Deterioration of Beauty and a Shifting of Resources

The state of my birth has been altered through neglect and redirecting of funds away from those who produce to those who consume services and bloated pensions. Still there are pockets of beauty, though the roads that take you there have deteriorated and business is getting throttled…. Our governor thinks he’s running for President, and the megalomaniac in him emerged full grown, as Athena from the forehead of Zeus. I’ll soon be leaving this once land of milk and honey as it chases into decrepitude.

Obstacles, slowdowns, and stops have always perturbed me. I’ve lived in Los Angeles for the past six years, and getting around in a car or on foot in Los Angeles is nothing if not maddening and a massive time suck.

The open spaces of Montana speak to me; they open my chest. I breathe more deeply, I rest more easily, and I can move long distances and short ones with great speed. I think we may have found a new home.

Having spent much of my youth in the fir forests of northwest Oregon, I wanted nothing more than to live in a tipi and learn to hunt and survive with Indians. It was around this time that my grandmother sent me a hardbound set of books from National Geographic. They covered whales, volcanos, dinosaurs, sea life in general and Indian cultures of North America.

I buried my nose in the Indian volume, trying to extract survival skills as if it were a manual. It was around this time that I’d first heard of the state of Montana, Lewis and Clark, and Sacajawea. For some reason Montana stuck in my mind. I needed to see it, feel it, explore it, touch it, live it. No explanation or understanding as to why, but suffice to say, now I know.