Dispatch from the road
Appreciating what we've got
I’m on the road this week. All month really. Half solo, half with Molly. I’m covering several thousand miles through The West, visiting a half dozen friends, about as many national parks and many, many more public lands. Molly and I might work back to the coast to join a friend in chasing down some killer whales, and then all this driving will eventually wrap up with an animal tracking course in the Sonoran Desert and Chihuahuan Mountains. It’s… a lot.
Next up is Austin and Big Bend National Park, but I’m currently writing this from some BLM land just outside of Carlsbad Caverns after touring the cave. It was an interesting trek. Almost solemn. Dimly lit, few people, and a whispers-only policy. In that cavern—and on the heels of a lot of public lands exploration—I noticed I was feeling a minor upwelling of emotion.
One upside of building things is an increased appreciation for the effort it takes to do so. The work required to create miles of public access nearly a thousand feet underground is mind-boggling. That it had happened almost a hundred years back, even more so. A herculean effort of construction, determination, foresight, and ongoing management, with no benefit beyond the preservation and celebration of an American natural wonder.
I clocked a similar rise when reading the signage that chronicled the history of the cave. Ancient reefs, fossilized biology, and a detailed account of a geological evolution going back hundreds of millions of years. That scientists—people—figured all this out floored me. The knowledge humanity has accumulated. The expertise. It never ceases to amaze me.
Natural wonder, knowledge, and how much of it we have through no small amount of effort, sums up what was on my mind in those moments. The US has 840 million acres of public land—more than a third of our country—cared for and safeguarded for public use. Coincidentally we also have a bit more than a third of the top 100 universities in the world—a pipeline for research, innovation, and achievement.
In an endlessly divisive conversation about what makes America great, it’s disappointing that these pillars of fought-for natural and public lands, and hard-won advancements in knowledge and expertise, aren’t unifying. Too many folks take these profound achievements for granted and write off the work that brought us to this moment.
I have an overwhelming appreciation for these institutions and a minor sadness that they’re too casually dismissed. And I guess if the lighting in the cave is just right, that can bring up some feelings.
This trip hasn’t been all cave-thoughts though… Here are a few other highlights:
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