Creating Memories En Route, Eureka, CA

How responsible are parents for creating the memories of childhood? I think of my grandparents and what I know of their parents and prior generations, people who worked the land, lived hard lives, but loved well and enjoyed their lives. Children in those homes adjusted to the normal that existed there. Most rural families didn't venture far from their homes and their kids came to know very little of the world. And yet in our fast paced world we think that we live better, that our kids are better off because we can afford to expose them to more of the world. Are our children better off because they are exposed to more of the world? Are they really living better lives than those simple children in simpler times, who lived deeply in their world rather than living widely as "people of the world?" They knew nothing of Budapest, but they knew the land and they knew each other. Our generation of mobile young people know Budapest and have a thousand facebook friends, but don't know those people placed by providence at arms length away from them. I think I'll just leave that question alone, except to say that I hope these travels never replace depth of relationship.

The events in our lives shape who we become. Perhaps that is a controversial claim to some, and surely there is more to be said regarding the psychological complexity of humanity, but I think it is fair to say that if a person is never shown grace, then she will find it hard to show grace. If a person is never exposed to natural beauty, she will find it hard to love, or even recognize, the beauty of the natural world. If she is never, or seldom, exposed to intelligent people, then she will find it hard to care much for thoughtful dialogue, etc.

The events that are most important in shaping our lives turn out to be the earliest events. This makes simple sense really. Tell a child she is worthless and she will come to think that she is worthless. Tell an adult that she is worthless, when she has been utterly convinced of her worth by countless messages of approval and love in childhood and beyond, and she will yawn at you. Tell a child that ugly things are beautiful and she might adjust to the thought and believe you. Tell a person whose senses have been trained to recognize and respond to the sublime from an early age that the ugly is beautiful and she will laugh at you.

And so why this trip? It is an appointment between three little girls and their father in places where their attention will be captivated, so that I can say to them without distraction that while God made these beautiful places, he intended far more for them, that they are far more beautiful than the most sublime scenes in nature, and that their purpose is infinitely more important than the purpose of a redwood tree, even if the tree in question is Hyperion (the tree that stretches farthest toward God of any living thing on the planet at 380 feet). It is a time to see what breezes, rushing rivers, streams and mountain wildlife have to say when we listen. It is a time to shut out the vapid static of the culture and be tuned to God's deeper and stronger voice. It is a time for the development of soul and for the development of the love that exists between a father and his daughters.

Tomorrow look for pics from our trip to Redwood National Park.

A few shots from the journey north today:

Fog was a welcome site for us Bakersfield folk

Our view at dinner

Great dinner spot in Eureka, CA

Why does anyone drive a hybrid when turbo diesel gives you this?

Sequoia and King's Canyon

We are blessed to live close to two spectacular national parks. For father's day I requested that we stay for one night in Fresno and then drive up highway 180 into King's Canyon National Park, and then down the road to Sequoia National Park. This trip became a kind of preview of the grand national parks road trip that I am chronicling here.

In these two majestic parks, one finds the mighty Sequoia trees. One of the joys of parenthood is that you are presented with the honor of showing your children the world, of introducing them to wonders they have never seen, and could not have imagined. 

Dimensions of General Grant

There are encounters in this world that make us feel small. They make us feel that way because we tend to measure our lives in terms of years (or at least accomplishments that outlive us) and grandeur (how "large" we can make our lives). What about a living thing that outlives us by 2000 or more years and whose physical stature is so impressive that it ranks as the world largest living thing? Here is a tree that was around before America, and before Christianity. Here is something taller than a 25 story building. Here is something that evokes the elusive virtue of true humility. In the presence of "General Sherman," we understand what Sergeant Joyce Kilmer said in his famous poem, "Poems are made by fools like me; but only God can make a tree." We can build buildings that soar far beyond 25 stories, but they aren't alive! Their glory compared to this tree is like the glory of a candle to that of the sun. 

I hope that you will take in the acute joy of witnessing the eyes of a child at first beholding something so immense, so real, so simply breathtaking, as General Sherman. When you do, you get to see the beauty of the world with fresh eyes. 

General Grant, The Third Largest Living Thing on Planet Earth

General Sherman and Me and My Girls
275 ft. tall,  103 ft. circumference,  37 ft. diameter

Me and My Girls, National Parks, II

Last year I was able to take my girls on a trip to two glorious national parks: Zion and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. I have a strong desire to teach them the beauty of nature, to build memories of childhood that center around lovely, noble and true things. We all feel a certain native curiosity in childhood, and while we rambled about in Zion last year, they demonstrated the kind of wonder one feels when everything seems new and possible. They even enjoyed (endured) a 2 mile hike with daddy (and I only carried the twins part of the way).

Daddy Showing Felicity the Beauty of the Natural World

This year my plan is quite ambitious: 6 national parks, and possibly 7 (if we have time and money for Bryce Canyon). We already visited Sequoia and King's Canyon (post to follow this one), but will venture far north and west in our pursuit of beauty. We begin our trip going north out of Bakersfield to San Jose for a short stay with grandma and grandpa. From there, we will continue north, this time on highway 101 over the Golden Gate and up to Eureka, CA. We stay for a little while there and then spend some time in our first national park: Redwood National Park, where reside the tallest living things on planet earth. 

After our time in the Redwoods, we meander our way through the coast mountains into southern Oregon to visit with Nancy's dad in Klamath Falls. We will venture with him to Crater Lake National Park, where we will discover the deepest and purest water in the US. 

Then we travel to Billings, MT, where we pick up mamma and head south to Yellowstone. There we plan to stay a few days and see the many sights. 

Our last night in Wyoming will be spent in Jackson Hole, after which we plan to see Grand Teton National Park before heading south for home. 

I plan to upload pictures here to my blog of the journey and our memories of each day, along with a pithy and even perhaps mildly poetic description of the scenes we beheld that day. Stay tuned.