A very San Francisco weekend

...involves leaving San Francisco and spending several nights in a place called The Sea Ranch, about 100 miles north of where I am typing this on Sunday evening.

The house I stayed in did a nice job of focusing attention on the views that this corner of the world affords.

I tried this golf game that everyone has been talking so much about lately.  It just wasn't as easy as I thought it would be!  Sadly, the brief moments of personal glory I experienced during a sun-drenched 18 holes were probably enough to assure me of of something that I don't need: one more (expensive) addiction.

On the way back up Highway 101, I pulled over for a spell at the GGNRA, because, like, duh.

But, back to the Sea Ranch, for a few final comments.  It is a place with a thin population spread out over many square miles of mostly undisturbed natural terrain.  There is seemingly little pollution, and a nearly complete absence of artificial light in the evenings.  As such, the daytime air feels light and fresh, and the nighttime sky comes absolutely alive with constellations (and the occasional comet!).  There are times, if you permit yourself, when you can become a little lost in a number of philosophical moments.  The thought that struck me was this: Here I was, in this quiet, picturesque place, taking a short break from work, when it is again here that I'd like to find myself when I take a conclusive break from work some years down the road.  The notion of making permanent that experience sometime in the future, if for only a few years, is a big part of what fuels many of us, I suppose.   

Why is that?  I think it is because so few of us have unrestricted access to that variety of natural beauty.  Perhaps things for me will go well, and one day I will be fortunate enough to buy that very house.  Or, perhaps problems in the economy sooner or later will cause me to lose my job, and face more of a struggle than I'd like.  But the desire for access to a place of quiet perfection is fundamental to all of us.  We can lay back on a porch at night, and through our own awe think of just how small we are within the greater cosmic order.  By the same token, though, isn't it amazing that we are simply tolerated to exist within that order?    

Is that worth thinking about?  Suggests this author: Yes.