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?