A Hundred Thousand Awesome Things

Sometimes, the sentence or title says it all. I immediately identified with the blogger of A Hundred Thousand Awesome Things http://1000awesomethings.com/ on the radio. Free of distraction, traveling is a meditation on exactly that. We are no strangers to beauty but the Beginner’s Mind http://mindfulnessclasses.com/beginnersmind.htm is an exceptionally clear lens to see the world, and all that surrounds us all of the time.

Our New York state of mind brightened with the delicious meals, good conversation, music and fraternal/familial comradeship of our stops along the way, not to mention the sky and the days turned warm. Farmstands everywhere, bright rivers and lakes and historic towns. The bright orange of pumpkins and the tang of apples and pears, the last of the sweet corn, and baskets full of scarlet red tomatoes. Quiet hardwood forests; colors blooming steadily.

And then, the Niagara Falls Parade and international hullabaloo. Wow. I will not describe the incredible Coney Island-style array of casinos, hotels and amusement park attractions on both sides. But if you have seen the Ken Burns series National Parks; America’s Best Idea http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/ and article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_National_Parks:_America%27s_Best_Idea (which partially inspired our journey), you know that Niagara Falls was the model of what we didn’t want the National Parks to be. Good old private enterprise isn’t the best steward of our precious and scared places.

We crossed to the Canadian side and bellied up to the guard rail, shoulder to shoulder with the full gamut of humanity, snapping photos with people of every race and age and size. As often as not, we cross in front of each other and accidentally wind up in each others’ portraits.

When we were in Chile and Argentina, I had the same holographic experience. We are all in each other’s photos. As a metaphor, that concept hits me deep. Add to that, the roar and power and beauty of the Falls facing us, watching us, if you will—silently witnessing the ephemeral life of humans as we turn our faces to the spray and take our photos.

Thankfully, I had chided enough tourists for watching orcas through their camera lens to remind myself to put the camera away and just let myself be baptized and mesmerized by this big and thoroughly “Awesome Thing”.

That could be and should be enough. But yesterday, again re-directed by those Great Lakes, we abruptly realized we would be hitting Chicago at rush hour. Further, that there was a protest/march downtown. http://www.globaltimes.cn/NEWS/tabid/99/ID/678171/Occupy-Chicago-protest-enters-10th-day.aspx Avoid or go forth? You may know us well enough to figure the answer. Thus we found ourselves parked at the Chicago Yacht Club, courtesy of Steve’s gregarious ways and ability to ask the impossible, at sundown right next to Chicago’s Millennium Park and the protest. The people at the protest, and its peaceful energy, another of the hundred thousand awesome things. Later that evening, the moon rising over Lake Michigan, Chicago skyline in the distance, a parking lot complete with gleaming porta-potties at Northwestern University. A view we could never afford. Free.