Girl in a Coma

The HB and I went to see the band "Girl in a Coma" from San Antonio on Saturday night. It was the best show I've been to in a long time. We saw them 2 years ago when we were dating and loved them. Only a month ago they released their first album on Joan Jet's record label. Their band name was inspired by the Smiths' song "girlfriend in a coma" because they loved it, but they rock much harder than the Smiths. It was really too bad that their name isn't big enough yet and that not many people in SLC came out to see them. I really hope they come through again.

Trip Report: Grand Staircase Escalante

Like Isak Dinesen, I believe that places leave an imprint on people. I lived outside of Escalante in a tent for 2 months during my archaeology field school 6 years ago. Revisiting the place was like visiting a piece of me. It’s odd how at home you can feel in so many places other than your house.

I remembered where I played hackey-sack on top of the slickrock in our old campsite and where my tent was, and where we washed and labeled artifacts, where we studied, where we shared our dreams from the night before around the water, brushing our teeth. When we saw the pygmy rattlesnakes in the slot canyon I remembered how rattlesnakes waited each morning underneath the tarp covering the pithouse we were excavating. Usually Don would get a shovel and scoop one up at a time, throwing it over the cliff edge, only to see it there again the next morning. Sometimes others would do it. When we hiked to Calf Creek Falls I remembered how the weekend April and Bill and my brother Dave came to visit me we all raced to make it to the falls before dark and how having forgotten a flashlight we hiked back by the light of a cigarette lighter.

This time around we stayed at the State Park campground, where I used to take my only running shower of the week--$2 for eight minutes. Mid-week showers were taken every-other day by hanging your bag of water, letting some out to get wet, plugging it up, soap & shampoo, and then rinsing off. This helped a little with the buildup of dirt and sweat.

I was so happy to finally share this part of me with the HB, and even happier that he thought it was a beautiful place too. There’s such a wide variety of landscape in the area. In the book The Little Prince, the character says: “what makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well.” It’s amazing the things hidden in the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. From the road you would never know there were tiny slot canyons to squeeze and wind your way through; you’d never know there was a beautiful waterfall deep in the canyon. I love being able to experience these things, to touch the canyon walls, to feel a part of the earth.

My Retirement Home

As seen in Teasdale, Utah.

Battlecreek

On Mother’s day we went for a little hike up Battlecreek Canyon. There’s a waterfall less than a mile back and the trail keeps going for miles if you just feel like hiking. The HB was trying out his new GPS and kept trading it back and forth with Caiden who wanted to give us the readings. Caiden was also trying out his new hiking shoes/sandals that are Airwalk rip-offs of the Keens the HB and I have. He wanted to get into the waterfall, and I think they did their best thought it doesn’t look it—Tyler swears that his back was getting soaked. Then we went a little further up the trail to climb on some rocks and put our feet in some pools. Caiden and I tried to get a drink. It was a great little escape.

windshield problem

I got this nasty hit on I-80 last night, just at the mouth of Parley's canyon. I didn't even see anything coming and just heard this loud smack and the glass broke and it scared me to death.

some rich tomb

News sources today had the headline that King Herod’s Tomb was found outside of Jerusalem. That’s what the headline says, but if you read the article you find out that they aren’t sure if it’s really King Herod’s tomb. They haven’t found any inscription or any bones even to at least date the sarcophagus. All they know is it’s a very ornate sarcophagus with decorative carvings in the limestone, indicative of a wealthy, perhaps, very important person. Couldn’t it be anyone then? Why do they want to prove that it was Herod’s tomb?

The audacity of news sources to post an uncertain fact as its headline really disturbs me. We all know headlines are supposed to be dramatic and grab your attention, but to state something as a fact when it is still unclear seems wrong to me.

Archaeology is a fascinating subject, but one that’s also tainted by numerous motives. Biblical archaeology can often be the most controversial because archaeologists often find what they’re looking for. Take Jericho for example. In the Bible it says that the walls surrounding the city eventually fell due to the efforts of Joshua and the Israelites. Archaeologists aiming to prove the Bible correct, will undoubtedly find evidence of ancient walls in the sediment surrounding the city. Archaeologists who do not believe in the Bible as a true record of events, may not find any evidence of walls, perhaps only a layer of sediment that’s distinctly different and cannot be said to be a wall or not.

Heinrich Schliemann, who claimed to have found the legendary city of Troy, made the claim the moment his digging turned up some ancient jewelry. He’d been looking for Troy forever and at the first sign of jewelry, declared that he’d found the “jewels of Helen,” placing them on his wife. In his excitement, he’d dug through most of the classic city and onto an earlier age. But he’d been looking for Troy and so he was blind to any other possibilities.

I fear a society that only finds what it’s looking for. There’s nothing wrong with looking for the good in people and in finding that, or in looking for the good in a situation and finding that, but what happens when we close our mind to other ways of thinking? Some people can’t get past the premise of a certain book or movie because it could disturb them. What’s wrong with being disturbed? Shouldn’t we be looking for our personal understanding of things rather than one that’s handed to us? I wouldn’t force anyone to do anything they don’t feel comfortable with, but I would encourage people to find out if what they fear could actually be something enlightening, or inspiring instead? And when we think we’ve found the truth, hopefully it’s more true than the others that we know, instead of being the only one we’ve ever considered.

I hope it does turn out to be Herod’s tomb. Knowing what you want gets you somewhere a lot faster than not knowing what you want or what you’re looking for. Just be wary of clinging to the first thing you uncover.