My other obsession- when I can get off the computer long enough- is reading. So I thought what a great way for me to share my books with you & hopefully get you to share some books with me! I know books can be a personal thing, but I really enjoy finding new genres & authors to read. My shelves are currently filled with new 'used books' waiting for me to find the time for, so I plan to make this a regular thing.
The Lost City of Z is about the Percy Fawcett, a famous explorer of the Amazon who was looking for the fabled el Dorado in the early 1900s. Extremely driven, extremely lucky & absolutely obsessed with the idea that he would succeed where so many others had failed in finding the great civilization buried deep in the Amazon jungles. His final quest cost him his life, as well as his son's, & no one knows what actually happened or even where they died.
The story is one of duel obsessions, the author's quest for the truth, as well Fawcett's search for Z. I highly recommend this book for anyone who enjoys stories of survival, true adventure, or mystery. If you read it, let me know what you think.
Peace.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Creating Beauty
Everywhere I go in nature, I try to pick up trash left behind by careless, lazy &/or idiotic people. Seriously anonymous litter bugs, what part of 'Pack It In, Pack It Out' don't you understand?
The past 2 Saturdays, I have been able to get into Table Rock State Park (SC) & spend the day hiking the beautiful trails there. I pulled out over 20 pieces of trash without really searching for it. Disposable water bottles, snack wrappers, bottle caps, & the ubiquitous cigarette butts. (In fact my husband had read a statistic that by number, cigarette butts made up over half the trash in any given area. This definitely seem to hold true for my trash bag.
While the small piece of trash here & there isn't going to spoil the wilderness experience, they do serve as sad reminders that man seems to believe everything on Earth is his to do with as he will. I can remember camping as a little girl & seeing signs posted:
(1) Let No One Say It & To Your Shame, All Was Beauty Before You Came.
(2) Take Only Pictures, Leave Only Memories.
(3) Pack It In, Pack It Out; That's The Way On A Proper Walk A-Bout.
These signs & my parents started a tradition with me of making sure the camp site we left was in better shape when we left, then it was when we got there. When packing to go, the kids would run around finding trash left behind by anyone & pick it up, trying to leave a spotless campsite behind.
I've never found a truly trash free spot, but maybe if more tried to pack out more than they brought in, we'd all be able to focus more on the beauty of nature & less on man's dominion of nature.
Peace.
The past 2 Saturdays, I have been able to get into Table Rock State Park (SC) & spend the day hiking the beautiful trails there. I pulled out over 20 pieces of trash without really searching for it. Disposable water bottles, snack wrappers, bottle caps, & the ubiquitous cigarette butts. (In fact my husband had read a statistic that by number, cigarette butts made up over half the trash in any given area. This definitely seem to hold true for my trash bag.
While the small piece of trash here & there isn't going to spoil the wilderness experience, they do serve as sad reminders that man seems to believe everything on Earth is his to do with as he will. I can remember camping as a little girl & seeing signs posted:
(1) Let No One Say It & To Your Shame, All Was Beauty Before You Came.
(2) Take Only Pictures, Leave Only Memories.
(3) Pack It In, Pack It Out; That's The Way On A Proper Walk A-Bout.
These signs & my parents started a tradition with me of making sure the camp site we left was in better shape when we left, then it was when we got there. When packing to go, the kids would run around finding trash left behind by anyone & pick it up, trying to leave a spotless campsite behind.
I've never found a truly trash free spot, but maybe if more tried to pack out more than they brought in, we'd all be able to focus more on the beauty of nature & less on man's dominion of nature.
Peace.
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