Chapter Nineteen
We never put anything back. We don't know how to clean up after
ourselves. We don't appreciate, cultivate, or nurture the delicate
balance between Man and Earth. How long can this one-sided relationship
go on? Our mortal finiteness seems so pitifully insignificant when
compared to the endurance of Mother Earth, the sustanance for our very
survival. We are not even a blip on the cosmic radar. Mother Earth will
produce many more life forms before she grows old herself. She will
continue to spin and spin until she too becomes cold and barren like
her sisters and that is a long time away.
While the planet spins eastward, Pepper and I continue our journey as
we travel westward across this chunk of space debris we call Earth.
Desolation becomes more and more apparent as we get further into the
hill country. The scenery of the urban sprawl that we had left behind
only this morning where the buildings are stacked-high one upon the
other in the blighted and densly populated All-American city was
extremely different from the wide open spaces of West Texas. In the
city you will find our species electronically wired and networked
through conduits for transmitting and receiving more and more
subliminal misinformation and propaganda. Big Brother funnels it into
our habitations to manipulate like Pavlovian dogs our collective soul.
Freedom...my ass. The fifth estate...my ass. Justice...if you have the
money to prove that you are innocent.
Pepper and I stop at a comfort station. That's surviving on the go. We
take a little walk off of the road to the foot of a nearby hill to
stretch our legs. We walk to the top of the rocky hill and can see for
miles and miles. There is nothing obstructing our view toward the
endless horizon whose pink edge skirted the very limits of our
perception in every direction. This is the picture that I had in my
head as a child in Carolina watching the cowboy westerns on television
on Saturday morning. This was the real thing. This is what brought
Davey Crocket from Tennessee and this is what attracted Daniel Boone
from North Carolina. An unobstructed view of the edge of the world with
wide open spaces, big skys, the frontier, the American West. This is
the stuff from which dreams are made but it is disappearing right
before our eyes. Where has it gone? As I look out over the blue
horizon, I can see a thin darker blue line where the sky touches the
earth and higher up a much lighter blue as I lift my eyes toward
heaven. And even higher still my gaze spreads upward toward a purely
white puff of clouds, so high even an eagle could not reach it. And
behind that is a deep transparent space of electric azure blue so
ashamedly beautiful that is defies description. The clouds move ever so
slowly so as not to distract from the peaceful stillness. The universe
completely disregards my being there.
Pepper
tugs at the cuff of my jeans and chirps reminding me that we are on a
journey, so we leave it behind us and we move on west toward the sheep
ranch. The Earth spins east...one more time.