Tuesday, October 14, 2003

Recent studies conclude that early Pueblo people imported corn and pottery and timbers into Chaco canyon from miles and miles away, all carried by foot. Anthropologists are having a difficult time explaining why populations developed in such a sparsely vegetated canyon. I wonder if the simple explanation is that the canyon was a beautiful place to live. If there was simply something beautiful and wondrous about being way up high, looking out over a beautiful desert landscape, and dancing under the moon. I'm also thinking tonight about how many advances, dating back to early early appliances, were designed to help people exist within the breakneck speed of our growing economy. I keep hearing ads for basic food and basic recipes designed to make food and consumption even faster and faster to keep pace with our consumption, at the expense of nutrition and, most importantly, savor. This is food we're talking about, and dining, and it's becoming more a nuisance than an opportunity for nurturing the body and soul and community. With that in mind, carrying corn fifty miles to eat up high in the canyons makes complete sense. People weren't living break neck lifestyles to be able to go hiking one week a year up in the mountains - they were living up in the mountains, working as little as possible, walking and trading, to enable a quality of life that will probably prove to outlast our own. 12:11:02 AM