YOSEMITE—B0B MARLEY—“ONE HEART”

Posted on July 18, 2016 Leave a Comment

The Biodesign Class of 1978 was only the second class to reach the top of Yosemite’s world-famous Half Dome. They donned their backpacks and labored for 10 miles while gaining nearly 5,000 feet of elevation. The last ½ mile involved climbing a steep series of granite stairs and ascending 400 feet of twin cables up a 45-degree grade. The added weight of the backpacks was challenging for the experienced hikers and was nearly overwhelming for some of the beginners. They had been forewarned that the hike would be a group effort and no one would be left behind. Therefore, when the last hiker topped the brow of Half Dome there was a joyful celebration with lots of tears and hugs.

An orientation session helped them find important landmarks. After setting up a bivouac area, water was heated for trail-food dinners. After dinner the class was treated to an extraordinary spectacle of a blood-red sun dropping below the western horizon. When they turned around to return to the camp area, Mother Nature offered an encore performance of a glorious full moon rising in the east.

After sunset the temperature dropped quickly and students huddled closely together in a circle to share visions and reflections of the day. In addition to a collection of John Muir’s writing, I carried a collection of quotes, aphorisms and adages that were selectively used to enhance discussions. Plato was on our reference list of poets, sages and author’s and I offered the following:

“What if the man could see Beauty Itself, pure,

unalloyed, stripped of mortality and all its

pollution, stains, and vanities, unchanging,

divine…the man becoming, in that communion,

the friend of God, himself immortal;…would

that be a life to disregard?” – Plato

Plato’s words offered a poignant contrast for the students to contemplate. The only blemish on the gorgeous sunset was the layer of smog that could be seen hanging 50 miles away over the San Joaquin Valley. However, at nearly 9,000 feet the sky was nearly perfectly clear. The stars seemed to be competing to see which could be more brilliant. The air was absolutely still and created a profound silence that was truly sublime.

Following a pause in the sharing, Theresa mentioned that she worked as a counselor at a summer camp for kids with impaired hearing. Evidently, the eerie silence was helping her identify with her campers. She mentioned that she had to learn A-S-L (American Sign Language) in order to “speak through my hands.” And then she said, “I heard a lot of stuff about this class, some of it was pretty weird. Maybe now I know why. We have been in class for only a little over a month; we have climbed a mountain together and I can honestly say that I love every one of you like a brother or a sister. A-S-L has a sign for this kind of love and I would like to share it with you.”

She raised her right hand, folded down her middle and ring fingers, leaving her thumb, pointer and pinkie extended. “It’s kind of a sign-language shortcut,” she said. “The pinkie means ‘I’, the thumb and pointer form an ‘L’ and the pinkie and pointer form a “Y.’”

The lesson was a huge success and the students enjoyed flashing the “I Love You” sign for the rest of the trip. And it didn’t stop there. They used it for the rest of the year and its use was passed down to all the following classes.

The last day arrived and before we headed home we went out to the meadow for what proved to be an emotional a final circle. The mighty Half Dome loomed one mile above our heads. It was time to say “good bye” to Yosemite and it became a bittersweet parting. Of course, every student had a unique experience, but I think a common source of their emotional catharsis can be traced to the two spiritual wells of Joy and Sorrow.

Their joy came from innumerable, priceless scenic images, memories of stress, pain and growth; trail camaraderie and an experience that Joseph Campbell would have described as, “The Soul’s High Adventure.” Most had seen things that they could never have imagined, and in doing so, discovered things about themselves that they never knew existed.

The sorrow probably came from knowing that they would soon be leaving John Muir’s cathedral and would not be able to explain their experience to family and friends. They were also keenly aware that they would be descending back down to the lowland with its smog, grime, crime and rampant materialism.

As was the case with many Yosemite “final circles,” tears trickled down their cheeks. On one occasion, the tears prompted me to paraphrase Bob Marley’s hit song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNQ7-NybIvk

One Love / People Get Ready

One Love! One Heart!
Let’s get together and feel all right.
See the children cryin’ (One Love!);
See the children cryin’ (One Heart!),
Sayin’: give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel all right;
Sayin’: let’s get together and feel all right. Wo wo-wo wo-wo!

However, there was often a deeper and more universal cause for their sorrow. On several occasions students wondered why world leaders could not discard their artificial pomp and shallowness and climb a mountain and spend the night. They wondered if world peace could become a bit more plausible if this were to happen?

After all, John Muir predicted nothing less when he wrote:

“The great poets, philosophers, prophets, able men whose thoughts and deeds have moved the world, came down from the mountains.”

Lowell H. Young
Author: Biodesign Out For A Walk

www.facebook.com/biodesignoutforawalk
www.biodesignoutforawalk.com
www.linkedin.com/LowellYoung
www.goodreads.com/BiodesignOutForAWalk

Alcoholics Anonymous—John Muir—Biodesign

Posted on May 17, 2016 Leave a Comment

“To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.” – Henry David Thoreau

In a bizarre synchronicity, after I wrote this blog I went to a local hospital to have some lab work done. A middle-aged couple was sitting next to me. I thought it was odd that the man had a large suitcase with him. After a few moments, he looked at his wife and blurted out, “I want you to promise me that you will shoot me in the head if I ever touch another drop of alcohol. It will save me a trip to the Golden Gate Bridge to end my misery.”

When I got home I Googled the hospital and discovered that they offer a 28-day alcohol/substance abuse recovery program; the cost is $18,000.

John Muir was amazed that people willingly trust their lives to a little glass-covered dial with a simple, wavering magnetic needle and not see that God, Nature and an inner awareness could guide them as well.

For some mysterious reason, early in the evolution of the Biodesign Class, I felt “guided” to attend a local “A-A” meeting. I was probably motivated by the fact that in the mutual process of exploring the deeper levels of our personhood, it was not uncommon for students to share the horrors of living with an alcoholic parent.

It might have been naïve or rude of me, but I did ask a member of the local AA chapter if I could attend. He thought it was a great idea.

It was not without doubt and trepidation that I entered the meeting. The first, and most shocking discovery was the wide range of members in attendance. The year was 1974 and somehow, I had not imagined that medical doctors, lawyers, CPAs, nurses, teachers, school administrators, clergy members, leaders of the community, even a few housewives would be there.

After the meeting began, the intensely high level of honesty and disclosure in their conversations shocked me. After reading about the program later, it became clear that some (if not all) of the members were dealing with a potentially self-destructive disease and allowing vague, deceitful or disingenuous comments could not be tolerated.

I also learned about “Uncle Bill,” who nearly died of alcoholism before he began the self-discovery process that led to the current program known as Alcoholics Anonymous.

I located a copy of the A-A “Big Book” co-authored by Dr. Bob Smith and Bill Wilson. It was immediately clear that the heart of the program involved trying to master the “12-Step-Program.”

We admitted we were powerless over alcohol, that our lives had become unmanageable.
Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

I an absolutely stunning example of what one person can do for the world, as of 9-1-2013, A.A. has a presence in over 170 countries, with an estimated total of 114,070 groups and more than 2 million members. And perhaps most extraordinary, the entire operation is operated by volunteers. These are people who have experienced the horrors of alcoholism and, more importantly, the joy of on-going recovery. This joy is frequently enhanced as they share with and guide others. This is tremendously important because recovery and rehab programs can be overwhelmingly expensive, often costing thousands of dollars per week.

Understandably, a program doing so much good work cannot do so without conflict. Secular-humanist psychologists go to great lengths to discredit AA. They often rail against the possibility that a mythical god could be involved in a person’s recovery. Some have gone so far as to suggest that the alcoholics can cure themselves and that A-A is “cult-like” organization that is dangerous and counter-productive.

In an interesting twist of fate, “step 12” on the AA list is a perfect corollary to John Muir’s life and work:

“Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and to practice these principles in all our affairs.”

Muir’s daily life typically involved “spiritual awakenings” and he dedicated his life to encouraging others to go to the mountains and be “reborn.”

Lowell H. Young
Author: Biodesign Out For A Walk

www.facebook.com/biodesignoutforawalk
www.biodesignoutforawalk.com
www.linkedin.com/LowellYoung
www.goodreads.com/BiodesignOutForAWalk

“DESIGN SCIENCE REVOLUTION” Buckminster Fuller

Posted on May 9, 2016 Leave a Comment

https://www.brainpickings.org/2013/07/12/buckminster-fuller-ever-rethinking-the-lords-prayer/

Buckminster Fuller is described in Wikipedia as a: “designer, inventor, engineer, mathematician, architect, cartographer, philosopher, poet, cosmogonist and visionary.” He wrote over 30 books and qualifies as a true renaissance thinker. Among his many inventions is the “geodesic dome,” which inspired scientists who discovered “Carbon 60” (hollow carbon molecules) to name them “Buckminsterfullerenes,” or “buckyballs,” for short.

Two titles that could be added to Fuller are prophet and theologian. Fuller died 33 years ago, but his concept of “Design Science Revolution” has proven to be a prophetic foreshadowing of the “Intelligent Design” movement which is currently gaining acceptance in wider and wider circles.

As for theologian:

When I first heard about Fuller, I assumed that he was most likely another post-renaissance (“New Age”) practitioner of scientism who threw God out along with the pre-renaissance baptismal water. However, after reading his quote, “I seem to be a verb,” I became more curious and wanted to know more about him.

What I found was that Fuller retained the open-minded spirit of the true renaissance thinkers (Galileo-Kepler et al)) who attempted to integrate the physical, mental and spiritual essences of humanity. As a “free-thinker,” Fuller was not concerned with whether his fellow scientists (or anyone) agreed or disagreed with his views. This could not have been more evident than by his view on religion. He was clear to point out that, although his religion was vitally important, it was an extremely personal issue and not something that people should be “wearing on their shirtsleeves.”

Fuller must have appreciated the mystery of synchronicities and therefore would not have been surprised that by such an event, someone on Facebook shared this extraordinary link to “brainpickings” website and the shocking proclamation from Fuller:

“The synergetic integral of the totality of all principles is God, whose sum-total behavior in pure principle is beyond our comprehension and is utterly mysterious to us, because as humans — in pure principle — we do not and never will know all the principles.” Buckminster Fuller

Lowell H. Young
Author: Biodesign Out For A Walk

Astronomy—Theology—Evolution

Posted on April 25, 2016 Leave a Comment

“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” – Mark Twain

This is a wonderfully interconnected triad that gifted naturalist Annie Dillard would regard as a “bright snarl.” Without a Creator there would be no “astronomy” or evolution. Without evolution the universe would be oxymoronically stuck in the first nanosecond, before time began, with no cosmos. And with no cosmos, humans would not have evolved with the ability to contemplate the works of the Creator.

Two gifted writers have properly suggested that “Mystery” reigns supreme and only egoism and arrogance motivate scientists and theologians to assume that they have all relevant answers. Robert Jastro, former director of the National Aeronautics And Space Administration (“Until The Sun Dies,” and “God and the Astronomers”) acknowledged the limitations of “The Big Bang Theory:”

“At this moment it seems as though science will never be able to raise the curtain on the mystery of creation. For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.”

Jastro was a self-described agnostic, yet he used candor and levity to describe the inadequacy of his own thought process.

In an equally terse self-analysis, Fr. Robert Capon, “Hunting The Divine Fox stated:”

“Theology therefore is fun. The inveterate temptation to make something earnest out of it must be steadfastly resisted. We were told quite plainly that unless we became as little children, we could not enter the kingdom of heaven, and nowhere more than in theology do we need to take this message to heart.”

The “Big Bang,” the origin of life and the eventual evolution of human beings remain three of the great, unsolved mysteries of planet Earth. Anthropologist Loren Eiseley concluded his work, The Immense Journey with:

“Rather, I would say that if “dead” matter has reared up this curious landscape of fiddling crickets, song sparrows and wondering men, it must be plain even to the most devoted materialist that the matter of which he speaks contains amazing, if not dreadful powers, and may not impossibly be, as Hardy has suggested, ‘but one mask of many worn by the Great Face behind.’”

Lowell H. Young
Author: Biodesign Out For A Walk

www.facebook.com/biodesignoutforawalk
www.biodesignoutforawalk.com
www.linkedin.com/LowellYoung
www.goodreads.com/BiodesignOutForAWalk

Darwin Had Absolutely No Doubt About Theism And The Evolution Of Humans

Posted on April 18, 2016 5 Comments

In his own words, “The Autobiography of Charles Darwin:”

“When thus reflecting [‘on the universe, including man’] I feel compelled to look to a First Cause having an intelligent mind in some degree analogous to that of man’ and I deserve to be called a Theist.”

Shame on Richard Dawkins, and other science atheists who deny, obfuscate, pervert or “cherry pick” Darwin’s words. They have sabotaged Darwin’s message to make it conform their soulless world, and what a cold, heartless world it must be. If one of Dawkins’ minions decides to initiate a nuclear war, he could shrug it of as a “random” result of Darwinian “survival of the fittest.” It is staggering to know that an overwhelming number of high school, college/university biology teachers agree with Dawkins.

Secular scientists are quick to point out that human beings and chimpanzees share 97% of the same DNA. While the fossil evidence suggests that humans and chimps evolved from a common ancestor over 5 million years ago, the obvious fact remains that chimps are chimps and humans evolved into the most extraordinary animals on the planet. Evidently that 3% increase led to the world’s greatest artists, poets, sages, musicians and, ironically, even scientists like Dawkins.

Much of Darwin’s theory can be proven in the laboratory and in the field. For 1000s of years, people have used “selective breeding” and “mass selection” as a means to develop more productive and useful plants and animals. However, this does not mean that his theory is complete and flawless. After a discussion with Alfred Wallace, he acknowledged that he failed to explain human “gifts” such as mathematical, musical and artistic genius. These qualities are almost totally absent in chimpanzees.

All of the genetic changes Darwin observed were minor and only rendered the offspring a small advantage of survival. Loren Eiseley quipped; the human brain grew “like a mushroom in the night.” This has equipped man with an indeterminate period of time of mental growth. There is no known biological cause for the rapid expansion of the two human cerebral hemispheres.

Lamarck’s theory of use and disuse is of no value.

The Leakey family, Louis, Mary and Richard verified the increased cranial capacity of modern man, but they did not demonstrate the compelling factor.

Stephen Jay Gould was a big fan of “ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny,” however he failed to show why or how the human embryo (in evolutionary time) suddenly gained the ability to generate a triple-sized brain.

Gould was also a fan of “punctuated equilibrium” which may explain the “fits and spurts of evolution,” but he could not explain the evolution of the human brain.

Pathetically, human geneticist, Richard Dawkins, recently inferred that the human brain evolved out of “nothing.”

The latest wrinkle in the evolution battle is the emerging consideration of “Intelligent Design.” Although the theory suggests that evolution is not a random, chance-born process, it does not describe a “designated designer.” Therefore, “Intelligent Design” does not explain the emergence of the human brain.

The fact of the matter is, by virtue of the laws of chance and probability, the human brain should never have evolved and so it is not surprising that its origin remains a mystery. Considering the universe, with its boggling time/space dimensions, life on Earth is supremely enigmatic. The Earth has been evolving for 4.5 billion years and yielded millions of plant and animal species before man arrived. Darwinian evolution does not need or explain “man.” If all these living forms survived by “instinct,” what need is there for consciousness, values, or free will? If “modern man” evolved 5 million years ago, we have lived on Earth 0.01% of its history and yet arrogant practitioners of Scientism claim that Mystery is irrelevant and that they have all the necessary answers.

Meanwhile, there is a moral and ethical disease that is pandemic in our society and had afflicted scientists as well. It is called “situational ethics” and scientists use it frequently. Lacking any evidence for the origin of the universe, the origin of life, the origin of the first cell or the tripling of the human brain, secular scientists either ignore or obfuscate the issues or make up their own ethics and pander them as truth.

Photo credit: Toscano: Darwin’s Ape. Available Amazon.com

Lowell H. Young
Author: Biodesign Out For A Walk

www.facebook.com/biodesignoutforawalk
www.biodesignoutforawalk.com
www.linkedin.com/LowellYoung
www.goodreads.com/BiodesignOutForAWalk

Intelligent Design or Nothingness?

Posted on April 6, 2016 Leave a Comment

“Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.” – Albert Einstein

There are a growing number of practitioners of “scientism” who become exercised when their critics suggest that science may have some wrong conclusions. Paraphrasing Einstein’s logic, all scientists have been wrong on some issues or else they would have become a god.

Ptolemy, the Greek mathematician/astronomer, proposed a geocentric model for our solar system that lasted for 1400 years. Imagine that! For 1400 years, scientists and scholars walked around thinking that they knew the “truth” about the solar system. Ironically, history has repeated itself, as many scientists think that their thoughts are the center of the universe.

Lamarck was wrong about his theory of “use and disuse” and that acquired traits were passed on to offspring. Scientists of that time believed that mice mysteriously emerged from piles of rags and worms spontaneously grew in mud puddles.

Einstein was wrong about the “Steady State” theory and admitted that he falsified some data to favor his conclusions. Later, he sorrowfully acknowledged that it was the greatest mistake in his career.

In his autobiography, Charles Darwin admitted that his theory of evolution could not explain the origin of life or the evolution of humans. This confession is conveniently ignored by an overwhelming majority of high school and university biology teachers.

Carl Sagan’s description of how the first cells were formed (“COSMOS”) is pure fantasy, but is still being taught to millions of US students.

Nobel prize winner, Dr. Roger Sperry stated:

“One of the great unresolved paradoxes of science involves consciousness, free will and values, three long-standing thorns in the hide of science. Materialist science couldn’t cope with any of them, even in principle. It’s not just that they’re difficult. They’re in direct conflict with basic models. Science has had to renounce them—to deny their existence or to say that they are beyond the domain of science.”

In a recent debate on evolution, Richard Dawkins became one of Einstein’s fools as he tried to describe how evolution came from “NOTHING.” When the audience laughed, he looked puzzled and asked, “What’s so funny about that?” What he failed to grasp was that the people, who he regarded as intellectually inferior, used his own words to deduce that he was inferring that his brain must have evolved out of nothing. Little wonder they could not contain their laughter.

In his book, “The Great Design,” Stephen Hawking claims that the universe is so complex that it made itself out of “nothing,” which has rendered God obsolete. Either Hawking is wrong or the fundamental laws of physics (matter/energy can neither be created nor destroyed) are wrong.

There is nothing wrong with making errors during scientific research. In fact, the entire process of the scientific method depends on testing hypotheses to see if they are flawed. However, science becomes dangerously flawed when a “scientist undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge [and] is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.”

There are many who think that Einstein’s contribution to society, as a humanitarian was more valuable than his work as a scientist. If this is so, then it is not surprising that his legendary last words were, “I still wonder how something could come from nothing?”.

Assuming that we don’t destroy ourselves first, what current scientific knowledge that we believe is factual, will people in 100 years laugh about?

Lowell H. Young
Author: Biodesign Out For A Walk

www.facebook.com/biodesignoutforawalk
www.biodesignoutforawalk.com
www.linkedin.com/LowellYoung
www.goodreads.com/BiodesignOutForAWalk

Frog Eyes—Human Eyes—Did We Come From Outer Space?

Posted on February 9, 2016 Leave a Comment

South American tree frog By Milky Way Scientists Fb — South American tree frog
By Milky Way Scientists Fb

In, The Great Evolution Mystery, Gordon Taylor explains why Darwin’s Theory of evolution does not account for “organs of extreme perfection.” This includes the human eye. Human eyes contain over 100 million cells that all must function in perfect synchrony in order for people to see properly. Although ophthalmologists know much about eyes, it remains a total mystery as to how the light image, focused on the retina, can be converted into biochemical data and transmitted via optic nerves to the brain. How the brain decodes the data and displays it as a visual image is yet another mystery.

Anthropologist Loren Eiseley agrees, however, he expanded the mystery to include the origin of life, which he pointed out Darwin also failed to explain. Eiseley contended that it doesn’t matter what we call the mystery, only that we are aware that it exists. Furthermore, he opined that those who fail to acknowledge “The Mystery” are in danger of ceasing to be fully human.

Albert Einstein agreed, but expressed a more forceful position: “He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.”

Contemplating frog eyes, and lacking a time or place for the origin of life on Earth, Eiseley alluded to the possibility that life may have come from somewhere across the “pond of space.”

“Yet whenever I see a frog’s eye low in the water warily ogling the shoreward landscape, I always think inconsequentially of those twiddling mechanical eyes that mankind manipulates nightly from a thousand observatories. Someday, with a telescopic lens an acre in extent, we are going to see something not to our liking, some looming shape outside there across the great pond of space. Whenever I catch a frog’s eye I am aware of this, but I do not find it depressing. I stand quite still and try hard not to move or lift a hand since it would only frighten him. And standing thus it finally comes to me that this is the most enormous extension of vision of which life is capable: the projection of itself into other lives. This is the lonely, magnificent power of humanity. It is far more than any spatial adventure, the supreme epitome of reaching out.”

The fossil record of frogs indicates that they began to evolve from fish about 400 million years ago. However, “modern” frogs emerged about 200 million years ago. Ergo: The eye you are looking at has undergone 0ver 400 million years of evolutionary change.

With a mystery like that, is it not a fool’s errand to bicker over Creation or Evolution?

Like the classic concept of “yin-yang,” both words may reflect a cybernetic mutualism in which one word cannot exist without the other.

This is precisely what Eiseley was suggesting in his classic book, “The Immense Journey.”

If you are feeling a little spiritually deflated, enlarge the frog image and concentrate on it for one full minute and see if you can connect with 400 million years of time and change.

Perhaps it will encourage you to Celebrate the Mystery!

Lowell H. Young
Author: Biodesign Out For A Walk

www.facebook.com/biodesignoutforawalk
www.biodesignoutforawalk.com
www.linkedin.com/LowellYoung
www.goodreads.com/BiodesignOutForAWalk

Turkey Brains and Other Miracles

Posted on November 24, 2015 Leave a Comment

There is a rural legend that domesticated turkeys are so dumb that they will drown themselves while looking up at the rain with their mouths open.

The term “birdbrain” emerged from the fact that, compared to humans, bird brains are extremely small. Most birds have pea-sized brains with the largest belonging to parrots. Ostrich brains weigh 41 grams, while human brains typically weigh 1,500 grams (3.3 lbs.). Bird brains lack the massive cerebral hemispheres, which enable human consciousness, memory, emotion, logic/mathematical skills, linguistics, music, creative arts, self-awareness and spiritual awareness.

It has long been thought that all (or nearly all) of avian behavioral and survival skills were controlled by the poorly understood, catchall term, “instinct.” In its extreme application, birds would be senseless living automatons controlled by instinctive behavior. It remains a mystery as to how much they are aware of who they are or what they are doing.

However, some recent studies with parrots ravens and crows have shown that, even lacking the neocortex, they are capable of cognitive skills and deductive reasoning that was never deemed possible. This will not come as a surprise to Native Americans who held birds in much higher esteem than Whites.

In Noah Strycker’s, The Thing With Feathers, he divides stories about birds into three categories; body, mind and spirit.

In the “mind” category, he writes about the amazing memory skills of the Clark’s Nutcracker. The birds depend on pine nuts to survive long, frozen winter climate. He noted that a single bird can stash as many as 5,000 mini-caches, which can contain tens of thousands of pine nuts. The caches are not marked and are typically covered with snow.

“It’s a radical mental feat: Nutcrackers somehow remember exactly where thousands of different clumps of seeds are buried without a single yellow sticky note, global-positioning waypoint, or silly mnemonic.”

In the “spirit” category, Strycker describes the courtship behavior of Bowerbirds. The males go through a process of creating elaborate “bowers” trying to seduce interested females. The bowers are made of attractive natural materials as well as man-made items that may be bright or artistic. They are not averse to stealing coveted items from neighbors in hopes of increasing their chances of attracting a suitable mate or mates!

Also in the “spirit” category, Strycker describes the amazing behavior of the Wandering Albatross. Although the birds live in solitude, they mate for life and mysteriously get together every two years to mate and raise their chicks. How they navigate or locate each other is pure mystery.

Arctic terns hatch in the Arctic region, mature enough in one season to be able to fly 12,000 miles south to summer in the Antarctic region. They obviously have a mysterious, internal biological GPS mechanism that allows them to navigate unknown territory.

John Muir’s story about his little dog “Stickeen” ranks among the greatest dog stories. Loren Eiseley’s story about a mated pair of sparrow hawks deserves a similar ranking.

Eiseley was on an academic assignment to collect animal specimens deep in “canyon country.” He successfully trapped the male partner and caged it in order to send it to zoo or ornithology research org. However, the next morning he had a change of heart and carefully released the bird.

“IN THE NEXT second, after that long minute, he was gone. Like a flicker of light, he had vanished with my eyes full on him, but without actually seeing even a premonitory wing beat. He was gone straight into that towering emptiness and crystal that my eyes could scarcely bear to penetrate. For another long moment, there was silence. I could not see him. The light was too intense. Then from far up somewhere a cry came ringing down.

I was young then and had seen little of the world, but when I heard that cry my heart turned over. It was not the cry of the hawk I had captured; for, by shifting my position against the sun, I was now seeing further up. Straight out of the sun’s eye, where she must have been soaring restlessly above us for untold hours, hurtled his mate. And from far up, ringing from peak to peak of the summits over us, came a cry of such unutterable and ecstatic joy that it tingles among the cups on my quiet breakfast table.

I saw them both now. He was rising to meet her. They met in a great soaring gyre that turned to a whirling circle and dance of wings. Once more, just once, their two voices, joined in a harsh wild medley of question and response, struck and echoed against the pinnacles of the valley. Then they were gone forever somewhere into the upper regions beyond the eyes of men.”

St. Francis of Assisi has been affectionately dubbed the, “Patron Saint of animals.” Perhaps this is justified because he regarded every bird egg, feather, wing-beat and heartbeat as indescribably perfect creations of the Creator of the universe.

Lowell H. Young
Author: Biodesign Out For A Walk

www.facebook.com/biodesignoutforawalk
www.biodesignoutforawalk.com
www.linkedin.com/LowellYoung
www.goodreads.com/BiodesignOutForAWalk

THE GRAND CANYON—Henry Van Dyke

Posted on August 24, 2015 Leave a Comment

Warning: Henry Van Dyke’s epic poem, “THE GRAND CANYON,” is “soul food” and beyond the “fast-food” attention span. However, it just might be the most important poem you will ever read.Van Dyke plumbs the depth of Grand Canyon and the depth of the human soul. He challenges believers and non-believers to set aside their baggage of religious and scientific bias, pettiness, myths and shallow thinking and become one with Grand Canyon. Van Dyke concedes that, like the words infinity and eternity, Grand Canyon cannot be defined yet, as a poet, he cannot contain himself. There are one-liners galore that will convict, cajole, console, compel, comfort and inspire. Nothing will compare with hiking Grand Canyon, however, Van Dyke’s poem offers a hint of the mystery of transcending the human body and briefly becoming “at one” with the universe.

DAYBREAK

What makes the lingering Night so cling to thee?
Thou vast, profound, primeval hiding-place
Of ancient secrets,–gray and ghostly gulf
Cleft in the green of this high forest land,
And crowded in the dark with giant forms!
Art thou a grave, a prison, or a shrine?

A stillness deeper than the dearth of sound
Broods over thee: a living silence breathes
Perpetual incense from thy dim abyss.
The morning-stars that sang above the bower
Of Eden, passing over thee, are dumb
With trembling bright amazement; and the Dawn
Steals through the glimmering pines with naked feet,
Her hand upon her lips, to look on thee!
She peers into thy depths with silent prayer
For light, more light, to part thy purple veil.
O Earth, swift-rolling Earth, reveal, reveal,–
Turn to the East, and show upon thy breast
The mightiest marvel in the realm of Time!

‘Tis done,–the morning miracle of light,–
The resurrection of the world of hues
That die with dark, and daily rise again
With every rising of the splendid Sun!

Be still, my heart! Now Nature holds her breath
To see the solar flood of radiance leap
Across the chasm, and crown the western rim
Of alabaster with a far-away
Rampart of pearl, and flowing down by walls
Of changeful opal, deepen into gold
Of topaz, rosy gold of tourmaline,
Crimson of garnet, green and gray of jade,
Purple of amethyst, and ruby red,
Beryl, and sard, and royal porphyry;
Until the cataract of colour breaks
Upon the blackness of the granite floor.

How far below! And all between is cleft
And carved into a hundred curving miles
Of unimagined architecture! Tombs,
Temples, and colonnades are neighboured there
By fortresses that Titans might defend,
And amphitheatres where Gods might strive.
Cathedrals, buttressed with unnumbered tiers
Of ruddy rock, lift to the sapphire sky
A single spire of marble pure as snow;
And huge aerial palaces arise
Like mountains built of unconsuming flame.
Along the weathered walls, or standing deep
In riven valleys where no foot may tread,
Are lonely pillars, and tall monuments
Of perished aeons and forgotten things.
My sight is baffled by the wide array
Of countless forms: my vision reels and swims
Above them, like a bird in whirling winds.
Yet no confusion fills the awful chasm;
But spacious order and a sense of peace
Brood over all. For every shape that looms
Majestic in the throng, is set apart
From all the others by its far-flung shade,
Blue, blue, as if a mountain-lake were there.

How still it is! Dear God, I hardly dare
To breathe, for fear the fathomless abyss
Will draw me down into eternal sleep.

What force has formed this masterpiece of awe?
What hands have wrought these wonders in the waste?
O river, gleaming in the narrow rift
Of gloom that cleaves the valley’s nether deep,–
Fierce Colorado, prisoned by thy toil,
And blindly toiling still to reach the sea,–
Thy waters, gathered from the snows and springs
Amid the Utah hills, have carved this road
Of glory to the Californian Gulf.
But now, O sunken stream, thy splendour lost,
‘Twixt iron walls thou rollest turbid waves,
Too far away to make their fury heard!

At sight of thee, thou sullen labouring slave
Of gravitation,–yellow torrent poured
From distant mountains by no will of thine,
Through thrice a hundred centuries of slow
Fallings and liftings of the crust of Earth,–
At sight of thee my spirit sinks and fails.
Art thou alone the Maker? Is the blind
Unconscious power that drew thee dumbly down
To cut this gash across the layered globe,
The sole creative cause of all I see?
Are force and matter all? The rest a dream?

Then is thy gorge a canyon of despair,
A prison for the soul of man, a grave
Of all his dearest daring hopes! The world
Wherein we live and move is meaningless,
No spirit here to answer to our own!
The stars without a guide: The chance-born Earth
Adrift in space, no Captain on the ship:
Nothing in all the universe to prove
Eternal wisdom and eternal love!
And man, the latest accident of Time,–
Who thinks he loves, and longs to understand,
Who vainly suffers, and in vain is brave,
Who dupes his heart with immortality,–
Man is a living lie,–a bitter jest
Upon himself,–a conscious grain of sand
Lost in a desert of unconsciousness,
Thirsting for God and mocked by his own thirst.

Spirit of Beauty, mother of delight,
Thou fairest offspring of Omnipotence
Inhabiting this lofty lone abode,
Speak to my heart again and set me free
From all these doubts that darken earth and heaven!
Who sent thee forth into the wilderness
To bless and comfort all who see thy face?
Who clad thee in this more than royal robe
Of rainbows? Who designed these jewelled thrones
For thee, and wrought these glittering palaces?
Who gave thee power upon the soul of man
To lift him up through wonder into joy?
God! let the radiant cliffs bear witness, God!
Let all the shining pillars signal, God!
He only, on the mystic loom of light.
Hath woven webs of loveliness to clothe
His most majestic works: and He alone
Hath delicately wrought the cactus-flower
To star the desert floor with rosy bloom.

O Beauty, handiwork of the Most High,
Where’er thou art He tells his Love to man,
And lo, the day breaks, and the shadows flee!

Now, far beyond all language and all art
In thy wild splendour, Canyon marvellous,
The secret of thy stillness lies unveiled
In wordless worship! This is holy ground;
Thou art no grave, no prison, but a shrine.
Garden of Temples filled with Silent Praise,
If God were blind thy Beauty could not be!

February 24-26, 1913.

Lowell H. Young
Author: Biodesign Out For A Walk

www.facebook.com/biodesignoutforawalk
www.biodesignoutforawalk.com
www.linkedin.com/LowellYoung
www.goodreads.com/BiodesignOutForAWalk

“The Exploration of the Colorado River and its Canyons” – John Wesley Powell

Posted on March 23, 2015 Leave a Comment

“And now the scenery is on a grand scale. The walls of the canyon, 2,500 feet high, are of marble, of many beautiful colors, often below the waves, and sometimes far up the sides, where showers have washed the sands over the cliffs.”

“The Exploration of the Colorado River and its Canyons,” is an amazing account of the courage, wisdom and tenacity of Major John Wesley Powell and his dedicated crew of “mountain men” converted to boatmen. They were the first known persons to successfully navigate, what Native Americans called, “The River of no Return.” With only one arm, he led an exploration that was more exciting than an Indiana Jones adventure, because real is always more terrifying than fiction. The party launched four boats on May 24, 1869, heading for the Colorado River that had yet to be tamed by Hoover Dam. Powell’s daily journal described unfathomable hardships including “roping” around 30’ stationary waves.

June 9. Barely two weeks into the voyage, they lost the “No Name” in what they named, “Disaster Falls.”

June 16. “The Maid Of The Canyon” was lost, but recovered undamaged.

June 18. While climbing up one of the cliffs of the canyon, Powell got stuck in a treacherous spot where he could not go up or down without the probability of falling to his death. Fortunately, G.Y. Bradley was able to maneuver above him, remove his pants and lower them down for Powell to use as a rope. Terrifying moments like these are events that can either end in triumph or tragedy.

July 5. Frank Goodman informs Powell that he can’t take any more stress and will leave the party and seek the Uinta Indian tribe and hopefully return home.

July 12. “Kitty Clyde’s Sister” capsizes. G.Y. Bradley was caught underneath and was dragged underwater the length of the rapids. Miraculously, he survived.

August 13. 75 days into the ordeal, the crew is tired, bruised and bedraggled; the meager rations they have left are moldy or rotten. They have no clue about how far they must voyage and yet Powell writes an astounding entry into his journal.

“We have an unknown distance yet to run, an unknown river to explore. What falls there are, we know not; what rocks beset the channel, we know not; what walls rise over the river, we know not. Ah, well! We may conjecture many things. The men talk as cheerfully as ever; jests are bandied about freely this morning; but to me the cheer is somber and the jests are ghastly.”

August 27. “After supper Captain Howland asks to have a talk with me. We walk up the little creek a short distance, and I soon find that his object is to remonstrate against my determination to proceed. He thinks that we had better abandon the river here. Talking with him, I learn that he, his brother and William Dunn have determined to go no farther in the boats. So we return to camp. Nothing is said to the other men…All night long I pace up and down a little path, on a few yards of sand beach, along the river.”

August 28. “At last daylight comes and we have breakfast without a word being said about the future. The meal is as solemn as a funeral. After breakfast I ask the three men if they still think it best to leave us. The elder Howland thinks it is and Dunn agrees with him. The younger Howland tries to persuade them to go on with the party; failing which, he decides to go with his brother.” [After provisions and equipment are divvied up] “For the last time they entreat us to not go on, and tell us that it is madness to set out in this place; that we can never get safely through it; and, further, that the river turns again to the south into the granite, and a few such miles of such rapids and falls will exhaust our entire stock of rations, and it will be too late to climb out. Some tears are shed; it is rather a solemn parting;each party thinks the other is taking the dangerous course.”

Powell and the remaining five crew members shove off. The rapids looked worse than they actually were and after one minute the boats were delivered from danger. It was their last ordeal to face.

August 29. Over the next two days, there were several lesser falls and rapids to manage, but on August 30, they meet Mr. Asa and his two sons who had been watching for wreckage to drift by. The expedition had been given up for lost. Both Howlands and Dunn were never seen or heard from again and were believed killed by hostile Indians. Tragically, mysteriously, ironically they labored for 96 days, only to abandon the expedition one day before success.

I never experienced anything close to what Powell and his men experienced. However, there are many real, symbolic and metaphorical similarities to his adventure and the Biodesign program. Both involved wilderness experiences with uncharted territory. Although our physical challenges were not as great, there were moments when the mental and spiritual challenges were intense. On several occasions, parents and school officials expressed anger, fear and doubt that I was leading students into dangerous (perhaps illegal) territory. There were horrifying moments on nearly every trip when I felt the panic that Powell must have felt. Instead of restful sleep, I spent many nights mentally pacing up and down the “sandy beach” questioning if I were on the right path. It was not uncommon for me to bolt upright in my bed or sleeping bag, with beads of cold sweat on my brow. I discovered early on that it was the price that had to be paid and the rewards were often nearly as great as those that Powell and his men experienced navigating Grand Canyon.

Like Captain Howland, I probably would have abandoned the Biodesign Program several times, however, the students (and my wife) kept encouraging me to press on.Eventually, the 24-year expedition included 15 trips to the bottom of Grand Canyon and communion with the spirit of John Wesley Powell.

Lowell H. Young, Author: Biodesign Out For A Walk
www.facebook.com/biodesignoutforawalk
www.biodesignoutforawalk.com
www.linkedin.com/LowellYoung