Roots (2/8/2016)

When I took the photo below of the root my wife told me that it would make a great entry in my next nature blog/journal.  Her comment did not leave the back of my mind for a long time now; it has been more than a week since I took this picture.  It is like planting a seed in one’s mind and watching it germinate and take root (pardon the pun).

This picture was taken in Newport News Park showing an old road cut and how the tree is rooted into the soil (photo take 1/31/2016).

I was at a loss what to write about, except for showing this picture, but then while listening to a program on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD on Satellite Radio it all the sudden struck me: what we are now is all rooted on past experiences and we feed on it, whether we like it or not.  Buddha tells us:

“Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment,” 

but it is so damn hard to follow.  If you are like me, it is so difficult to live in the moment sometimes, my mind is all over the place.  (So sorry guys no nature blog while talking about roots)

Listening to that program on PTSD, reminds me of a dear friend who served in Iraq and suffers from PTSD.  I witnessed one of his flashbacks and it was terrible to see a strong grown man have these.  Another acquaintance of mine who served in Afghanistan told me he has them too.  Their current lives are rooted in those past experiences, it has changed them and it’s difficult to escape at times.  My father had them his entire life, after spending time in Hitler's camps.  Interestingly, the doctors were discussing that there are indications that they can now detect PTSD in the tone of voice of PTSD sufferers and maybe even in the content of their saliva. 

Listening to the program, I was immediately taken back to my first experiences in Uganda in 1978, and I was wondering if I am (or my wife and I are) psychologically shaped the way I am (we are) by the events I (we) went through back then, just like the doctors were discussing on the radio.  I know my wife and I had PTSD after we were liberated in May 1979; the strange sound of a toilet flushing sent my wife under the table the first time she heard it, thinking we were being bombed or being shot at.

But even now, just listening to the discussion on the radio gave me flashbacks to that time 37 and 38 years ago.  Suffice it to say, I should have been killed but I escaped getting killed probably four times.  I also still feel guilty for not preventing a young boy from getting killed by an angry mob two days after we arrived in the country.  It’s all too gruesome to describe, but if you like me to, let me know and I can blog about it, one day.

It all came rushing back to me, again.  I wonder if the tone of my voice and my saliva are different from what it would have been if I had not experienced it, or my elevated blood pressure is caused by it or my migraines are partially the result of it.  So yes, I am rooted in the past, and I know I should not dwell on it just as Buddha says, but concentrate on the present and maybe prepare for the future.

Downtown Richmond, the roots of this old tree have expanded so much that they are growing over the curb and the sidewalk.  It makes you wonder what they can find there.  I am always amazed by the tenacity of some of these trees.  Looks like someone is trying to feed the tree some Red Bull, I hate people who liter (photo taken 2/9/2016).

Yorktown (8/24/2014)

It was a great weekend for a bike ride.  The weather was unseasonably cool but it was a bit windy.  After we left home we first did what we call the tour road, which is the tour road in the Yorktown Battlefield.  It was a busy day there, lots of runners and bikers.  The sky was absolutely gorgeous, clear blue with nice puffy clouds.  From the tour road we biked on to the coast guard station, where we stopped to look over the York River at the Moore House, a nice colonial house located on a site with considerable history.  The photo below was taken at a small cemetery near the Moore house.  We parked the bikes and went to look over the York River.  The other photo is looking over the York River.  After our stop we continued our bike trip along Wormley Pond, a place I have taken pictures at before (see my post of 4/2/2014).  We biked a total of 18 miles, a nice training ride for our yearly trip to Salisbury, MD to ride the Seagull Century. 

During our ride I still cannot believe all the trash along the road.  It is really amazing the crap people throw away, but on this trip Bud light won the prize.  I want to bet that some teenagers needed to clean their car before they got home.  It is amazing to see what people throw out.  I need to do a week-long series on trash I see during my walks, bike and car trips.  I should title it scenic trash.  Who knows stay tuned.

New Kent (8/21/2014)

Yesterday, on my way back home, I decided to take a diversion to find cheap gas for my car.  New Kent County usually has the cheapest gas prices on my daily route and since I do not work in Richmond on Fridays, it was time to fill up the car for the weekend.  I decided to drive US 60 all the way to Williamsburg to look for cheap gas and then take the Colonial Parkway the rest of the way.

New Kent County is an up and coming locality, it’s tucked in between Richmond and the Hampton Roads area and it is slowly becoming a place to live and commute from.  As such it is an example of contrast.  You have areas that are heavily build up and developed, expensive wineries and more poor/rural areas.  Today’s photograph is a prime example of this.  I drove by this abandoned group of buildings, located right along US 60.  As you can see it is completely abandoned and someone even thought it was an excellent place to dump an old recliner.  A friend of mine looked at the photograph and was taken aback by what appears to be a fairly new metal roof on part of the abandoned building.  In other words someone try to fix the place up but gave up mid-point.  From the looks of it the building might have been an old motel, or maybe just a few apartments. 

Going a little further along US 60 you can find an expensive sub-division.  It is a prime example of urban sprawl.  The development is along part of the Chickahominy River and it is really very nice.  However, if you need groceries, you are forced to drive at least 20 minutes or more down the road to find the nearest grocery store in Toano.  There is a convenience store around the corner, but you pay more for less choice and lesser quality. 

As European I often still have a difficult time wrapping my head around it all, but then I take the car to go grocery shopping at a supermarket less than 5 minutes from my home.  I wish I could take the bike, but my excuse is that US 17 in York County is too dangerous for bikes and that I would be foolish to ride there.  Talking with our county’s planners we are told this highway is a thoroughfare and not for bikes.  Makes you wonder why all the stores are on that street.   But even if we bike, there is no bicycle parking near the store.

Back to urban sprawl and New Kent County.  I find this photograph is so darn indicative of what is going on in many rural counties.  Some owners of desirable tracts of land are able to get rich and move out of the counties by selling their land to developers, while others in the county suffer.  I am sure that the establishment I took a picture of was a thriving county store/gas station that employed a few people, but the big corporate world somehow out-competed them.  People had cars and could easily drive to Walmart and other stores like that in the “big” town; closing these county stores forever and leaving them to crumble to become evidence of a very different past.  They become blight of the neighborhood and people become more cavalier about it.  People loose pride in their surroundings, so why drive to the sanitary dump when you can get rid of that old recliner right there in that parking lot of the abandoned building?  No it is not just New Kent, even here you see mattresses just tossed out along the side of the road.  What is society coming to if we do not appreciate our surroundings, nature, and the places we live?  As society we are poisoning ourselves by fouling up the only place we can live, mother earth.