Obsidian Shores

So there I sat, gentle waves lapping against the obsidian shore, sun fading behind the mountains violently torn apart by a cataclysmic volcanic eruption some 600 thousand years ago. Total peace. Isolated from humanity, but never alone amongst the pines of one of Americas most pristine ecosystems. Contemplating the openness of my mind, I stared into the wilderness. An area containing the worlds largest back-country geyser basin and one of the clearest lakes my eyes had ever discovered. I was of the ecosystem as the ecosystem was of me. The anthropocentric conditioning that occurs as a result of living in a "civilized" society had temporarily vanished. Something I had long believed but rarely felt; no longer was I more important than the aging tree on which I rested, and conversely it was of no more importance than I.

And so it happened, as I sat there, resting my head on the tree of equals I witnessed the worlds most recognizable geyser. Only, I was no where near the volcanic creation; No where near the crowds, the engines, the complaining kids or the drunk husbands. This experience was solely mine and all others in the forest with me that night.

This moment had been a long time coming. Sometime in September 2008 I got the itch, the world was waiting at my feet and I needed to walk atop it, I wanted to experience it in its fullest glory. To crawl, hands and knees bloodied by the earth, to walk desperately seeking something of which I could not recall but from an existence some thousands of generations past. I desired the freedom which had been ingrained in the human spirt since the birth of Homo Sapiens and so I would go. That next January brought me to Salt Lake City, Utah. I would leave under the guise of university student, but I had an ulterior motive. I desired more than the experience of college, I wanted to begin to walk the world in an orderly non-extremist manner. This would not be one long through hike, as much as that appeals to the soul. Rather, this would be a period of my life in which I would experience not only intellectual growth through one of America's great educational institutions, but also through the world, natural and civilized.