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January 12, 2011

I Wander, I Wonder









Standing at the conjunction of the Mojave Trail, the Old Spanish Trail, the Santa Fe Trail, old Route 66, and El Camino Real. Makes me wonder about the native civilizations that lived, loved, and thrived here for 50,000 years, and like any good guest, left everything pretty much as they found it. I wonder, will there be any wilderness left after we have reigned for 50,000 years? Will we pass on a world with breathable air, clean water, and a climate that sustains life? I wonder what legacy our civilization will leave behind. I wonder...


19 comments:

  1. Oooohhhh...

    poke my eyes out beauty--that hurts so bad it feels really good...

    macro

    micro

    macro

    micro

    You've got us a lovely rhythm going there.

    The first image, apart from reminding me of my date with a show-up at the Pearly Gates one of these days, or an opportunity to answer "The Actor's Studio" Mr. Lipton's take on Bernard Pivot's question to his interviewees, "What would you like to hear Saint Peter say to you upon your arrival at the Pearly Gates?" reminds me of that scene in, what?, "Seven" (we saw that together at Fashion Island, right? It was so gross.) where Kevin Spacey leads the Pitt/Freeman duo out under those high power lines to find the head in the box, right? Quelle memoire!

    Nice work, Stickup!

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  2. Wonderful images, once again. Wandering and wondering is a nice way to live. I'm not really sure this civilization plans to leave ANYTHING behind at all. As opposed to a noble captain going down with the ship. It's more akin to the captain going down because of his own recklessness and stupidity, and deciding to blow the ship up and take it with him. I do hold onto some vestige of hope, but it's getting to be like a skinny little string. Aaaarrrgggghhhh! Matey!

    Nice to see the wonderful color in your shots in the bleakness of mid-winter.

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  3. What great colors! shots full of life! A greeting. Elena.

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  4. Amazing shots as always!

    We humans are so stupid that we destroy all the beauty - but planet Earth will go on...
    When it gets hotter and hotter millions of people start moving and that means violence. Hopefully I'm gone by then...

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  5. The legacy looks pretty grim right now and possibly even too late to rectify it. Your photos are amazing. I don't think "amazing" is strong enough. I am filled with wonder and awe at the beauty you have found here.

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  6. Of course we all wonder.

    Thanks so much for your beautiful photos.

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  7. inTENSE!

    The flower close-up is a vibrant, living, breathing mandala in which to become deliriously lost.

    Hopefully, humankind will not lose the planet. It is more likely that the planet will lose the humans in order to heal itself. Or be blasted out of the sky by some random act of falling cosmic debris. I sometimes think we humans are little more than viruses swarming over a minor organ (or a tonsil, perhaps) of a being too vast for our microbe-sized brains to envision.

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  8. Wow! Amazing stuff! That flower has real power. So in your face brilliant!

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  9. I'm not sure we are going to make it another 50000 years. Even 50 is looking dicey. But who knows... hope springs eternal. But are these flowers blooming at present ? Oh, yeah, I forgot, you live somewhere warm...

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  10. Wow! Those colours and that sharpness just LEAP from the screen! Wonderful shots (as always) of beautiful scenery.

    As for your wondering - I often ponder exactly the same question.

    In response to your question over at my blog - yes, it's a self-healing mat; and I also have a Rolls Royce of a paper trimmer with interchangeable blades that do straight, wavy and even perforated lines!

    PS. Are you on Flickr?

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  11. we've been totally enfolded in a grey fog for many days now, the glowing white of snow melting away and what is revealed now is a sad and ugly landscape of almost no-colours... and i come here and my heart begins to laugh, i feel warm and full of joy, suddenly...
    (if i read the text, my heart grows heavy again, so will dwell for a while in the magnificent beauty of the photos alone)

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  12. We will never reign for 50,000 years, all of this will end much, much sooner, although movies like 'Home' or 'The 11th Hour' still try to pass a message of hope in the future...
    Your photos are gorgeous, the first flower shot is truly hypnotic, fantastic!

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  13. Take only pictures, leave only footprints and kill only time . . .

    Live simply so others may simply live . . .

    The truth and consequences of our actions reveals our blatant disregard for all that truly manifests and sustains life.

    Our species had a beginning; it will surely have an end. It seems, though, that we are intent on realizing it sooner than later.

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  15. I'm afraid that our mammonic society has no patience for conservation, common sense, or the knowing the lingering scent of a wildflower. Your photos are a call to reason.

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  16. I cringe when I think about what we may leave behind, however I think you have captured such beauty with these photos - if we leave nothing other than this blog of yours with all these gorgeous photos SOMETHING fab will be left!

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  17. Such special beauty in these shots. They are really dazzling. I agree with Roxana that I want to linger with the images. 50,000 years do not seem possible for the planet at this point. I can't even imagine 1000, but I hope for a miracle.

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  18. Bonsoir Stickup
    Sometimes I think I do not know the answer ... because it scares me, because this answer everybody already know ... because the idea of losing such treasures it gives me the moral zero, it gives me a stomach ache .. no, that idea is intolerable and yet ... it may already be tomorrow .. and we will pay some serious mistakes that have been and will again in the name of money , profit, power ...
    your post touched me deeply ...
    kisses and soon ..

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