Everything was in harmony. The rocks, vegetation, animals, waterfalls, everything. After starting the decent into the canyon, we heard baboons verbalizing themselves from many directions at many distances. I don’t know if you’ve heard a baboon scream, but I think it’s worth googling. It’s this blood curdling shout that makes you think you’ve
violated everything that a baboon holds dear. At one point we were about to cross a brook at the bottom of a canyon, when we saw about 40 baboons, big and small, grandpas and little babies, on the ground and in the trees. The kids would come and look at us curiously, then run back to their moms. There was so much tension and curiosity from both sides. They were eating figs. We were so different, us group of people and this community of baboons. We have brains that question existence and look for answers, we have libraries and parliaments, noble peace prizes and airplanes, theme parks and drive troughs. We have divorce, Prozac, guns, rape, poverty, suicide, harmful words, manipulation, pollution and so much more crapyness, and here they are…eating figs. There’s an innocence in that which was touching to whiteness. To see such raw nature makes you feel so many emotions. Makes you feel vulnerable, and in awe of what exists (happily!) without the involvement of a human mind or hand. Having studied
architecture there has been something in the back of my mind telling me that without “designers” the world would be a hideous place, and we are needed to make it tolerable, beautiful, beneficial etc. But that isn’t true, as humans we molest nature so often and so severely that it becomes a sea of intolerables. Then we hire people to construct bubbles of tolerable landscape within the chaos we ourselves have created. I have to say that I felt intimidated by the beauty, partly because I knew that I could never compete with it. I was also thankful to see somewhere that our civilization had not touched, and had a desperation about hoping it would remain that way. It’s not just that there wasn’t a MacDonalds there, but there were no hand rails on the edges of cliffs, no designated photo areas, no caution signs, no light posts etc. A series of “safety engineers” and lawyers from the wilderness bureau were not there with industrial glue and sponges to get rid of sharp edges, abrupt corners, and drops in elevation. This was raw nature, and we walked carefully and respectfully through it. I’m happy we did.