A Change of Scene

Today I saw an old man jogging on a trail in the Northwest. Nothing unusual about that, except that he was juggling while he jogged. This struck me as the ultimate Alzheimer’s prevention exercise. It’s not a sight I would expect to see on the mountain trails in my home town.

Last month I saw a league of old men playing softball on a field in the Southwest. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a gathering of healthy old men. Again, not a sight I’ve witnessed in my rural town in the California Sierra Nevadas. Perhaps the difference is that Bainbridge Island, WA and Surprise, AZ are urban spaces in natural landscapes.

Wikipedia characterizes an urban area by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to a rural setting. On Bainbridge Island I experience a cornucopia of characters, artists and entrepreneurs who weave themselves into the landscape and flower brightly. The desert suburbs of Phoenix fairly burst with the health and wealth set.

We return to our rural enclave next week only to venture out once more to the California Coast. There is nothing more beautiful than the Pacific Ocean lapping at the Northern California Coast. Craggy cliffs overlook stretches of sandy beaches I walk in mostly temperate weather while gazing out at fathomless horizons. The old men don’t stand out particularly. No one does, really. Like Paris, France and Los Gatos, CA it’s the dogs sporting age–indeterminate people who stand out.

I live in a place graced by golden hills and expansive valleys, wild rivers and sparkling lakes, snow-capped granite mountains and grassy meadows. It’s not very populated. Our human features are not all that vast.

We are rural. Our resources are limited. Mostly we live on fixed incomes, although some are fixed higher than others. Some live “off the grid,” with no income at all. Mostly we are aging, although school buses still disgorge short backpackers onto the roads every day around 2:30 pm. I vacillate between thanking God for the breathtaking beauty of our mountains and wishing for a wider array of human features.

A change of scene is welcome then. When a lone juggling jogger crosses my mindscape of rugged hikers, when I pass a grassy diamond full of exuberant gray-haired ball players, when my eyes follow a seagull sweeping low over the ocean water instead searching for the red tail hawk soaring high above the oaks and pines, I am caught by surprise, and it delights me.