Nature Sounds in Real Life

My new electric car beeps and peeps constantly to warn me about close cars, veering out of the lane, not following the car ahead of me with alacrity. For a few weeks I was annoyed by the car's chatter, but we've made it through the initial phase of our relationship and now we couldn't be parted. I discover new bells and whistles daily, including the ability to play nature sounds on the stereo. The digital console offers "wild forest," "waking up in the city," and some water medley that I haven't yet tried. Wild forest sounds appealed instantly, and I spent a happy commute listening to unbridled birdsong and crickets. I can't warble along, but I plunged into a happy memory of our recent immersion into a real forest with living creatures and their music.

On Saturday, Aden led William and I on a punishing but beautiful hike along the skyline peaks of Boulder. She did the Boulder Skyline Traverse with a friend once before, when she was in 2020 pandemic shape (i.e. fabulous due to daily hiking or biking) and felt that I needed to try it, despite the fact that I am not currently in pandemic shape. William came along to set the early pace and (after some grumbling in the middle) finish off with fabulous cheerleading as I faltered. I ended the hike mid-way up our fifth and final peak, when the air temperature reached 80 degrees and my body emphatically concluded that 18 miles and 5200 feet of elevation gain was enough. William continued to the finish line and ended his day with 20 miles and 600 feet more of elevation.

I review the hike not to laud our accomplishments (well, maybe a little) but to reflect on the good fortune that allows us to immerse ourselves in actual forest. A 45-minute drive to the kids' apartments in Boulder and a 15-minute drive to the trailhead brought us to the precipice of adventure. When we left the trailhead at 4:50am the birds were up and in full voice, sending us floating along the trail on their happy sound waves. Warblers, chickadees, finches, sparrows all gossiped and chattered at high volume and we stopped talking to appreciate nature's surround sounds. 

In the faint light before dawn we couldn't appreciate the wildflowers where the birds were sheltering, but we found ourselves in daylight soon enough. After a tough upward scramble over the first two rocky peaks, we began to stride along the Green Mountain trail, where Queen Anne's Lace grew as high as young trees and all manners of pink, purple, white, gold and orange wildflowers met us at every turn. The sleepy birds gave way to happy humming crickets and circling butterflies and our nature bath was only interrupted by herds of trail runners passing on our left.

I realize that not everybody has the chance to step off the beaten sidewalk, get out of their car and find the real natural soundscape, and I'm so grateful that my car is not the only place I can hear birdsong. Now I just need to get back my ability to walk, and it will be time to plan the next one.

Mourning for Boulder

"Having someone taken through gun violence, surviving gun violence oneself, even hearing gunshots tears at our basic sense of safety, of security and of self."  - Madison Armstrong and Jennifer Carlson, New York Times

"The massacre in Boulder this week, which took the lives of ten of our neighbors, was an act of genuine evil carried out by a single individual. But societal evil flourishes whenever ordinary citizens surrender their moral duty, courage, and collective imagination to resist it for the sake of the common good." - Rev. Mark Feldmeir, St. Andrew UMC, weekly email, March 24,2021

What to say?

My daughter told me about the active shooter situation as she walked from class to home on Monday. "Don't worry, Mom," she said, "I'm safe. It's across town, and the police are on the scene." Aden knew the police were on the scene because one of her classmates had attended their meeting via Zoom, and the noise of sirens in the background drowned out her comments. The professor had to ask the young lady to mute herself, for which he later apologized. 

Aden's classmate lives across from the King Sooper's where a lone gunman murdered ten people.

Another of Aden's friends had been grocery shopping at the location, and left five minutes prior to the first shots fired. My daughter spent a long time on the phone with him on Tuesday, and with two friends who grew up with one of the young people who was killed. 

"It's harder for them," she said to me. "It's their first time."

It isn't her first time, or mine. The Arapahoe High School shooting occurred down the street from us when Aden was in (a nearby) high school, and she lost three classmates to suicide her senior year, including a childhood friend. She's angry, and sad, and numb. Rob and I spent several shaken hours responding to texts, phone calls and emails from family and friends asking if Aden was safe. Yes, I said, and no.

My Facebook feed thrust ironic memories at me whenever I braved the app this week (to ask politicians to act on guns): photos of Aden and I at the Denver march for gun control in the wake of the Parkland shooting. The juxtaposition of past and current events did little to calm my inner unrest. Nothing has improved in the last three years, despite marching, voting, protesting, and writing.

Supposedly, a large majority of America supports common-sense gun regulation. We support it, but we don't care enough to replace elected representatives who don't follow through. There's no political incentive for most Republicans to come out in favor of an assault weapons ban, or even for extended background checks. 

Why? If we care about our broken society, our traumatized young people, our sense of self, we need to vote politicians who will take weapons of war off the street in to office, and we need to fire politicians who do nothing to stop the unending massacre of our citizens.

This is normal in America, but it should not be normal. It should shock, wound, sadden, and steer us to action. Where is our will, I wonder, when my young daughter says to me, "it's worse when it's your first time"?