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Show MOUNTAIN In The Meadows By Jack Wright place Well, — “Evangeline” (1847), Henry Wadsworth Longfellow here is a place in the lower hills of the Wasatch Mountains where, amid a crumbling outcrop of red sandstone, I ofttimes sit and watch the summer day end. Out beyond the waters of the Great Salt Lake, the colors of sundown flood the horizon, linger awhile, then slowly withdraw and yield the sky to the enfolding night Gazing at the night sky, I try to keep the stars as fanciful as Longfellow would have them. But my imagination does not hold. I haven't an enduring heart for lovely stars. A timer in my brain cries “enough of poetry,” and suddenly I am gazing at boiling masses of hydrogen, Ionic nebulae and orbiting binaries, all spiraling to unknown purpose along the unclocked plane of the galaxy. However, that’s only the beginning of this descent into blatant reductionism, this pooh-poohing of romantic things. There next appears in my mind’s view — and this always happens in the presence of stars — an image of earth: the sharp and haunting image of earth as seen from out there, in the darkness, the view from space. I have seen it, as have you. Was it Mariner that first radioed it back, or was it Pioneer? No matter. The craft was one of ours. It took our photograph, and we perused it in computerpressed magazines, feeling, among other things, astounded. Our vast planet appeared nothing more than a speck of dust, a mote hanging without cause or content in the blackness and the emptiness of space, hanging, waiting out the slow, unbroken drift of eterni- aSM of Heaven ty, a forlorn and lonely planet yearning to break the vacuous bonds and search out the universe for a bright, warm Silently, one by one, in the infinite meadows of heaven, - blossomed the lovely stars some so much for Longfellow Science is to blame. of us unromantic, It has made and left the night sky black and spotted with boiling hydrogen. It has destroyed the brave o’erhanging firmament in favor of a dark, horizonless universe o incomprehensible distance and time We have flown above the clouds and there discovered not the meadows of heaven, but rather darkness and cold and loneliness. People in white lab coats have brought it upon us, this dark reality. No medieval blacksmith could have guessed it, no seaman in his wooden ship saw it overhead in the empyrean skies. The speck-of-dust view troubles only lately generations Troubles? Perhaps it only troubles me. I am a natural worrier Yet, can I not persuade you to worry alongside? Does not the view from out there burden all of us — humankind collectively — with the hint of insignificance, our own insignificance? That is not a nice word, insignificance, not for a species that takes pride in its accomplishments, its art, its music, its religion, its architecture, its science, its planetary probes. What then, besides this disturbing insignificance, are we to make of that photograph, that snapshot of ourselves, that radioed reflection? Surely in the years THE since TORTOLA the fully home with equipped picture HOUSE, British Virgin Islands, side located is a spacious two master kitchen was and For more information we Woman's Expo Benefit Concent into the wayward sets upon mountains, in rare a tiny, glowing teams shown us more than we would care to see? Have we, like Faust, traded ou soul for knowledge? F. me, who has misplaced poor Longfellow’s stars and will probably never find them again, it is an over whelming thing, this view. It intrudes upon my trifling moments, after sun- amid obscure the all the wondrous moments 10% OFF ALL Wyoming n OO which Wear the mountain Don’t a Miss Our Sale Racks sprawling : Qhows pride in organizations that protect the world we live in by continuously donating a portion of our profits to: Conservation Alliance * Jackson Hole Alliance Greater Yellowstone Coalition We hope you take a vested interest in your surroundings by making The Mountain Times Nv y/ an important part of your mountain lifestyle. lo Wyoming ¢ 400 Booths © 40 Classes: $5 presale, $6.50 door, daily includes all classes, booths, shows, shopping! A things Maybe here beneath the clouds, in ways too mysterious to comprehend lie the true meadows of heaven. @ Woolens 801-645-9427 For Ticket Information Call 264-4912, 264-4901 For Exhibit Information Call (801) 649-2946 fragile greatly upon the family of man — as the only levee against the dreadful loneliness that spreads for countless miles, trillions upon trillions, in all directions out form this spinning speck of dust start twinkling in earnest again. But they won't. To lay upon a looming hillside and gaze upon the night-awakening of a city, to watch the sun sink below the mass of land and water, so see all the nearby world in its vastness; and yet know that this imposing great- 518 Historic Main ¢ Park City, Utah & Jackson Hole Wyoming October 18-20, 1996 Salt Palace and darkness life, and only life, can comprehend Shored against the vastness of space and eternity, there throbs the passions of living beings: the love, the fear, the tenderness, the caring, the pleasure the sacrifice, the beauty, the longing And when I let that image linger in my tender mind and understand its meaning to the farthest limits of my vision, I come to look upon the things of this earth — the rivers, the forests, the oceans, the whale and the bear, the chimpanzee and the wolf, and most I am then forced to apprehend the silliness of talk shows, interest rates and impatient motorists. It leaves me with neither lovely stars nor illuminating answers to my troubling questions Sometimes I wish the stars would Good for up to 4 people Ay bi entering ness of apostasy? Is it the end of child hood’s truths? Has this view from space 1-800-TORTOLA. _ TEC ah) thi Ly my aA avoid is but Science is to blame. But I’m not angry about it I have found solace in the speck of-dust photograph. I have in lighter moods even come to feel cheered by it. For upon that speck of dust there would otherwise be. Seeing our world as the heavens have always seen it, can yous The Ultimate Gotal V call ness speck first bedrooms, a taken, a certain indefinable essence of the image has begun to permeate our world view, and we have become, in subtle ways, different from who we veranda overlooking Little Apple Bay. It is the ideal place to surf, sail, snorkel, or sun Yyryryryvryrvy & YWCA TIMES Joyce Brothers, Keynote Speaker “SS PAGE 11 . |