I had my earbuds in and listened to my MP3 player, mainly softer indie rock and a few more mainstream things, but my main goal was to be as relaxed as possible. I lit up a cigarette and spent hours looking over the trees and the Arkansas river, my mind's maw agape at the majesty of the sights it was taking in.
I am a very outspoken Atheist, and I sometimes hear people ask, "If you don't believe in a creator, how can you really take in the magnificence of the world?" But that is exactly why it is so beautiful to me. Which seems more awesome (and I use that term in the old sense of the word, where you are stunned speechless by the happenings around you), that someone who already knew the concept of beauty and made it accordingly, or that over eons, this all burst out of nothing? The fact that this just so happened to take place is what makes my eyes water and my heart soar. This all came from nothing, and now I get to take in all of the breathtaking scenes.
The following are some pictures taken of me at the park. Yes, I have terrible acne, don't rub it in. :P
On a much less lovely note, I did have a "run-in" with the law while I was there. I went to the side to pee, as human beings tend to have to do on occasion, and out of the corner of my eye I noticed a park ranger's truck stop near my family's car. I zipped up and went out, and he was wearing a cocky sneer on his face. The first words out of his mouth, "Does that look like a bathroom to you, boy?"
The first thing that came to my head was, "Look back about 50 years. Yes, it looks like a fucking bathroom." But, since I did not want to spoil this pleasant evening with a night sitting in a jailhouse because a forest cop got butthurt, I said, "No sir, I'm sorry yaddayaddayadda."
It is completely stupid for him to have done that. Is my urine REALLY going to cause a problem? Say that a child had come over the hill and saw me standing there. I would have been to far away for him/her to make out anything specific, so no harm done there either. This is why I don't care for law enforcement officers. There are some things that they are needed for. Real crime, for example. And a park ranger needs to worry about people messing with wildlife, littering the landscape, etc. I was not doing anything to harm anyone. He saw me and said, "Hey look, someone I can exercise my power over." Fuck him, and fuck all cops who do that.
Well, I think that's it for this post, I have rambled long enough.
