We had a fairly glorious day in the desert, camping this weekend. As troop of 9 dads & about 20 kids, we descended upon the open expanse of arid plains and sand dunes.
It felt like being a million miles away from the city. I was armed with my new robotic 8”telescope, a guitar and some booze. Tents were set up quite quickly and the kids let loose to roam freely.
We made a fire and watched a glorious sunset. I have always loved the desert sunset.
We had some lovely barbecue including a Tomahawk Steak, which was cooked to perfection and some burnt garlic oyster mushrooms provided my me.
I assembled the newly acquired telescope and set sights on Jupiter and Saturn.
It is some thing very special, bordering on religious, to see the Moons of Jupiter and the Rings of Saturn with your own eyes.
It’s even cooler seeing the kids digging it. One of the dads commented that just a few years ago, such visions would only be available to the lucky few in humanity. Now it is open to us all.
We were looking at what Galileo Galilei did in 1610. He was the first and it bolted humanity into the modern age, at great personal cost to himself. When you see it with your own eyes, you understand why.
The kids went to bed and us dads assembled around the fire under a blanket of stars. One of the dad’s commented,
“The whole year we wait for these two golden hours of peace”
I got out the guitar and played the only 2 or 3 songs I know. My first time ever as a campfire guitarist. Fingers and voice weren’t fully operational but it has inspired me to actually learn something better for next time.
We talked music and politics. There was a diversity of opinion and that’s just fine. I, being the token contrarian. It is another wonder how it is possible for me to disagree with almost everything considered normal or obvious. One of the dads, a countryman of Galileo’s descent, lamented privately, that his country had changed beyond recognition in the last 20 years. He disliked the Orange Man but acknowledged that his foreign policy was actually making the world a better place.
We all thought the apparent President Elect probably wouldn’t make it full term and that his VP would take over. I tried to litigate a case against her. That she enjoyed putting people in jail. To which a comment flew back at me,
“That was her job”
This is true. But there is something about being a dirty cop, a swamp creature prosecutor, someone who enjoys other people’s misery. All of which I believe is true about this lady. She was one of the first to quit running for nomination in her own party, so disliked is she.
Even the eventual winner, did so only by cheating the vote count on Super Tuesday, in March. It was a familiar scene… fraudulent software, opaque machines, no Voter ID and several convenient glitches involved at 3am, after everyone was asleep. It was a national joke that everyone seems to have forgotten.
But who cares now, life is imitating Game of Thrones. We are plebeian participants in an aristocratic blood sport.
Then later, after everyone went to bed, bar two, I recanted my spiritual journey to an unsuspecting victim. I sounded like a fool to even myself. Stories so unbelievable that I now have trouble hearing myself say them, a little tipsy or not. There are some things that cannot be communicated, I was asked what my stories meant, what great spirit had said to me. I had nothing meaningful to actually say.
Then the last remaining dad went to bed, I sat alone by the fire under in a moonless sky, with a cigar in hand and more red wine than necessary. These are the two hours I wait for in a year. Solitude, Nature, a full belly and total inebriation.
I finally retired and slept like a log.
Nice !