parts for the book Chapter 2

Sunday, January 09, 2005

10:20 AM - chapter 2 Current mood: chipper I arrived at a desolate patch of ground only dead sage and wormwood to surround my encampment but off in the distance i saw a familiar site - one that i had seen on a shirt that I had received for Christmas - how odd i thought as I sat mesmerized by the sun rising over the peak that was portrayed on my old navy thermal. I set up camp with the assistance of my companions for the week, often interrupted with the site of colorful canopies opening above us with bodies attached to them cheerfully landing in the desert oasis of the drop zone just a few yards from our site. It was beauty in it's purest form - so natural yet so uncommon. Most people don't "Fly" through the air with the greatest of ease - certainly not most people you know in your "normal" circle of friends. But here they were thousands of people from age 18 to 85 from as many different countries and walks of life as you can count all with one thing in common: the need for flight. Freedom from restriction, inhibition, and fear. Freedom from their daily lives, freedom from life itself. To fly above the clouds is the ultimate freedom the ultimate trust in yourself........ .......................................CHAPTER 2............................................................ I was awakened by the sun rising over the peak - not much different that the day before but a completely consuming view none the less. I made coffee and a fire as I watched the colorful canopies falling from the sky again and off in the northern horizon I saw a beautiful balloon rising above the desert and off into sky. I had brought an entire box of books I was planning to read. I had envisioned my desert retreat to be full of free time to sit and ponder my life’s path. Lazily reading and writing in my week of solitude. With Jojo dropping out of the sky and me on the ground indulging all my desires on peace and privacy. But of course that was impossible - How can you pick up a book and stare into the written pages of someone else’s story when there was a beautiful novel of my own to LIVE right now. There was an entire state of unexplored desert, mountains, canyons and peaks to be experienced in first person. So off we went, my son and my friend Mike hopped into the van with the dogs and decided to find an adventure of our own since falling from the sky was a financial impossibility. We went in search of the spiritual ruins at Casa Grande - A village built by the HoHoKam Indians right after the introduction of Christianity to their culture. These nomadic people tried a new lifestyle of community service. They built a large facility to house the entire villages needs and a trade center to fund their new community based way of life. They tried it for 50 years then decided that it would be better to return to their individual nomadic ways. Each family caring only for itself and staying separate from others - giving each family their privacy and self sufficient life style that had worked for them for thousands of years prior to their introduction to the "church" The ruins were poorly maintained by very caring individuals. They had filled the adobe cracks with colored cement and I felt violated by their restoration efforts. I sat and pondered their way of life. I was amused at how familiar their history was to me. I too had been taken in by the Christian ideals of working together for the good of the community as a whole. That my individuality was actually a hindrance to my spiritual path. I, like the Hohokam Indians, was supposed to accept my leaders interpretation of the “holy word”. I was to Submit – not only to the Pastor but also to my partner. Only “He” was the spiritual leader and me as a woman was supposed to be his support, his cushion, his lover, and his helpmate. Can you imagine convincing an entire race of people that their 10,000-year-old way of life was damming them to hell and that they must follow your new path in order to be saved from eternal damnation? They could do Nothing in order to save themselves that Had to follow the churches rules, they had to give up their personalities, their foundations, their values, their goals, their own curiosity and way of life to this new “god”. That must have been a very charismatic man who convinced them that their ways were wrong and that they needed to now to not rely on them selves but to rely upon this God of the sky that had created the earth only as a temporary resting place on their way to heaven. The Indians had previously thought that the earth was worthy of it’s own worship. They believed and acted as if they were one with the earth and to live in harmony with the ways of the earth and her seasons. The Indians believed that their actions had a direct effect on the environment around them. If their crops were in need of water then they would perform a ritual to ask the god of earth to rain down upon them. They were compelled to care for the earth – to be one with their surroundings. This planet was not a testing ground for a future place in the clouds. Their God was not jealous. Their God didn’t condemn them. Their God didn’t create them as sinners and evil beings. They had many Gods that dwelled within them and their surroundings – They did not worship the Land but they did believe that the earth and all of its beings, man, animal, plant, were one with the Gods. They themselves were Divine creatures created to live in synchronization with the ways of the world itself. It was an enlightening moment to realize that trying to fit in the Christian society and then falling away from those beliefs was not a problem just of my own but one that many before me had experienced as well. So we left the Casa Grande Ruins; but not before we inscribed our feelings into their history book of guests and comments. We headed northeast towards a towering range of red mountains. We later found out that we had headed into Devil’s Canyon along Superstition Highway. How odd I thought that I would be drawn to that area. As we traveled along the flat desert highway we enjoyed the view of many cacti, desert plant life and even the occasional wild cow. It was a beautiful site to see so much open land, undeveloped, uninhabited land, full of life and promises of a simpler way of life free from the daily grind of whose lawn is greener and whose driveway holds the better car. As we started up the mountain we passed an old mining town called Superior. It was the first village we had seen in over an hour, it was old and crippled. Many buildings decaying at their foundation, empty store fronts and a few elderly people walking along the sidewalk of a once Superior town and now a ghost town of dreams gone by. After we left the small town we continued our climb up the mountain with a bright shinning sun above us, Red Cliffs in front of us and flat desert land behind us. It was a beautiful view we thought as we turned the corner and found two massive bridges built in the early part of the 20th century. You could tell they were old because they were beautifully designed with arches, carvings and structural detail beyond the current functional designs of modern times. I wanted to stop and take in the view and Mike encouraged me. So we pulled over to the side of the road and got out of our carriage to take in the beauty of this gateway to the mountains ahead. We found several caves that were begging us to be explored. We crossed the highway and made our way down to the bridges foundation to stand in awe of its beautiful construction. We also imagined Jumping off of it into sky below. Could it be done? Would this structure allow us the fun and excitement of using it as a base for flying? Who built it? Why don’t they build bridges like that anymore? Obviously it was structurally sound – it had lasted almost a hundred years without falling down. Why can’t they bring that beauty into the urban jungle? Why can’t the concrete gardens of the cities be developed with such respect for its surroundings? Why is that cave over there calling me to enter? I must explore I thought as I climbed up the side of the mountain to enter into its inner sanctum via a hole carved into its side. We ventured on to this great cavern but found it blocked off by 20 ft tall pipes cemented into the mountain itself. Blocking us from the beauty within. Of course we couldn’t be stopped by this obstacle, we had to go in – the Cave was calling us. As I climbed up the poles I felt empowered to continue on. I had more energy than I had felt all year combined. I felt strong, strong as the mountain that I was about to enter. Once on the other side of this supposedly insurmountable gate I saw the great chasms into the inner part of the mountain but I also saw that these were not natural pathways to the center of earth but man made passages built to tear way the minerals found within the mountain itself. There were many mining paths – but all of them blocked from future exploration. We had stumbled upon a piece of history. Hundreds of men with the drive and power to steal away the heart of mountain one pick at a time. You could see the dreams of the miners as they went deeper and deeper into the mountain in hopes of finding its treasure. But now it was barren, desolate, stripped of its middle and unexplorable by our human hands. I sat at the edge of the cavern picking away at the walls with my fingers. Feeling the earth crumble in my hands. Could I find a treasure here? Could I stumble upon a left over nugget of whatever it was that these miners had gone after? I looked at the rocks and their formations. How did this mountain get here in the first place, why was it so sandy and easily broken apart. What history did the layers of earth piled on top of each other hold. What secrets were there? Could I find something new? Could I be the next discoverer of treasure? After a while it was back to the car – we weren’t prepared for our adventure, we had no flashlight, no water, and no food. Just a desire to explore what others had explored before us. We decided that we would continue on up the mountain. Surely if the base was this beautiful and exciting there must be more up above us. A couple of miles up the mountain we saw a sign for the Magma Mine Road – How inviting was that? We had to venture on. There were signs for campgrounds that intrigued us so on we went to see what was in store. The beauty of what we were to find is almost indescribable. The cacti gave way to beautiful manzanita bushes; the windy road was not often traveled by its appearance but had recently been cleared of roadside obstacles. Nature had infringed upon the path of asphalt and someone had to cut it away to prevent the mountain from consuming the passers by. We passed the campground and thought we would return later and continued up the road to see what else lye ahead. We came around a corner and found the most beautiful green oasis in the middle of a red mountain of brown desert plant life. Where did all this green come from we wondered as the mountain revealed a beautiful pond of water. Too small for a lake but too big for a watering hole – we named it the Desert Fairy Pond and vowed to also come back to it someday. We were on a mission to see where this road led us. We passed a car off on the side of the road with the windows tinted and the car rocking at a rhythmic pace. Awww desert lovers in a private retreat. We left them alone and continued up the road to the top of the mountain. A huge gate that said NO Trespassing greeted us. Hmmm that’s pretty much an invitation to explore further. So we parked the car and let the dogs out to play – at least we had an excuse if we were to get caught. “Sorry officer, our dogs took off under the gate chasing a bird so we had to enter to get our dogs back” we would say. The dogs led us to a security gate at the front of a very large factory. Not a car or a person in sight. There was a small office to house the guard that should have been attending this gate so off we were to explore what this factory was. Was it a secret government site where they did things unknown to society? What secrets lay beyond? I peered through the window to see a desk calendar. The page it was turned to was dated October 2004. Hmmm, no one has been here for two months I thought, so what the heck lets keep going – we used the dog excuse again as we pulled the chain link fence away so the dogs could pass first and we could follow “frantically trying to retrieve them” heheheh. We had stumbled up Superior Copper Mine that had been abruptly vacated just two months earlier. It looked as if there had been a crew there working the day before, tools lay around as if they were just used but they were rusted and held into place by the mountain that was attempting to reclaim its land by swallowing the facility with its desert growth. It was an eerie feeling – you could hear the voices of the mineworkers of the past as they made the factory work and the mountain give up its treasures. We explored much of the site and came upon many interesting artifacts. I found a lunch box – an old metal box like my grandfather used to keep on the railroad. I was fascinated that someone had once used it to hold their meals and now it had just fallen by the way side. What was this person holding their meals in now? Why would he just leave his lunch box sitting there – doesn’t he need it anymore? We ventured on to the mineshaft that seemed to go on forever. We threw a rock down the hole to see how deep it was – the rock banged and knocked against the sides of the hole for at least 20 seconds. We tried to figure out how the factory worked and sat their imagining ourselves in the middle of the mine with all the workers around tearing apart the mountain from the inside out. Why was it closed now? Had they stripped the mountain of its soul, was there nothing left to mine? Many questions remained unanswered and that’s just fine. I will continue to let my imagination tell the story of the superior copper mine. We pilfered several items that we had found, the lunchbox, a book left on a desk, a pair of boots left in a safety cabinet and a sign that was posted on the front of one building. It was the Creed of the company, their mission statement. It was so powerful to read these “rules” of conduct. Their mission seemed so pure and just – how did it end, why did it end, why weren’t their anymore workers to live by these rules. I had to take the sign, Stealing is not something I normally do but I wanted these rules to live on – to have a second purpose to remind us of the hard work these men and women did to strip the mountain of its treasure for our use. Once we done riffling through this vacated land we headed back to the car. This time paying more attention to the plant life that had recently been cut away from the road. We found gorgeous manzanita branches lying on the ground and took one each for ourselves to carve a wand from, to remind us of our adventure. As we piled back into the van with our newly found treasures – we found we were not alone. Apparently the Mine was not totally abandoned. There was a guard that made its twice-daily rounds to ensure that the mine was protected from looters like us. We quickly gathered up the dogs, covered our treasures and took off in the opposite direction of the guard as fast as we could without appearing so. What an adrenaline rush to get back to the highway undiscovered. We passed up the pond, and the campground and paid no attention to the car on the side of the road. This time we weren’t exploring we were running hastily away with our bounty. We felt like pirates as we approached the highway once again. Only to be greeted by a sheriff that had pulled off the road right next to us. We had two choices: we could either pull out in front of the sheriff as my previous blinker choice had indicated or we could change our path in the opposite direction of our temporary home and continue up the mountain. I felt it was better to continue on as planned and pull up right next to the sheriff. I figured if he was there for us that we would save ourselves the shock of the siren and just accept our destiny. As we pulled up next to the Sheriff, I noticed a trash can – So I decided it was a good time to clean out the car. Maybe the sheriff wasn’t there for us and we could just wait him out. Which we did, after the car was free from any trash and all of our bounty was conveniently hidden we continued back down the mountain the way we had come up and returned to our campsite in the flat desert lands. As we arrived back at our temporary home we enjoyed watching the canopies falling from the sky yet again. This time the sky was full of them – 40 or 50 I had thought. It was the sunset load in which several people jump for the last jump of the day – As they landed I counted over 50 people – 50 colorful canopies floating above us.