Having barely recovered from my Great Mongolian Adventure, last week found me traveling down the northern coast of Oregon. This is nothing new, as every September, my mother, daughter and I hit the road armed with our camping gear and state park guides to brave the elements of our Pacific Northwest environs. For the past five years, we've examined every nook and cranny (and trust me, there are lots of them) of Olympic National Park, the-park-that-has-it-all (in my opinion). This year, however, we decided to get a little crazy, and veer farther south--you know--see where the roads would take us.
Well, as it turns out, U.S. 101 takes you pretty much directly to Oregon. With a quick stop at Cape Disappointment State Park in Washington (best, and most accurate state park name EVER), we headed south.
Now, here's the thing. One of my favorite films of all time is "American Beauty." In that film, there's a scene that focuses on a plastic bag dancing upon the wind. In this particular scene, the character (the creepy neighbor kid) is talking about how he filmed it because he wants to remember. "There's so much beatuy in the world," he says, "I feel like I can't take it." And that resonates with me. It's the best articulation I've ever encountered for why I take photographs. Part of it is because I do, indeed, have a shitty memory, and I want to remember things. But the other part is because there really is so damn much beauty in the world--I want to caputre it and look at it again and again, and feel grateful for having done so.
Not that everything on these little mini-vacations always goes according to planned. Ask my mother about the 20 stitches it took to sew up her leg after a mishap with a rock on a hiking trail. Or ask Sarah about the agony she was forced to endure because her scatter-brained mother left her Nintendo DS charger at the motel room in Cannon Beach. Ah, there's much drama, to be sure. But the beauty always outweighs it. Always. (For the record, my mother is just fine, and we'd like to thank the good folks at the emergency room in Lincoln City, OR for their competency and concern. Sarah, however, is not faring so well, and grows more jittery each passing day as she flows through the symptoms of DS withdrawal.)
Next week, I'm heading to Vermont and New Hampshire to visit some schools that have built their curricula upon the framework of sustainability, and place-based education. I imagine I'll feel a bit overwhelmed with beauty there, as well (New England in the fall--just sayin').
There really is so much beauty in the world. All we have to do is look for it. Perception is everything.
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