Friday, January 2, 2009 - Charlie's Transmission, Carlsbad NM
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Leaving the Wash, Devil's Hall trail, Guadalupe Mountains National Park, January 1, 2009
Arrangements were made and by days end LD had been dragged the 60 miles from the Guadalupe Mountains National Park visitors center parking lot to the Charlie's Transmission parking lot in Carlsbad where she and I sit awaiting Charlie's ministrations on Monday.
Night camp
Parking lot - Charlie's Transmission, Carlsbad NM
Proficiency in Knowledge of the World
There are all degrees of proficiency in knowledge of the world. It is sufficient, to our present purpose, to indicate three. One class lives to the utility of the symbol; esteeming health and wealth a final good. Another class live above this mark to the beauty of the symbol; as the poet, and artist, and the naturalist, and man of science. A third class live above the beauty of the symbol to the beauty of the thing signified; these are the wise men. The first class have common sense; the second, taste; and the third, spiritual perception. Once in a long time, a man traverses the whole scale, and sees and enjoys the symbol solidly; then also has a clear eye for its beauty, and lastly, while he pitches his tent on this sacred volcanic isle of nature, does not offer to build houses and barns thereon, reverencing the splendor of the God which he sees bursting through each chink and cranny.
Essay VII, Prudence Ralph Waldo Emerson