to work with the rhythm of nature instead of wearing out the land with intensive single crop farming. I enjoyed the book for the most part, but I got bogged down in his philosophies in the end, which I definetely didn't agree with.

His method was quite a contrast from the typical American method of farming. How much of the land do we bring near to ruining because we think it would bring us a greater harvest? How possible would it be to bring our farms back around to community based methods and become dependent more on nature instead of large single crop farms and ranches.

I'm often a little hard on our nation, especially when I read about other nations suffering hunger while we stuff ourselves and cause depletion of fish supplies, red tides, and environmental degradation. But can we really change where we are. Could we of Sacramento live well enough from sustainable agriculture produced solely in California? It's definitely something to think about, but I don't expect things can really change without bringing a heavy toll on the economy.

I wish we could go back to such a method:
"Make your way carefully through these fields. Dragonflies and moths fly up in a flurry. Honeybees buzz from blossom to blossom. Part the leaves and you will see insects, spiders, frogs, lizards and many other small animals bustling about in the cool shade. Moles and earthworms burrow beneath the surface.
This is a balanced rice field ecosystem. Insect and plant communities maintain a stable relationship here. It is not uncommon for a plant disease to sweep through this area. leaving the crops in these fields unaffected." Fukuoka p. 29

At least I can apply some of this method in my own yard.