Hello Folks,
It was a grey day yesterday – planned to do a bit of biking but the day suggested something else. Drove north of Moab to Thompson Springs and then from there to Sego Canyon.
The walls of Sego Canyon were the canvas for four distinct and unique Native American cultures dating from 7000 BC (3000 years older than the earth itself J) to about 1300 CE. There was a significant amount of snow in the canyon but the road was clear and the ‘art; sites easily accessible.
Some of the ‘art’ has been augmented, ‘improved’ and 'value added to' by immigrant Americans – however their approach was slightly different than the approach used by various Native American cultures over the previous 9000 years – instead of adding new art in a different area of the canyon, they chose to deface and otherwise destroy the existing art – ‘chipping over’ and ‘bullet augmentation’ seemed to be the preferred method of defacement.
After spending some time in the canyon, drove back to town and took some photos of the ‘ghost town’ that once was Thompson springs. There are a number of buildings, mostly wood construction – some cement block/brick – that are vacant, dilapidated and eventually will collapse or be burned down. Most folks still in the town live in RVs or trailer style housing.
The town itself is defined by a 4 way stop that isolates a set of 5 or 6 rail tracks that bisect and define the town center. Around that center is located the trucks, trailers and equipment of a ailway company – and what they are doing there I have no idea because the town and surroundings are barren.
There were a few rail cars on the tracks, full of graffiti. As I walked along the road, running the gauntlet of abandoned buildings, and the operations of some rail company, it dawned on me that in this desolate landscape I was beginning to see a repeated motif, it was the shape of a cross – old telephone poles, the leftover remains of some wooden structure, etc. – there just seemed to be these ‘suggested’ or ‘implied’ crosses everywhere ....
There may be a metaphor here ... in the canyon north of town, where at least four migratory cultures lived and thrived for part of each season, there is an expression of their ‘art’ captured on the canyon walls. Within the town itself there is an expression of my cultures’ art that is decaying, falling down and in a few generations will disappear altogether.
Let’s admit that the rock art north of town may be simply ancient graffiti – even if it is – it is a symbolic representation and an artistic expression of a need to communicate to ‘others’ that someone was here before us and that ‘they’ (the culture) and ‘their art’ (their significance) were worthy of note.
What are ‘we’ doing in the 21st century to show future generations that ‘we’ and ‘our art’ are worthy of note? Do the ‘suggested’ crosses in Thompson Springs imply that ‘my’culture is dying ... that, indeed, it is already dead ....
No ... it’s not dead, but it is on life support ... to get back to where we need to be we have to emulate those native cultures whose members created those beautiful images on the walls of Sego Canyon ... they were small ‘c’ conservative by necessity (I didn’t say communist), they were environmental by nature, they were communal by choice and they were entrepreneurial by necessity.... just like the folks here in Moab. And when we have successfully emulated the spirit of those past cultures we will then understand that ‘creating’ and ‘building’ has a more lasting and permanent legacy than ‘short term thinking’ and ‘long term hindsight’.
As my stay in Moab winds down, I already plan and look forward to my next visit ... there are a lot of politicians at all levels of government that could take some lessons from the fine folks here in Moab ...
Yes, the flying undertaker was out there in Sego Canyon today ... but I sense something different – maybe, just maybe, it has been trying to show me something ... something I just haven’t been open to ... could the flying crow beast be a connection to something past ... something lost, that needs desperately to be rediscovered ... the next few days will tell ...
To quote from verse 287 of the Krome Koan,
'Don't let schooling get in the way of your education'.
More later,
Phil
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