Too Much Water, No Peace

In 1964, the unthinkable happened in Alaska. The largest earthquake… could it really have have been 9.2… happened on Good Friday, March 27, at 5:36 and lasted for 3 minutes. It’s significant that it happened on Good Friday, because everyone was home. Only 143 people died.

I had just moved to San Francisco and was walking down the street when the Loma Prieta Earthquake happened in 1989. It was a frightening and amazing experience. But it was only 6.9 and lasted just 15 seconds. For every tenth of a point, the power of the quake goes up by a factor of 10. I get confused by the math… but I can’t imagine how frightening it must have been. Plates made enormous movements. You wonder what happened to the fish and sea mammals. OK. I looked it up. Sad. But it makes sense. They’re all part of that ecosystem…

And then to have that wall of water sweep up the inlet. Thirty feet high and 90 miles per hour. Could anything be more frightening? That it went that direction saved many lives, because it meant that the tsunami did not hit Anchorage. But it raced up that narrow inlet and inundated Alaska’s farmland, turning it to salt bogs. What a loss.

As our bus driver told these stories, the bus quieted and simply looked out the window… If there was Peace to be found that day, it was in our shared reaction to the devastation.

Departing in Peace

As we ended the cruising portion of the Alaska trip, I was a bit startled by the affection I felt for some of the people there. There was no sense that I might see them again, although some I’d be delighted to. There was simply a sense of having shared something spectacular. Something momentous. And everyone was aware, both of the beauty and of the privilege. And of the Peace. There’s something very calming and as I’ve said, elemental about steaming through that landscape. It’s not often that you get to be in Nature so vast that it overpowers the presence of cruise ships. Earth, Air, Water, in that place seemed empty of its inhabitants and its few observers.

The cruise ship had been large enough that you never had to interact with people, unless you chose to. You were not likely to meet folks again, unless you worked at it. But everyone gasped in wonder at Nature’s Beauty and shared that with whoever was standing by, whether you spoke their language or not.

The UUs sing: Go now in Peace, Go now in Peace, May the Spirit of Love surround you, everywhere, everywhere, you may go…That Peace, that Beauty and that Spirit of Love was something we had beheld together. What a marvelous experience. And for me, it was sweeter because I was with my sisty, Deb. Life really IS this wonderful. I give thanks for all I have seen and done.

Melting Peace

The glaciers sculpted not only Glacier Bay but the terrain around it. Its abundant beauty is a gift from those frozen artisans. The Tlinglet people made their homes in this Bay because the tools for a good life were abundant. Certainly their way of life is threatened by glaciers that are melting more and more quickly due to global climate change. But all our lives are endangered by the loss of Polar Ice and glaciers.

What will we do? How will we respond? Perhaps we need to see the beauty to be stirred to action. It’s interesting that tourism, which is always responsible for some environmental degradation, is taking it upon themselves to educate. Each tour boat has a Tlinglet Native and a governmental Naturalist on board describing the history, the present and the possible futures for this astonishing area. Let us learn. Let us work toward Peace. Let’s halt the glacier’s rapid disintegration…

Quiet, Sabbath Peace

We started and ended our sail on Sunday… Both days had very busy mornings, but very relaxed afternoons…

But the trip was both an exercise and an embrace of the notion of a Sabbath. Partially because Deb isn’t completely recovered from last year’s treatment, partially, despite the fact that we’re both extroverts, neither one of us are joiners. Sometimes I think it’s because both of us find it difficult to do what extroverts MUST do in a crowd, listen to every single conversation. BOOM is the sound of an extrovert’s head exploding!

So we did very little. We certainly talked to people at meals. But we spent a lot of time sitting on one deck or another, inside or outside — depending on the weather or our need — just gazing at Nature’s Beauty and enjoying the Peace and Quiet. It was enough to make a soul sing… and it did. and from the looks of rapture on the faces of many people, mine was not the only one.

And so i wish you that, today, on this summer afternoon, a place to sit and gaze at Beauty. A place to still your mind and then heart and soul. Peace. Blessed be.

Foggy Peace

Sometimes, you’re just overwhelmed with beauty, filled to the very brim. What a blessing in those times to be given a day to just stop and exhale… and to do it in the company of loved ones… what a gift… Time to simply be present and to make memories that will last a lifetime. Really. Who would believe that fog was so generous? and that the living of life as a prayer is sometimes just stopping and sitting still…

Life is so abundant, and I am so lucky… counting my blessings and giving gratitude for the bounties of Nature and Love.

More Gold, Less Peace

Well, as you know I was agitated yesterday when I posted my musing. My friend Wayne responded with information from his friend the geologist who spends his summers in Alaska. It seems we learn nothing… and doom ourselves to ghastly repetition. This land is sacred and we are holy instruments. Let us not pervert our power for greed. Let us pray for Balance, Sense and Peace. Amen.

Sorry, don’t have any more than that.

Gold vs Peace

It always seems so romantic when you say Gold Rush. You never think about how crazed and desperate people must have been to sell everything on the off chance that you might strike it rich in a world alien and distant from yours. There were about 75 million Americans at that time. About 1 in every 750 people picked up stakes and left for Alaska.

When you get there and realize what they went through to get there… each miner had to bring a ton of equipment with them and haul it up the mountain passes. Not a ton as in a lot, but a ton as in a ton. Everyone was cheating them, horses, particularly the ones they were sold, were not equipped to make this trek and they had no idea what enduring this kind of weather meant. There wasn’t enough to eat. People got sick. People went insane, People died. They have no idea how many.

Once again, in the mindless pursuit of one group’s better life, it was deemed acceptable to force the nomadic, indigenous population onto a reservation where many died from the new diseases introduced by miners. My history books didn’t mention that and neither did the tours. Even the Wikipedia site only has a one line mention of the Hän people.

We took a bus ride that climbed from Skagway through the White Pass and the train trip back down. It was beautiful on a beautiful summer’s day. We looked at all the geological wonders, but talked only sporadically about the hunt for gold and all it cost the miners and the Native people of Alaska.

The promise of easy riches… it’s never what it seems. And it always costs far more than we imagine for far more people. Most people never recouped their $1,200 investment (In today’s dollars, that would be $33,456). Shopkeepers and Swindlers got rich.

Maybe it’s time to consider what the real prizes are in this world and work for something that lasts; what kind of world do we want to envision and dream of? Let us consider balance. Let us work for Peace.

Wild Peace

It was the pared away, elemental nature of Alaska that kept seizing at my heart. Such stark Beauty! And the ship really had done a good job making sure that there were places that you could view that Beauty without being overwhelmed with all the people and activities. In the bar on the 9th floor there were recliners facing a wall of windows to which you could retreat.

But then there was that lovely thermal room just one deck down. I was plenty happy to stew in that mineral hot pot and devour the scenery Nature had on display. But occasionally, even I would get too warm and sneak out on that tiny deck. There you were, alone in the world and all that wind. It’s as close as I may ever come to flying. I was struck while standing there that this is how it must feel for the gods to review their handiwork or for the angels to play in a place where they weren’t about to be ensnared in the telephone lines of civilization.

There was something that encouraged and engaged my fanciful nature… but all the fantasies were ones of power, built from the awe the landscape engendered… this is strong and powerful country, not made for cupids or putti…

That moment on the balcony was a reminder that when you’re offered the opportunity to see the world the way the gods do, open your eyes and breathe it in!

Water Peace

I had a couple very wonderful water moments on this cruise, so i can’t say this was my very most favorite water moment, but it’s got to come close. To be floating in a pool that’s rocking on the ocean… the water is warm the wind is wild… yep. pretty spectacular. and an interesting blend between a completely sybaritic experience and worship! I can’t separate them. the only thing better would have been to have been naked… but the other ship visitors were probably not ready for that!

(And just fyi, should you ever be seasick on one of those large vessels, floating in a pool is a great place to be. I remembered that from an earlier cruise.) Look, helpful hints AND theology!

The wonders of Nature and the sweetness of hedonism… it’s a pretty wonderful combination.

Bubble-net Peace

Off all the things that I saw in Alaska that amazed and delighted me… and if you’ve been following this blog, you know there are many… bubble net feeding circles may be the most impressive. I’ve looked up this information several times, because what I remembered didn’t seem possible. Yet, seeing it stunned me enough that I couldn’t help but remember…

What I didn’t manage to work into the musing is that the herring (or whatever) are not high on the conceptual ladder. When they see the air bubbles rising from the circle that starts below them, they cannot tell that it is not a net. So they are doomed to stay within the confines of the circle formed by these enormous whales (who grow to be up to 52 feet long, yet feed only on tiny little herring.

These gigantic humpback whales eat for only three months out of the year and fast for nine… the nine months when they’re swimming from Alaska to Hawaii (well over 3,500 miles, which takes them about 40 days to swim), mating or birthing their babies and swimming back. It’s a good thing a few of the Matriarchs put their heads together. Who’s your Mama? The one who helps you eat the most efficiently with the least effort… What inspired them to improve on Nature?

Do I love that it’s Matriarchs? Oh, indeed I do. That there are only twelve of them who can call this circle? Magic. You go, you wise old women, move those whales from their solitary to feeding to cooperative fishing. So if Twelve Wise Whale Women can change their worlds… can we? Can we bring about Peaceful coexistence?

Today when my heart is heavy with all the news to take in about Trayvon Martin, I have to find somewhere to start hoping.

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