While, yes, the Grand Canyon is in fact very grand, it doesn’t quite stand up to the footage we’ve gotten from some of the other places on our trip. Highlights of our stay at the North Rim included scoring a sweet camping spot near the rim and encountering some interesting wildlife while out on our hike. Can anyone identify the large reptile on the trail?
I’m beginning to work on more videos again now that we are back in town, so look for more in the next few days!
(Added late:) Bryce and Zion were certainly two of the most spectacular parks we’ve seen- so unique and intriguing. We loved our hikes on the Navajo/Queen’s Trail (Bryce) and Angel’s Landing (Zion).
Our next stop was the Grand Canyon, followed by Las Vegas of all places, and then Sequoia and King’s Canyon National Parks. Although Las Vegas was nowhere to be found on our list of places to see, we stayed there a weekend because it was on the way and my parents and brother were able to come meet us there to see some fantastic Cirque du Soleil shows. Though definitely not a National Park, Vegas is a spectacle all it’s own and will likely warrant another video post. (By the way, I probably won’t be able to finish any more videos until we’re in “civilization” again- another week or more. Stay tuned!)
We didn’t have much internet access while in Utah, so we’re doing some catching up on the video posting. First, we stopped in Salt Lake City, so here’s a real quick video of what we experienced there:
After Salt Lake City, we started our big tour of Utah’s National Parks. Since the weather didn’t permit camping in Yellowstone, the parks in Utah ended up being our first chance to camp. From one of the most unique camping sites in Arches I’ve ever seen, we were able to explore areas that seemed to be from another planet. Here’s a look at our time in Arches, Canyonlands, and Capitol Reef National Parks:
We spent the weekend in Jackson, Wyoming with one of my best friends from college. It was the first time we were able to see her kids, so they’re the stars of this video, and you’ll also see some of the “festival” called Old West Days that happened to be taking place while we were there. We had a great time visiting and hope we will see her family again soon!
Here’s a video montage of our times in the super volcano! We spent five days/four nights in a cute little cabin by Old Faithful, and enjoyed a range of weather conditions from pleasantly sunny to blustery snow.
We are now in Jackson, Wyoming for the weekend, visiting Michelle’s college friend and her growing family (we’re so excited to meet the little ones!). Until next time…
Here’s a quick snapshot of the last 48 hours. Michelle will be making a video after every major stop so keep checking back for more. You can always subscribe to the blog on the right too.
I don’t think the concept of “enjoying things you love with people you love” is ground breaking or earth shattering. If anything, it’s a simple life goal for me, a simple reminder of what is important in life. Unlike my typical posts where I go on and on, I’ll just let you enjoy a video Michelle made from a recent beach trip in Hawaii my family took this past weekend, doing what we do best: enjoying things we love to do, with the people we love the most.
When I was young (9, 10, 11 – somewhere around there) I remember someone telling me that if you swallowed too many hairs, they would eventually clog up your throat and you would choke on those hairs and die. I imagine it was my older brother who told me this (thus the picture. Notice the JAMS shorts), or maybe one of my older cousins, or a good friend- but regardless, I believed it to be true. I was afraid of death and choking on hairs seemed like a crappy way to go. For the next month or so, I developed a terrible spitting habit. Every time I felt or even thought I felt a hair in my mouth, I had to spit. I became a spitting machine- not so much that I was good at it but that I couldn’t stop. The thought of death by choking on hair was too much to bare. All I know is that one day, it occurred to me that others were not afraid of dying by swallowing hair. No one else at school was spitting as much as I was. And to be honest, I think I might have forgotten the reason for it all together (one of those rare moments to be thankful for a short attention span).
Call me gullible, but there is something powerful, dangerous, and very relative about this story from my past. Recently, some great friends shared with Michelle and I the video below entitled “The Danger of a Single Story,” a TED talk by Chimamanda Adichie. After watching the talk, I was reminded that we often operate from closed-minded frameworks. A child might believe that they can die from swallowing hairs or that swallowing a watermelon seed causes a watermelon to grow in one’s stomach. But even in college, I was faced with “The Danger of a Single Story”.
It had only been about a month or so into my first semester as college freshmen. I was struggling to adjust to a new life away from family, friends, and pretty much all things that were familiar to me (Tacoma, WA is very different then Honolulu, HI). One night I made instant curry in my dorm room and used chopsticks to eat my comfort food. A classmate that lived on the floor walked by my room, stopped to check out what I was doing, and decided to engage in conversation.
“What are you eating?”
“Instant curry”, I replied.
Unfamiliar with curry, he tried to take the conversation in another direction.
“You are using chopsticks to eat your food,” he exclaimed. “You do that because your Asian right?”
I was instantly bothered by this statement.
“Matt (made-up name), have you ever used chopsticks before?”
“Yeah,” he replied.
“Does that make you Asian?”
There is no right or wrong in this story. Matt was just trying to strike up conversation, but from his perspective, from what he knew about Asian culture, apparently all Asians use chopsticks to eat. I was bothered for a couple of reasons. One, I actually truly believe that the spoon is the best and most useful utensil of all (which I didn’t have with me at the time, I only had chopsticks); and two, at the time, I never really viewed myself as Asian (only in college did I start to get a sense that my race and ethnicity mattered). Could a world exist for Matt where someone who is Asian doesn’t know what chopsticks are? Furthermore, in regards to my response back to him, does using chopsticks make you Asian?
Of course I have used similar logic that Matt used.
I confess: I believed that people living in Alaska lived with snow 24/7/365 and yes, that they lived in igloos. (I grew up on an island and had never seen snow before). I use to believe that you could not be Christian and drink beer.( One of my favorite Christian authors writes about the great conversations he has with friends about his faith over pints.) I believed in the American Dream: to make enough money to retire, raise 2.5 children, and not live in debt (only to realize that there are other things to live for).
Call me naive, but there are too many examples of how we all operate from particular frame-works where we don’t know much about what we are talking about. There are too many ways where we can get trapped in a single way of thinking or living and not see things from other perspectives. “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.” 1 Corinthians 13:11.
I can continue to believe that swallowing hair might kill me, or I can grow-up, realize the foolishness and dangers from believing in a single story and live my life to it’s fullest potential.
This is a video “montage” I (Michelle) have put together from my trip with 18 students and one other staff from UP to the Border of Arizona/Mexico. We learned more than we could have imagined and we had a great time along the way! I hope this video will give you a snapshot of what we did and saw. Sadly, this was the last big program I’ll advise at the Moreau Center, and I have only a little more than a month left at work before we move on to the next chapter in our lives.
We posted about this last year but think it’s worth repeating. Advent Conspiracy is a “movement” we really appreciate. It’s about bringing the true meaning back to Christmas. Spending less time and money on shopping and material things and more time on relational gifts, making gifts, spending time with each other, and using our money in more meaningful ways- the video says it best.
There is no right way to do it- everyone can find their own way they may be inspired to do Christmas a little differently. We like the challenge to not just perpetuate the status quo, shop-a-holic, stressful holiday and to try some new, more intentional practices. If you’re in the market for a gift that will make a difference but don’t have the time (or skill) to make something yourself, here’s a suggestion that comes in any price range: the Haiti Foundation of Hope Gift Catalog. This is the organization we traveled with last summer (see our trip video here) where you can trust that your gift will make an important and much needed impact. Here’s to a more meaningful holiday season!
Simply Intentional 