"Persistence of Fragility" for #ThrowbackThursday, from a hike into Sandstone Canyon at Anza Borrego Desert State Park, in January 2014.
This mesquite came tumbling down from the cliff's edge, and after sorting its limbs, continued to grow at the base of the sandstone walls where it landed.
My friend @jwsmithphoto and I spent a day exploring various areas along the Borrego-Salton-Seaway and these are the Borrego Badlands, seen from Vista del Malpais.
Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.
From "Song of the Open Road" by Walt Whitman
Once upon a time, a young man had this quote put under his high school yearbook picture. Who can blame him? He was fed this claptrap by a high-brow English teacher, and besides, it has an appealing ring to it for someone just starting out on the adventure of life.
The young man walked his road, and with due respect to old Walt, discovered Walt was wrong.
A road takes you where the road is going.
Sometimes it wears on for miles and miles before a crossroads is reached. And what then? Is right better? Is left? Or the uncomfortable familiarity of the road you're on? Which choice will lead to happiness? Which has a bridge out? Which ends in a marsh? Instead of a map, a million voices.
The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with weary feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.
The Road Goes Ever On (Frodo’s version), J.R.R. Tolkien
Somewhere well to the west of the Metropolis.
November 2023.
“We must not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we began and to know the place for the first time.” -T. S. Eliot
I've walked down this particular dirt road many times before, but never before had I experienced the enveloping warm glow of the turning leaves quite like this. The overcast but bright sky lent a real softness to the scene.
Somewhere well to the west of the Metropolis.
October 2023.
“The pleasure we derive from journeys is perhaps dependent more on the mindset with which we travel than on the destination we travel to.” – Alain de Botton
Autumn morning at a bend of the Merced River in Yosemite Valley, with the sunlit wall of El Capitan (Tu-tok-a-nu'-la) in the background; Yosemite National Park, California; October 2023.
Inside this building is the apparatus needed to control a natural siphon that is capable of directing the flow of water through aqueducts between reservoirs. The dam pictured gives the necessary height to initiate the siphoning action.