9/27/2007

The Footprints In A Desert

(inspired by the idea of Deep Spring College and the stories of Walden)

The idea of leaving a trace behind does not sound popular in a city where concrete surface prevents so. Without such artificial accommodations, like it or not, every walking man will leave a series of footprints as he or she makes a move. In doing so, one is at a higher risk if there is ever a predator. Hence, for the sake of our own, with the enormous power developed along the history from when bare-foot walking was popular, we erased our traces by changing the face of earth to conceal our ancient instinctive fear of being a prey. Cleanness is an alias of making no contact with anything. Sometimes nor even with other people. Without sympathy, city is nothing but a true desert, a place of nothing.
Conversely, looking at a desert, despite the assumption which is usually supported by the seemingly void appearance, there are zings. They face extreme adversity yet surviving in their own unique ways. Since it is almost always the minority who are rebellious and determined enough to keep a life away from the traditions of the majority, the animals seem to be in an actually less competitive environment.
Not having lived in the wild long enough, many may not realize the dynamics of the apparently static environment. This may be the sensational difference between life and death, nature and artificial world. Nature has a grand mind, but a slow one comparing to the rates of our solutions. Slow, but gradual, cyclical and progressive. Thus we may be blinded by the pace of our own within a narrow perspective ignoring the largo movements of nature. More sadly, our desires and fears drove us to contemn the efficiency of such elegant processes.
But after all, even without a dead, solid surface, our footprints will not stay long under the convection of air in a desert. Perhaps, without any untold mystery, simply, nature just loyally marks what we did, indifferently presents them and finally, unconditionally forgives us.