Alien landscape

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Ever since college, and perhaps even longer than that, I’ve had a recurring dream of a rocky area set aside for hikers. Once, and only once — I was in med school at the time — I explored far enough that I found a cave. Something of great importance was in the cave but I never found out what it was. I’ve been trying to make it back ever since.

Back here in the real world, I think this is why I love places like Red Rock Canyon (near Las Vegas) and Vasquez Rocks (in So. Cal.)Â Both places inspire the same feeling in me: the expectation that just around the corner, I’ll see the rocks of my dreams, and perhaps also the cave.

The older I become, the farther I get from that landscape. Last night, I tried making it up there on my ten-speed; but it was winter, and folks were telling me how treacherous the hiking had become, what with all the snow and sleet. I never even got a glimpse.

From childhood, I recall other places of power. A desolate road, a hidden beach. Walk a little farther and I knew I would find myself in another world, one that obeyed different rules. Back then, the idea of escape to another world fascinated me, asleep or awake. But with age comes contentedness, and maybe that’s why those other worlds have slipped away; I don’t need them now. I don’t even need the promise they hold.

They’re always to the northwest, these regions. Go figure.

Walnut, February 13, 2007. Category: such as it is.