May 25, 2003
Tucson, Arizona, USA
At the Green Slabs I lead a couple quality 5.8 routes, then Zak took me up to Windy Point to hit the classic pinnacle. That's me in the above photo feelin' groove.
Headed for the car, we came upon a scene where a kid jumped a 15ft span and broke his ancles. He kept saying, "just push me off the cliff; it hurts too much!"
Tucson's water table has dropped 200ft over the last century. Today's dersert residents "spend" about 5 times as much water as nature "deposits" through rain fall. A "water budget" for the Sonoran Desert would show our accounts to be seriously overdrawn.
Showing slides on the sidewalk, I met a bunch of friendly people. We sat around sharing stories like at a campfire. One girl painted a rad warrior on the hood of my car. Joe and Midnight were a trip. Midnight says he lives on the fringe, and maybe has gone too far to return. Joe told me an intense story about hiking in the Grand Canyon and interacting with a higher life form that vibrated like a 10ft high humming bird. It had a ship in the shape of a teardrop that reflected like mercury. The being knew answers to every question in his mind. It spoke to him in harmonics-- "The most ideally orchestrated messages through sounds." It knew his whole life, right up to what he was thinking in that moment. "They know more about you than you know about yourself. It's like they can tap into all the memory banks up in your head. They knew when I was telling the truth," he said. "That's why the first thing they taught was trust. Next was God, love, and then sharing." Joe said it told him to go back where he came from, cuz he wouldn't be able to see completely unless he was with his friends-- "Leading me to believe I'm gonna see this thing again. I don't know what it was, but it was significant."
Joe has a beautiful way with words and holds many key insights. These are a few especially interesting:
"The past 50 years has been a leap... from black and white TV to CD. We are just beginning...!"
"Life is a scavenger hunt. The keys are the questions. Answers are the gold. It's the question that drives us. You gotta want knowledge to hear knowledge. That's what those [Mayan] pyramids might be-- some hidden knowledge."
"That necklace could have as much meaning and value as solid gold. We give things their value."
"The only thing that makes this place bearable is each other. What is it worth when you have no one else to share it with?"
"Not only do people over-eat, they are not getting what they need. Eating is as much about thinking."
"Time in nature by yourself gives you a chance to touch God. You are in the hands of something bigger than yourself. We are being carried."
"I feel like something is going down in Mexico. We have the dough, but they have love for their families. They don't have the walls around themselves. It's the fear that is controlling us."
"Mexico plays a part in a grand dance. The planet is on the brink of grand dynamics. Something big is going down. We don't even know, but we are all players. Something magical is going to blow us away. "You can't put a cover on the sky!" ...like the song says."
"When you take a different perspective, new things pop out at you. We are all here learning-- making mistakes."
"People are the greatest resource. People need to know how to interoperate information"
"All the pictures you never took... But when you put stuff down its really sweet."
Joe told me I need to go to Burning Man. He's been to many festivals, "But non with such harmony as that place. You see people with hearts exposed. It is beyond belief. For this week... people forget currency and celebrate life, love, art--- the most massive flow of energy. People from everywhere drumming together. People will just walk up and give you stuff, and perform their art for the love. You don't want to leave, man. Go to that party. It might unlock some ideas. Uncover mysteries. People unravel them when they choose to pay attention."
The following is a poem Joe wrote:
"Will" Will Make You Think GOD HAS PLANS YOU SEE
EVERYDAY IS DESTINY
UPS AND DOWNS
WHAT WOULD IT BE
THIS LIFE
WITHOUT THE MYSTERY
TRAGEDY SAYS WHO
POSSIBLY TO ME AND YOU
BUT AS GARDENS GROW
LIKE EACH FLAKE OF SNOW
RANDOM IS THE WAY
EVERY PASSING DAY
UNTIL THE TIME IS RIGHT
GOD WONT SHOW US THE LIGHT
SO ON WE MUST GO
AND DEEP INSIDE WE KNOW
THERE IS A REASON WE ARE HERE
AND WE SHOULDN'T LIVE IN FEAR
BECAUSE WHEN OUR TIME IS RIGHT
WE WILL ALL SEE THE LIGHT
