THE MOAI AND THE BIKE RIDE

POST # 41


In the morning, after I'm out of bed, and after I have done my morning exercises, I stand in the kitchen waiting for the water to boil. As I do this I gaze out the window which overlooks my neighbours' yard here in Everett, and in the yard, there is a reasonable facsimilie of a Moai looking back at me. The Moai are the stone statues left behind on Easter island many centuries ago. But I'll come back to them in due course.

A quick check out the back door confirms that Tika the dog is sleeping peacefully on the back porch, as it is still quite early. She looks totally content lying there, and instead of opening the door, I decide to let her sleep for a little while longer while I do some reading and enjoy a cup of hot coffee. Once the coffee is finished it's time to say "Good morning Tika" and ask her if she had a good sleep. Like as if I'm going to get an answer. But I suppose that talking to animals comes with the job, and she doesn't seem to mind because soon she knows that the word "breakfast" will be spoken to her, and even though I would like to think that she is really happy to see me every morning, the real reason for her excitement is in knowing that soon she will be chowing down on her favourite food.

Yesterday, I decided to go on an extended bike ride heading down, down, down, towards the Snohomish river to see what I could see, and hopefully find a quiet spot in the shade by the river bank where I could do some reading. At the moment I am reading a work of fiction, which is quite out of the ordinary for me, but it just so happens that it's the type of story which the reader, well at least this reader, can't wait to get back to.

As I coasted down the hills towards the river I came to a footbridge which crosses over railway tracks and at the end of this footbridge there is a water run off from interstate 5 which I had to ride underneath to get to this point. A sign there explains to the reader that this was purpose built to capture the water which comes off of a 3 mile stretch of the interstate. The sign says that 3 million gallons a year ends up here, but instead of having the water, which contains all sorts of nasty heavy metals, oil, etc. go directly into the Snohomish river, it is "filtered" through a wetland prior to its final journey to the river. Now I guess on the face of it, this seems to be a good idea, attempting to clean up the water prior to its arrival at the river, but I couldn't help but wonder about all the other tainted water that runs off of the rest of interstate 5 which according to wikipedia has a total length of 1381.29 miles (2222.97km) and where it all ends up. And all the other interstates as well. The other thing that I noticed was that there was actually water falling down from the bridge to the wetland below, and I was curious to know why. Since I have been here in Everett, arriving on Sept 3rd, with the exception of a few spits of drizzle about a week ago, it has been dry, dry, dry. So where is this water really coming from?

Well enough about that. With the bike balanced with my left arm and my right arm holding firmly onto the railing provided, I slowly descended the stairway down to the ground where I continued on my journey eventually popping out through the trees to a pathway that paralleled the river heading in a northerly direction. I felt happy now, slowly wending my way along the path, and stopping every now and again to gaze out at the river. Eventually the path made a rather sharp turn to the west through the trees and then came to an abrupt end. Here I was faced with a curious sight. In front of me was a brand new roadway, which could have been built just yesterday, and was complete will all the appropriate road markings and signs, but the curious part about it was that it went nowhere and was not being used. It just dead ended at where I was now standing. This short stretch of roadway included a roundabout and a bridge which went over top of the same railway tracks I had recently crossed, heading in a westerly direction back towards Everett. As there was no traffic, I continued my journey as far as I could go onto the bridge before coming to a spot that was blocked off by a fence and concrete blocks. THE END OF THE LINE as far as I was concerned.

From this vantage point on the bridge, I had a view of the surrounding area. Directly in front of me and below where I was now standing was an auto wreckers yard which appeared to me that it has been there for a very long time. I say this only because of some of the rusted out shells of cars that looked to be as old as the 1940's vintage. Hundreds and hundreds of automobiles squeezed into this yard, like so many sardines in a can. All I could imagine was they will all be there until the end of time, with maybe a few more added from the interstate every now and again. The metal, glass and plastic detritus of our current civilization.

As I gazed out further to the north, through the haze I could barely make out what appeared to be the image of Mount Baker. If I would have been born a hundred years ago and stood on this very spot, I imagine Mount Baker would have been quite easy to see. But not today, and of course there is a connection between my hazy view and the dead cars below, and all the other cars that are whizzing past on the interstate, but it is where we find ourselves in North America in 2012. Decisions were made a long long time ago which helped to turn our culture into one which is so very dependent on the automobile. And now, at least for a while longer, we are stuck with it.

I'd seen enough at this point and so I happily hopped back onto my bike and coasted down the hill and back onto the bike path which took me back to the river, where I could find a place on the grass to rest for a while and think about things. Even here, surrounded by green, and water, the constant hum of interstate 5 droned on in the background.

Eventually I decided that it was time to head back to see how Tika dog was doing, and began my climb up the hill towards home. Normally this wouldn't have been too challenging, and I don't mind hill climbing on a bike, but the current bike was one of the old styles with only 3 gears and so from time to time I had to get off and walk. But it was all good exercise for my leg(s).

I arrived home to a dog which was happy to see me, and I guess that is one of the best things about dogs. Even in the short time I've known her, Tika greets me like a long lost friend.

Once back in the house, I could again see the Moai in the neighbours yard and it made me think of a couple of books I've read in recent years that talk about the collapse of civilizations. Joseph Tainter's book, "The Collapse of Complex Societies", and Jared Diamond's book "Collapse" both go into detail about how societies end, and Easter island is a classic example. The islanders exhausted their resource base, and once that was complete, it was only a matter of time before their society collapsed. When I began to reflect on the days events, I couldn't help but think of how fast we are using up our resource base, and wonder just how much longer we can continue on this path before mother nature puts a halt to all this nonsense. Commenting about this to a friend of the owner of the house I am currently staying at, my exact words were, "The earth is now Easter island" and he seemed to agree with that.

But here we all are and none of us had the choice of being born at this particular moment in history, so I guess we are all going to find out one way or the other how things progress from here. What was the old Chinese saying, "May you live in interesting times." Well, it appears that we certainly are in 2012.

I open the window, and look down at Tika, who is now hanging out in her favourite shady spot. She looks up at me, and as I mull over the thoughts in my head, she gives me that look which seems to say with her eyes, "Isn't it just about time for a dog biscuit, Paul?" Thanks Tika girl, for bringing me back to the present moment.

The thoughtful wandering continues...

Paul
The Thoughtful Wanderer

And a ps. Next week on Sept. 21st I will be saying goodbye to my current home and heading back to Vancouver. Depending on how the day goes, I will try and make the time to get my blog completed, but I guess the proof will be in the pudding.