Bucket List: Bryce Canyon

The world contains many natural wonders, untouched places that have been sculpted into their current forms by natural processes and time.  Bryce Canyon is one such, a fifty-five square mile area of rock spires and natural amphitheaters located in southwestern Utah.

The area was first settled by pioneers in the 1850's and named for homesteader Ebenezer Bryce, but Native American tribes had inhabited it for many thousands of years prior.  A myth surrounding the place indicated the belief that the spires, known as hoodoos, were legendary figures that were turned to stone by the trickster Coyote spirit.  A combination of drought and livestock overgrazing drove most of the people to move elsewhere by the mid-1880's.

Conservation efforts began in the early 1920's when it was discovered that unregulated visitation was beginning to damage the area's fragile environment.  After a great deal of effort by the federal government to buy the land, the Bryce Canyon National Park was created in 1928.  In 1961 the Bryce Canyon Natural History Association was formed, and a portion of its profits are donated to public land conservation.  The park receives over two and a half million visitors every year.  Activities include hiking, back country camping, skiing, and stargazing.

The Minecraft game biome of Mesa or Badlands was inspired by the area.

The official web site is https://www.brycecanyon.com

Bucket List: Arden Villa

With the deadly Coronavirus currently sweeping the globe, travel has been cut down to the bare essentials.  It struck me that a fun thing to do would be to use this year's April A to Z Blog Challenge to compile a list of places or attractions that I'd like to visit if time and money were no object.

Let's start with Arden Villa.

The unmistakable yellow stucco Palladian manor is located in Pasadena, California.  It was built in 1913 by the architecture firm Marston, Van Pelt, & Maybury for railroad and mining tycoon William Kennon Jewett and his wife.  The construction cost $35,000 USD - a huge sum in those days, and rests on three acres of land.

The villa itself boasts approximately 13,000 square feet of living space with grand entertainment rooms and lavish details.  Outdoor facilities include a swimming pool, tennis court, and extensive manicured gardens.  Discerning television and movie buffs might easily recognize the place, as it was used in multiple shows, including: Flamingo Road, Rags to Riches, Knight Rider, and Dynasty.

In 2017 the property was put on the market for $28 million USD, and by January 2019 the price had dropped to $19.5 million USD when it became known that its current owner, a Chinese investor, was having difficulty making his payments.  However the grounds are still being meticulously maintained and continue to attract film and television cameras.

For a virtual tour you can visit www.ardenvilla.com

Sacrifices

I was not brought up in what would be considered a "traditional" Christian home.  My mother was Anglican but was excommunicated after divorcing her first husband.  My father had been educated in a Catholic school but was a self-declared agnostic.  We celebrated Christmas and Easter in a secular manner.

It was a surprise, at age 11, to learn about Lent from a friend whose family was more devout.  I'd offered her some chocolate and she turned it down, saying that she'd given up sweets for the duration.

Lent is a ritual fasting, from Ash Wednesday until Palm Sunday.  It's a reminder that Jesus spent 40 days in the desert being tempted by evil before his triumphant return to Jerusalem.  It's not unlike the Islamic observance of Ramadan in that it's a time of sacrifice and spiritual reflection.

The general rule is that every person 14 years or older must abstain from meat, and items made with meat, on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and all the Fridays of Lent - hence "fish on Fridays".  However many modern Christians choose to abstain from some personal vice such as smoking, or in my friend's case, chocolate.

My first husband, I'll call him "Tom", claimed to be Christian although he never attended church in all the years I knew him, except for weddings, funerals, or his parents' church's annual spaghetti dinner.  He didn't observe Lent either and ridiculed me when I started to do so in deference to his parents.

One year, at the suggestion of a friend, I chose to become vegetarian for Lent.  "Tom" spent the entire time making a show of checking labels and inspecting every single item of food that I prepared.  He also mocked my choice further by making meat-heavy dishes for himself.  Privately I believed that he missed the point of the observance, or simply didn't care.

To this day I continue to honour Lent, usually by giving up one of my favourite food items.  Most often I eschew what I refer to as "the three Cs": chocolate, cola, and cookies.  It can be difficult but I find myself healthier at the end of it.  This year, however, I plan to do something different; a much more radical departure that will affect my daily routine in a fundamental way.

I want to abstain from social media.  Facebook, Twitter, YouTube. 

The TV news is bad enough, but whoever invented the saying "bad news travels fast" had nothing on the internet.  Every day I see people sharing horror stories about disgusting behaviour of entitled people, the latest political blunder, a mass shooting, or a disaster of some kind.  It makes me worry about the future of humanity and I long for the days when there was no internet or 24 hour news cycle.

It's time to unplug for a while.  Internet obsession can damage careers, relationships, and home life.  At present, I spend more than four hours a day on the internet and I'm beginning to neglect my responsibilities.  This has to be nipped in the bud.

See you in 40 days.

In case of emergency, there's still such a thing as a telephone.

He Did It, So What?

I'm at a loss for words today, so I'll share what the host of the My Randomology geek site wrote.

~~~

Remember where you were on this day, when a president elected without the popular vote, a man who is the walking embodiment of pride and greed, a man who has cheated on every one of his wives, a man who created a humanitarian crisis at the border, a man whose entire legal defense was "Yes he did it. So what?" was acquitted by what should have been a check on the power of his office, and instead showed the deeply broken and corrupt GOP for what it is.
A cult.
Imagine a Democrat doing ANY of the things Trump has done. They would be kicked out of office and lambasted by their own party. It happens all the time. But Trump?
He is beyond reproach. Beyond the law. This should frighten all those conservatives who yelled for years that you have to respect the law or face the consequences. Their true colors are on full display for the world. But it won't. Why?
They laugh as they claim they're winning and triggering when all they're doing is exposing their child-like worship of authority. It's never been about law and order. Or faith. Or decency.
It's about control and cruelty. Never think otherwise.
Stop playing with kid gloves. Stop trying to win them over because you won't. Trump supporters are literally too stupid to see that the authoritarian nightmare they complained about for years is here, and it's the guy they're cheering on.
Get these fascists out of office. Every last one of them. If someone tries to excuse why they support Trump or those who enable him, walk away. They know why they do it. Some of them at least try to hide behind flag and country and an appeal to the better nature of America because some part of them that's human understands what's going on.
But they know who and what he is. Don't let them forget where they stood today. Ever. They don't get to wash their hands of this.

A Second Revolution

"Anything I say, do it my way now
Anything I say, do it my way
Don't you get to feeling independent
'Cause I'm gonna force you to obey."

The above lyrics come from the 1975 animated short "No More Kings" which is a simplified story of the American Independence movement.  This short comes to mind because the current U.S. president seems to have a king-like hold over most of the Republican senators under him.  They have lied, cheated, and twisted the system in order to keep their leader in power, despite all the evidence that he is a bona-fide criminal.

"Everyone was in the loop. It was no secret."
"Vote against the president and your head will be on a pike."
"Get her out tomorrow. Take her out. O.K.? Do it."

These and other snippets of information from the hearings made it quite clear that the Republicans and the president were acting in their own interests.  Several senators even blatantly broke the rules set down at the beginning, with no consequence.  Their coup-de-grace was voting to suppress witnesses and evidence that would have made a large difference in the impeachment's outcome.

The takeaway is that they don't care about the rule of law.  They don't care about the people that they were elected to serve.  They even stated outright, on record, that they knew the president was guilty.  Then they argued, "Yes, he did it, but so what?"  How does one defend this sort of corruption?

A horrible irony took place the very same day, when masked and armed gunmen stormed the Kentucky Capitol building in protest of proposed legislation on gun controls.  Thankfully no shots were fired, but their actions were no less than terrorism.

Many people, particularly those of a conservative bent, have been screaming for years that they would rise up in case a tyrant ever took office.

Now, there IS one.  And he's essentially being allowed to act with impunity.

So what they really meant was that they wanted THEIR tyrant in office. Someone who would go after "those people" and leave them alone.  Because as long as they could stay home and imagine themselves as the hero of their own personal gun-toting narrative, they were going to do absolutely nothing.

Now, the Constitution has just been given the middle finger.  George Washington, the man who refused to be king and helped write that document, would be turning in his grave.  So would all the other founders.

The United States is no longer a constitutional democracy.  It's a dictatorship.

I foresee war coming.