http://kaweah.com/blog The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled. Thu, 24 Jul 2008 07:47:05 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Just after six in the morning, just as the moon set over the Western Divide, I left the Jordan Trail, taking the Cutoff Trail that heads over the tail of the Great Western Divide toward Willow Meadows and the Hockett Trail. I followed the trail and a single set of ... http://kaweah.com/blog/2008/07/24/kern-canyon-2008-saturday/ This last full moon, I backpacked up to the Kern Canyon stock bridge in Sequoia National Park. I started at Lewis Camp Trailhead, in Sequoia National Monument, just outside the southern boundary of the Golden Trout Wilderness. This trailhead sits near the top of the Western Divide, on the historic ... http://kaweah.com/blog/2008/07/23/kern-canyon-2008-friday/ I've been a wilderness lover since the summer my brother David and I first rode our bicycles into the Sierra Nevada, but I never did think much of Henry David Thoreau, until I suddenly fell in love with him. To me, Thoreau was just some New England liberal garden-naturalist who might ... http://kaweah.com/blog/2008/07/17/henry-thoreaus-moral-universe/ Two red-orange and black koi swam in the small, clear pool. Clover burst from the water line, up the artifically naturalistic banks like a miniature rain forest. The boys dreamed. Their dreams opened in the warm light of the Spring afternoon. The sun warmed the doors of their eyes, and the ... http://kaweah.com/blog/2008/07/16/the-evangel-of-koi/ The toads moved out across the Sink under the cover of night, crawling left-right-left on their soft bellies like commandos under the cantaloupe and corn and parsley. As they crossed the Maginot Line, one would drop into a trench, then another would fall into a vertical shaft; one not knowing ... http://kaweah.com/blog/2008/07/15/amphibian-assault/ Continuing from our discussion of ketman ... Some aspects of Islám are reminiscent of Zoroastrianism in ways unique to Islám, for example As-Sirát (Arabic: الصراط), the Bridge of Judgment, which is reminiscent of the Zoroastrian Chinvat Bridge. Other Zoroastrian influences, such as those involving eschatology and angelogy, appear to have entered ... http://kaweah.com/blog/2008/07/08/parsi-dualism-in-shi%e2%80%98a-islam/ "There is not a single true Moslem in Persia." —Reported statement by a Persian to Arthur Comte de Gobineau (cited in "Versions of Censorship", by McCormick & MacInnes) One of the great accomplishments—or offenses—of Islám was in conquering and subjugating the Persian Empire. Alexander had conquered the Persian Empire a millennium earlier, but ... http://kaweah.com/blog/2008/07/08/ketman-veiling-god/ A couple years ago, my friend Juan and I attempted to follow the route of the old Hockett Trail above Ladybug Camp in Sequoia National Park. We were stopped in our tracks by a wall of brush that has filled in since the maintenance of the trail ceased in 1969. ... http://kaweah.com/blog/2008/07/01/the-inevitability-of-fire/ As if the federal government weren't already big enough. As if the moral domain of the federal government weren't already broad enough. Federal government? More like Central government. We now have both so-called-liberals and so-called-conservatives supporting the use of tax dollars to fund religious organizations. I suppose this means I can save a check. ... http://kaweah.com/blog/2008/07/01/bipartisan-theocracy/ When I hear the name Jackie Robinson, I am sometimes reminded of Ty Cobb, as was Branch Rickey: "This is the most competitive man I've known since Ty Cobb." — Branch Rickey (to Red Barber) There's a difference, of course. No black man could have got away with Cobb's behavior (nor could most ... http://kaweah.com/blog/2008/06/27/thank-you-jackie-robinson/