"My Sea-faring Foot."

People seem to like border conditions.

Living smack up against the ocean, or just outside a forest, or at the foot of a mountain. I'm not sure why. Maybe people like to have their backs up against something they feel is safe.



Although, in the case of the ocean, I think it may be that when someone makes their home by the ocean they may get a sense of closure because they've gone so far and now there is nowhere else to go.

Not at all in a negative sense, of course. But ideally, knowing that there is nowhere else to go should be a relief. Now, one can worry about all the other stuff in life.

Because a lot of times, when it is possible to go in every direction (despite perhaps the lack of a path) there is the continuous doubt that maybe you're going the wrong way.

Like travelling in a boat in the middle of the ocean. There is that nagging feeling that maybe you're traveling further away from somewhere you want to be.

And in the desert, too.

I've grown up in this desert. I like it. I like it because it's like a beach, but without an ocean. And people love the beach. Even when they go to the ocean, most of them still say "We're going to the beach!" But take away that ocean and people hate it, because then it's just a bunch of sand. I know how the beach (now a desert) might feel.

"The only reason you liked me at all was because of the ocean?"

But I like you, desert. And, like you, I'm not sure of where my ocean is, either.



Well, I've got Water, Forest, and Earth. I feel like I'm missing an element. Oh yeah!




Everyone thank Alan Schuler for providing the fire.

And I'd ask that before you point out that I don't have "Wind," first show me a decent picture you've ever taken of "Wind."

Hmm...I have to be at work at 8:30 am. It's almost 4:30 am now.

Oh, and thank Jarod Sibbet for the pictures of our trip to Mount Whitney and Death Valley.