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Published: March 19th 2008
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Relaxing around the campfire, the aroma of boiling beans wafts from the cast iron pot. Crushed red peppers, italian seasoning, black pepper, Lawry's seasoning salt and ample amounts of garlic combined with pinto beans, slow cooked over a camp fire to mexican perfection. I made a solar cooker today to enable us to utilize the sun's rays to cook our simple meals. It cooked the beans to an edible softenss, but we decided to finish them off on the camp fire. I think the solar cooker has the potential to do a thorough bean cooking if we soak the beans over night and start cooking in the morning.
Cooking beans was only one of the many simple pleasures of the day. We did some amazing whale watching as we ate our breakfast on the sandy beach. A mother grey whale and her calf were within fifty feet of shore. We watched as they gently surfaced, expelled a large spray from their blow hole and took a deep breath before submerging agian. The calf seemed to enjoy playing in the medium sized waves near the shore, barrle rolling and swimming agianst the current. At times he seemed to be waving to
us as his fin made a slow arch out of the water. Often amimals seem to embody human characteristics. A hawk seems proud and confident as it peirces you with its razor sharp gaze. The gray what on the other hand seems to be a gental, patient, carring creature. They seem to posses some sort of wisdom into the greater meaning of life as they calmly go about their business. I was tempted to dive into the waves to swim with these giants of the sea, but decieded I didn't want to disturb them or get between a couple thousand pound baby and its enormous mother. They didn't seem to mind me skim boarding in the shore break and hung around the beach suprisingly close to the shore for most of the day. We saw a couple dozen more whales migrating north in search of richer waters. I hear that while mother gray whales raise thier calves in these protected waters, they go for months without eating while thir calf drinks their milk, growing large enough to travel into open waters. Subsequently the mother losses many thousands of pounds during this time. For a hungry, near starving mother whale, that
first gulp of tiny sea creatures must be beyond delicious after traveling thousands of miles and going many months without a bite to eat. I myself have hiked several miles and gone nearly a day without eating and that first bite of dinner around the campfire was near orgasmic.
Todos Santos is a beautiful beach town and boasts one of the best surf breaks in baja. The shore break is awesome for skim boarding and the couple mile long sandy beach is suprisingly deserted. We met a nice Canadian couple, Brian and Linda who offered us a place to stay if we were ever in Las Ventanas, a small town on the sea of cortez. We chatted about surfing, kite boarding and westfalias.
I've been reading two books, one about Mayan Cosmology and the other a collection of some of the most influential scientific publications of the last century. The ideas of science and religion have been on my mind for the last couple of days. It seems to me that many people of my generation have suplimented religion with science. Science tells us our creation story, a gigantic bang in which the universe was created. It tells
us how humans have evolved from single celled organisms from the sea over countless generations into the complex creatures we are today. Science gives us insight into the world of the subatomic realm as well as the vast expanse we call the universe. We understand the laws that govern many natural phenomena, gravity, electromagnetism, thermodynamics and seem to understand how the world works down to the bonds that hold matter together. We can predict the orbits of the planets, comets and starts as they travel through vast expanses of space. Though we can explain so much with science, some of the most intriging questions lay out of its grasp, the origin of life, the workings of the mind, conciousness, morality, and ethics. While I've had profound almost spiritual experiences, staring at the night sky, contemplating our place in the universe and the magnificent life of a star or diving into the minute building blocks of existance: the compostion and interaction of atoms (what appears to be solid matter is actually mostly empty space. If an atom was two miles wide, the nucleus, the dense more or less solid part of the atom would be between the size of a golf
ball and a basket ball. The rest is empty space occupied some small electrons zooming about,) or that the fact I think I am touching my fingers together, but in reality the my fingers are getting just close enough untill the repulsive force of the like charged elctrons is too great for me to push them any closer, nothing realy touches other things, we´re just charges, binding and repusing eachother, but still science can often seem cold and distant from our daily experiences. I've read a scientific explination of love that is very unsatisfying. In my point of view there's a need for some level of spiritualality to accompany our belief in science. Not necisarly a devotion to a certain god, but a grasp of morals, the meaning of life and other important concepts science is unable to explain. For instance I believe in a concept of Karma, probably not the original, true meaning of the word, but that your life will be better if you are a good person. I don't think you'll have a better chance of winning the lotery or anything like that, but I do believe that if you are generous and kind to other people, people will be generous and kind to you. If you smile at the world, the world will smile back. I believe the purpose to life is to obtain true happiness which should not be compromised for things like wealth or fame, but I am still unsure the best path to obtaining it. There are many important questions out there that I have only begun to touch and many more that I have never seen. Is there a soul? An afterlife? Real Magic? Gods? I shall ponder the mysteries of my universe as I travel through this life. For now I am supremely fortanate to be able ot do this as I relax on a deserted beach with ample time to delve into the recesses of my mind. I have many books to spark inqueries and I have a great friend and companion to travel with me where ever the road shall take us.
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Andy Gottscho
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Awesome post Ian. It's kinda strange, while I have been out in the Mojave Desert every day stalking lizards, often alone, I have had ample time to enjoy the raw beauty of the desert wilderness, reflect, and think about my path in life. The same thoughts have occurred to me as I watch the desert sunset. Like you, I am a scientist, yet science cannot account for all. Science is knowledge; knowledge is power; and with power comes responsibility to act morally, with ethics. Power can be used for good or for evil. We can rely on science to tell us the truth, but we cannot rely on science to tell us right from wrong. What is needed is a new ethic, an ecological ethic to save us from ourselves. I miss you guys, travel safe and have fun, say hi to Andy for me.