Rest Stop Sunset

The sun was setting over a dusty rest stop off I-8 in southern Arizona.

We stood among the typical collection of bathroom buildings, empty picnic tables, and overflowing garbage cans, while the sky turned a brilliant gold. The color intensified, spreading upward from behind the silhouettes of jagged mountains before transforming into a fiery pink.

I think it’s easy to quickly dismiss a place or experience or a moment as being too ugly or just ordinary. But when you look past the obvious, you may be able to find what makes it special.

Because where you are is not as important as where you look.

September 24, 2018September 24, 2018

Wonder

“Travel and magic both have the ability to deliver this cataclysmic death blow to any sense of certainty that you have.”

-Nate Staniforth

One of the best kept secrets about adulthood is that adults don’t have all the answers.

We’re just better at faking it, as if imagination and curiosity were beneath us. As if childlike wonder was only for children.

But it’s good for all of us to remember our actual place on this vast and baffling planet, to sit back to appreciate the beauty of everyday magic, to marvel at what we can’t explain.

I loved how the thread of wonder ran through a recent episode of the podcast You Made It Weird.

In their 2-hour-plus conversation, comedian/host Pete Holmes and his guest, magician Nate Staniforth, talked about the things that challenge your assumptions about reality – like traveling or having children or seeing a really good magic trick.

You can close yourself off, or you can open your arms to the mystery and be amazed at what unfolds.

A final thought from Nate Staniforth:

“Wonder is such a slippery, ephemeral experience. You can’t bottle it up and keep it. And if you could, it wouldn’t be wonder. So the idea is not to find it once and then say ‘I’ve got it,’ but it’s to keep looking for it.”

PodRec!

A podcast episode recommendation for you – hopefully, the first of many!

You Made It Weird
August 15, 2018
guest: Nate Staniforth

January 26, 2017June 24, 2020

Art, Nuance, Resistance

It’s Thursday, and I’ve been working on other things this week besides getting today’s post finished. I’m also fighting off a big headache. So let’s just wing it today, shall we?

I’m really saddened by the news of the president signing an order to keep refugees out of the U.S.

I believe that, just as intercultural travel enriches an individual, a diversity of cultures ultimately enriches a country. And the fact that we are turning away so many people seeking refuge breaks my heart.

What is it the Statue of Liberty says? “Give me…your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”? I don’t recall it ending with “LOL! j/k” but I dunno. Maybe I’m misremembering.

When my sister-in-law asked on Facebook yesterday where everyone was finding hope, all I could think of was art.

I’ve been mulling this over for awhile now. Maybe since the election results came in and I couldn’t stop thinking of Goya and of Picasso. Maybe before that.

Even now – especially now – art is vital. Stories are vital.

The best art is nuanced, has layers of meaning, expresses truth.

When I think about how we got to this point in the U.S., I believe it has a lot to do with black-and-white thinking, with ignoring nuance. Saying “this is 100% evil” or “this is 100% perfect” and refusing to recognize the layers of a situation or the mix of good and bad that lives in all of us.

Creating something that comes from your heart, that expresses a piece of your experience, that puts authenticity over agenda, is a form of resistance against oversimplification and prejudice.

So let’s make things and speak truth and recognize people making art in our communities, because every person that makes/writes something that is true of themselves is also helping to paint a wider, truer picture of humanity.

Artwork in the photos:

1. Colibrí mural by Mata Ruda

2. Tempe Library art exhibition by John Randall Nelson

3. Studio and work of Judy Bruce

4 + 5. Murals in Clarion Alley

6. Colonel Platoff on His Charger by Kehinde Wiley

June 25, 2015June 25, 2015

Life Crush

1. The Mountains

After a very cold winter in the tiny former mining town of Silver Plume, Colorado, the weather finally cleared up enough for Dram Apothecary to open up their patio on a mid-March Saturday.

On Instagram, they post shots of their rustic bakery-turned-cocktail-tasting-room or of things they make – teas, cocktails, syrups – or of founder Shae Whitney foraging for wild herb ingredients. They are near a place called Snowdrift Gulch, which was especially fitting the months that their photos were of white streets, foggy gray skies, and flurries outside the windows.

Then, one weekend, they posted a photo of their (finally) sunny patio and announced they’d planned a party, complete with a DJ spinning super old school tracks from the ’20s, ’30s, and ’40s.

A lot of people thought that sounded like fun (it did!), but one comment jumped out at me: “I want this life.”

It made me wonder what the commenter’s life was like.

So I clicked over to her Instagram feed.

2. The Beach

The want-your-life commenter is somewhere in Southern California. The previous week her car thermometer had said 92 degrees – while snow was still falling on Dram Apothecary.

She posts amusing photos of dogs, she bakes, and she makes really cool-looking cocktails. She posted a photo of a guy on a beach with a surfboard hashtagged something like #myhusbandishotterthanyours.

It doesn’t seem like a bad life.

In fact, in response to one silly shot, where she is pretending to eat an apple right off the tree, someone commented “life crush.”

In other words, this person has a crush on the life of the woman that wants the life of Shae at Dram Apothecary.

So I clicked over to the life crush-er’s feed.

3. The Campground

It was a private account. But there was a link to a photo blog.

There are lots of photos of friends goofing off on camping trips. Lots of campfires and lakes, woods and desert. There is one of a guy with a marshmallow-toasting stick between his teeth. Another one is this big white, fluffy dog laying in the grass.

Her bio lists her location as Los Angeles, but one post is titled “my home is Colorado”.

So these photos have taken us from Colorado to Southern California and back.

4. Where You Live

Each of the women we’ve visited have scenery around them that is beautiful in its own way, time to have fun, and people to share it all with.

I bet you do too. Try imagining you’re a different person in a different place with a different set of ups and downs in your life.

Then flip through your photos, look at the views, the celebrations, the things that made you laugh, the people you love. And get a little jealous of yourself.

—

Note: All the photos in this post are mine. I haven’t included any from the people I mention or linked to the commenters, because my intention is not to single them out or say they should have a different attitude, but to show how we all have those grass-is-greener moments, even if we have it pretty good.

In case you’re curious, here’s where the photos above were taken – 1: Nederland, CO 2: Ridgway, CO 3: San Diego, CA 4: Tempe, AZ 5+6: Sierra Vista, AZ 7: Four Corners area 8: Scottsdale, AZ

August 27, 2014August 27, 2014

Wandering Pike Place Market

There’s nothing wrong with seeing the highlights of a place, the well-known “must-see” spots. But it’s always great when you can go beyond that, get off the beaten path, take the side streets.

Pike Place Market isn’t just a tourist attraction. Locals also frequent the farmers’ market, shops, cafes, and bars. It’s brimming with quirky Seattle flavor. The Market rewards those who are willing to explore, to keep their eyes open.

Of course, it’s fun to watch the guys throwing fish, and then stroll down the main arcade checking out the fruit and flowers. But you don’t have to stop there. Try chocolate pasta. Peruse the busker bulletin board.

If you don’t want to wait in line at the original Starbucks, you can try a new kind of crumpet.

Go down a level or two and you’ll find a magic shop, a record store, a place that sells squirrel underwear.

Around the corner from the famous Gum Wall, there’s an alley covered with posters, stickers, and street art. (I’m always on the lookout for art in unexpected places – including alleys.)

A paste-up of a man wearing a business suit and a space helmet caught my eye. He’s the Clastronaut and is inspired by the feeling of never being at home.

That makes sense to me. We’re all travelers.

So you might as well wander around, get lost, and see what’s around the corner.

Pike Place Market is one fantastic place to do that.