Stayed in for a bit this morning and backed up some things, especially all the audio and video from these last couple of days of good interviews in Georgia. The day looked miserable (foggy all over) but after lunch turned into a glorious day! Went to a place called Grit and had an amazing Huevos Rancheros meal with tofu called the border control, aye aye aye, amazing. When touring with Katie we eat well and research great places, and this was one of the best breakfasts I have ever had. Sadness as we know this is her last day before she flies back to New York and London. But otherwise the sun is shining and we toured the lovely small town of Athens. The downtown, which is 4 streets this and that way, is full of color and students and history. The Georgia Theatre I know burned down and was just rebuilt last year, it looked like a lovely beacon in the downtown stretch. Georgia State students everywhere since this is a huge college town, reminded me of my old University town and started reminiscing school days. We got Katies ring fixed by and really cool guy named Ed and we left around 3pm to hit up some outdoor settings near Atlanta. Stone Mountain, 15 minutes away from downtown is a huge park with amazing lake and walking course. Seeing things in off season is awesome, everything from the theme park part was like abandoned Disney world. Ice making luges, cable cars, and confederate generals carved in this amazing huge chunk of rock! So weird and realizing this today how odd America truly is. There are so many unique parts of this country that are just naturally beautiful (this huge rock and camping area) and then we put all this oddities around it that allow us to experience all things all year long. Pumping snow into a huge luge under a rock is just weird but makes for something so surreal that just makes you happy that human beings are so damn goofy. On the other hand I did get a little sad looking at the stretch of road between Athens and Stone Mountain. I know in betwixt all of the unique there is going to be the mundane human made garbage that I feel makes our country seem shallow and banal. All of the Walmarts, Cvs and Walgreens, Best Buys, outbacks, Gold buying places, are all the same in every place, every town, every stretch and it just feels awful. You can see Corporate America everywhere and it just makes you sad that we have come this far and that this what we have to have to survive from stretch to stretch. So many reasons why we are where we are and would love to talk to people about this. We are a huge country, we have tons of people, we have tons of corporations that just build build build, etc. Does anyone feel me? It just makes you sad because I think this is here to stay, where can we go from here? I was very happy to be in the woods and climbing a mountain to see the sunset and seeing the city of Atlanta in the distance. Taking it back to nature always heals my heart and mind and just hope we dont f that up in the near future. Back into Atlanta after the sunset and had a beautiful last meal with Katie. Staying close to the airport because she is leaving early in the morning. Beautiful Sadness but optimistic that there are more people like me and we are working to do something different. goodnight.
The marble message about the tree just tore me up, Josh. Made me feel all wonderful and sad at the same time, overcome with throat-tightening emotion. Did I get a glimpse of the tree just at the top of the photo? The railroad tracks disappearing around the curve in the trees–what an intriguing image. What’s that castle looking thing at Stone Mtn.? The black and white photo of the trees makes me thing of the War Between the States.
And I could agree with you more about the corporate stretches along our highways, outlining our suburbs, making of themselves self-fulfilling prophecies of We made it, You see it, You gotta have it. How come we’ve lost sight of the idea that enough is enough?
When Mama and I moved here to Portland, Oregon, we never once entertained for a second living in the suburbs. We knew we wanted to live IN Portland where we witnessed creativity and diversity in so many areas. Thank goodness that little ol’ lady agreed to do that, thank goodness. The two of use thrived on our Portland, on seeing folks out and about, on seeing and shopping at local restaurants and shops interspersed with some chain places but not overrun with chain places. We thrived on having sidewalks criss-crossing our neighborhoods–we lived in Southeast Portland from June-October, 2006, when we had to move ’cause our building sold to become condos, and Northwest Portland from October, 2006, until she died in January, 2011. Then I moved to Northeast Portland which I have grown to love. I can walk anywhere I need to go until I’m ready to get on a bus and go the rest of the way. I am so happy here! I can’t wait to see you in Portland!