There
isn’t a whole lot of traveling going on yet because, except for some slight
openings most of us are still sheltering in place as much as possible. Right now,
the country—indeed, the world—is enraged over the very public death of George Floyd,
a black man in Minneapolis for a petty offense that he probably didn’t even
commit. Black Americans continue to be targeted by police and anti-black
protocol seems to be very much a part of American policing. If we believe in
justice for all, then why does this continue? I can’t answer that, but I
believe I must do my part to stop it. On this platform I can only speak to the
problem and hint at some small solutions.
There
is a place I would travel to right now if I weren’t sheltering in place that
would bring a sense of cleansing. I’m sorry if that seems like a corny
transition go get me back to speaking about my gratitude for things American,
but I do believe waterfalls are cleansing and I’ve been writing about them for
weeks now. And I know there are plenty more wonderful waterfalls in this
country than I will get to, so if you can, visit one and use it to meditate.
The waterfall I am thinking of right now is Yellowstone Falls in Yellowstone National
Park.
I
will say this about all the waterfalls I’ve mentioned—they don’t suffer fools
or foolish behavior. Their beauty and their natural force are destructive
without consideration of humanity or any merit we might place upon ourselves.
People frequently die at waterfalls because they don’t respect the force, the
height or the reality of those falls or their indifference to our very
existence. Yellowstone Falls is beautifully indifferent to all of that, so
trying to get closer to get a great photo is not a good idea. The las time I visited
just a few days after I was there a woman did that very thing and fell down the
cliffs over 500 feet to her death as her family watched in horror. Stepping
beyond the humanly established boundaries that remind us to respect the falls
is never a good idea. For me that just adds to the respect and awe that I treat
such falls. I know you can’t get anywhere near the falls, though there are many
places to see them from different angles. You won’t be alone when you go to
these falls because they are in Yellowstone and Yellowstone in the summer gets
visitors from all over the country (I’ve counted license plates from all fifty
states there) and the world. It is the world’s first national park, so that’s
not a surprise.
I
love these falls because they exist, they rush over a colorful place of yellow rock
in a surrounding of mountain splendor. I’m also very proud of the fact that
they represent the region of the country where I live. I suppose that’s true of
every waterfall I’ve described so far. They all demonstrate the power in the
earth that is much stronger than we are. That, in itself, is beautiful. I love
humanity, but we are a prideful species that has a great deal of intelligence
but it is still no match for the innate power of the universe that can in one
small blink, wipe us from existence. So, if we continue to ignore our humanity
and its beauty to our detriment, we can simply be washed away by the power of a
waterfall. Yellowstone Falls is just one of those falls and I am grateful it is
there to serve as a place of reverence for that which is greater than me,
greater than us. Because of that, I believe we need to respect each other and
ourselves, recognizing the gift we have in being here right now. Yellowstone
Falls reminds me of just that and I am grateful for it.
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