KEEP IT NATURAL pt. 5

by Yukito Yoneyama / 米山ゆきと


The first thing that pops up in my mind about the night time at Yosemite National Park
is when we went to see the stars.

I don't recall which night of the trip it was, but I think it was the first night we arrived.
The program adviser, who was probably responsible for the romance fuses,
led us through darkened trail with flash lights in our hands.
I believe there were around 40 people, quite a large group.

I remember getting eaten alive by mosquitoes, not being able to comprehend why such annoying creatures are wandering around in this beautiful and peaceful paradise.

I kept hearing people slapping their faces and bodies, getting sidetracked into the darkness.
The mosquitoes were the uninvited guests, and we were the well-welcomed preys.

Despite the first few minutes of hustle,
we came out to a clearing after the few last push through the "Dark Forest of Vampires".
As I was putting away my garlic and a cross, someone shouted,

"Wow, look up!"

As I looked up to the night sky above, I was almost overwhelmed.

The numbers of stars, as well as the brightness of the light they were sending down to our seemingly lonely planet, was simply astonishing.

I had to admit, it did not feel like we were the only existence in this vast universe.

I thought about contacting SETI, to let them know that I finally found what they have been
looking for.


I mean they were bright! I seriously thought I can catch them with a net,
as they say in children's books, if the handle was long enough.
They really were falling on us.


The bright night sky looked two dimensional, just as Van Gogh painted in his "Starry Night",
perhaps on an euphoria after lighting a sugar cube on fire,
then dropping it into his glass of Absinthe.

Just a guess.

I am writing this as I drink my Adirondack Lager.


The trail we were on led onto a narrow wooden board walk, about 3 feet wide,
which stretched beyond the starry blurred horizon.

It was blended into the dark navy blue, as if ascending into the stars.
I could see the caravan of pilgrims in front of me, paying there visit to the
Temple of the Starry Night.


The wooden path lit by the stars seemed to float on the meadow below,
which was pitch black absorbing the light from above.
For a moment, I thought we were walking on a hanging bridge,
as I looked down into the abyss beneath me.



There we were, risking our very own lives,
just to witness this breath-taking display of extraterrestrial beauties.
I held my breath so that I can focus on each step that I took.


Then the adviser, who was leading us through this amazing journey, shouted.

"All right everyone! let's lay down on the boardwalk. I want to show you something!"


Like making us walk on this narrow bridge with nothing to hold on was not enough,
now she wants us to lay on it?

I thought to myself,

"This better be good, or I might feed her to the cute bears that hang around here."



Oh my my, oh hey hey,
was she the one with the great idea.

Now it was an outdoor IMAX theatre.
I clenched my fist tight and waited for these starts to fall right through me into the abyss below.


Well, the IMAX wasn't what she was talking about.







By the way, it is really strange how we refer what we see to movies or photographs.

When I spent a year in Hawai'i, I kept hearing tourists saying to each other,

"Wow, it really looks like the photographs! Amazing view!",

when they confronted the tropical dreamscape in front of their eyes
right next to where I was hanging out in peace.


The truth is that the scenery do not look like photographs.
It's the other way around.
The photographs look like the scenery. Really.


It is just one of many testaments to our perception being built on second-hand experiences,
which manifests in this kind of illusion.

Be hold! The power of one-way bombardment of information by the medias.

I consider it to be a bit insulting for someone else to determine the sort of information I take in.
There are sayings like,

"We are what we eat." (for the body) 

and

"We are what we read." (for the mind)

We used to carefully choose what we take in, whether it was food, or information.

For instance, when we go to a restaurant, a chef prepares the food using his skills
to mix up all the good ingredients and spices to create a memorable dish.
(Just as writers mix up all the words and idioms to prepare a memorable reading experience)

Then a waitress/waiter brings the savory dish to your table for you to enjoy. 
(as publishers and bookstores bring you a book with well designed cover.
Well, Amazon.com and Kindle in the 21st century)

Now, do they feed you the food into your mouth, or do they read you the book out loud,
as if you are a 2 year-old??

NO.

(Except audio books. It has its uses, since they free your hands.)

You get my point, I sincerely hope.



I believe that having a choice is the most important component, when living the American life.
And I do not think it is too far off to say that it is that very aspect,
which defines what this country is all about.
Or at least that's what I have learned for my foreign-self from the past 15 years of being here.

I must say that I owe it to the wonderful free-minded people of this country,
whose lives and time I was fortunate enough to come across and share with my own.





Back in the 50's, when TVs first started to appear in Japan,
one of the intellectuals wrote a book called,

"The Entire-Nation-Becoming-Retarded Theory", or something close to it.

It was about how we would all become stupified by the fundamental theory
behind the creation of TV and the media.


He must have been the reincarnation of Nostradamus.

Wait a minute, the 1999 thing was way off.
Ok, whatever.
He (not Nostradamus, the intellect) was pretty much on point, though, don't you think?


There are things in this world we can fight with our intelligence,
and things that just take over our primal instincts of some sort.
When the latter are at work, we are powerless, except for the trained few,
no matter how smart you may or may not be.


For example, many of us catch ourselves staring at commercials,
not realizing what we are watching.


The fundamental principle behind the TV machines is that just as moths and other insects are blindly attracted to lights, or plants naturally grow toward the sun,
even us homo sapience are attracted to flickering lights.

So, let's think about that.


It is also understood in the field of anthropology,
we are attracted to familiar faces.
This may be for a survival purpose.
Just imagine the development of human race before the recorded history.
Despite the fact we do not know much about them, we know for sure that they existed.
Because we are here today, alive.


Most likely, things were not as comfortable and safe as in today's advanced civilization
with iphones, medicines, overstocked shelves and safety ratings.


Instead, it must have been a constant survival against wilderness
including deadly beasts, insects, and so on.

Death was always knocking on the non-existent door,
if you lived during the cavemen era.


It can be said that amongst our own race,
it must have been critical to remember the faces of family members for survival purposes.
We or they, back then, stuck to people they knew, because others could've been crazies.

The more they saw the particular faces, the more comfortable they must have become.
Without the TV, photography, or painting, there was simply no method other than being physically  
present to familiarize themselves with the faces of the close ones.

Some scholars believe that TV world is merely leaching on this primal instincts of ours,
which our intelligence have no power against to reject.


When I see a beer, I must drink it.
There is nothing intelligent I can do, but run toward it and pop it open to chug it.
Well, let's not judge people, I am only human.


Anyways, if you remember or catch yourself developing feelings for people you see on TV,
and sometimes they can be ugly (in your taste), or not your type.
But if you see these celebrities on the street,
you scream at them that you love them and chase after them, and take pictures with them.


This sort of behaviors may just be caused by the above logic.
I think it's worth a thought today, since all these freaking people (with virtually no talent, just money) on ridiculous reality and other shows, which I know some of you love.


However, I can guarantee you, if for some reason you had to stop watching these shows for significant amount of time, you couldn't care less.
At all indeed.

It happened to me. Many times.
(I rarely watch TV now. Just Netflix. At least I have a choice on what I watch and when I watch.)

This whole thing reminds me of the end of "Trueman Show" by Jim Carrie.
And of course, the Plato's Cave.





I totally got sidetracked.
These mosquitoes. Let me slap my face.

Ok.





It wasn't IMAX she was talking about.
Instead, I saw three or four stars shooting across the sky at the same time.
I shouted,

 "........"

I was speechless. I think many of us were.
After a few seconds, we started praising at this marvelous sight of shooting stars flying across our vision in full screen (I did it again with the backward reference).


And they kept coming. I must have counted 20 something stars in a few short minutes.
That adviser, she must have been sent in by eHarmony.com..


Oh yeah, the Internet wasn't really popular yet back in 1997.

It's amazing and possibly frightening, how our surroundings, the way we communicate, and even our own existence has become based on virtual digital format in just over the past 15 years.

Virtual = no substance

But let's not forget we are physical beings.

I believe that there are positives and negatives in everything which exists in this world.
It is always important to look at things from both perspectives,
just so that they may not come back around and slap us in the face.


It's all about the balance, as Scottie used to always say..






I'm passing out as I write.
So I'm just gonna post it
without checking for typos and such.
Cause I love you all.
Thank you for reading.




love,


y



ps. my son won't let me sleep, so I came back.  Check it out.

zzz..