Hoover Dam & bin-Laden: We Foot the Bill

Half an hour outside of Las Vegas sits Hoover Dam, an engineering marvel from the 1930s. It was built by Warren Bechtel, the founder of the Bechtel Corp., headquartered in San Francisco.



The Dam was on al-Qaeda's target list, so after 9/11, the federal government decided to build a bridge 1,000 feet high over the dam to reduce its vulnerability to attacks, such as by truck bombs.



Scheduled to be completed next year, the construction project rivals the dam in its complexity and grand scale.



I don't recall seeing a more impressive bridge at the partway-built stage anywhere before.



If Osama bin-Laden accomplished nothing else by his terror attacks, he has cost the U.S. taxpayer a frightful amount of money trying to secure our borders and our most vulnerable national assets.

A visit to the dam during the current recession is a sobering reminder of that sad fact.

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Sedona

If you want to take a road trip, you could do a lot worse than drive around in Arizona.



That's what I've been doing this week, with a friend. I've been to the state maybe a half dozen times over the years, but never with as much freedom to explore as we had this week.



These photos are from what many in these parts would agree is one of the most spiritual places in this state: Sedona.



If you are moved by nature's endless ability to inspire, go to Sedona. It is a desert town with enough water to support deciduous plants and fancy resorts. But we didn't go to the fancy resorts.



If you are on a budget, (as I always am) there are lovely and affordable places to stay in this town, at least briefly. The best thing, when you arrive after dark, is to wake up and see the outcroppings that ring this place.



There is so much variety in these formations, each of which have special names I will not burden you with here, and so many different angles from which to view them, that Sedona is a photographer's dream.

It is even more a realm for painters.



Like the Grand Canyon, the sun lights the stage in Sedona. As the sun moves in its inexorable arc, ever higher in the early part of any year, and always lower in the latter half, it illuminates each and every crack and crag and cave in these uniquely red rocks.



Red is a color that elicits strong feelings inside all people. As a writing teacher, one of my favorite exercises is to tell my students that I will name a color, ask them to write what they feel about that color in five minutes, and then hand that writing in.

My favorite color for this exercise is red.



The answers to that particular question tell a lot about the writer's age, class, gender, ethnicity, national heritage, but most of all, about that writer's imagination.

As a writer, I never presume to have any useful words for any other person about their personal quest for spirituality. That is as deeply personal as any journey one takes. But my feeling while in Sedona is that this could be a very good place indeed for you to visit if you are searching in that sense.

Meanwhile, since this is Thanksgiving Day, I'd just like to say thanks for Sedona.

And thanks for red.

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Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone reading these words has a sense of peace and fellowship on this holiday.



Celebrating with my older sister and husband here in lovely Arizona.

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The Grand Canyon

Through my eyes, recently...

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Road Tripping: Route 66

These images are from a recent drive I took along the western end of the old Route 66.



Some of these towns, and cafes, and tourist stops could well disappear in the coming decade.



Not many folks continue to live in these small towns, since the freeways bypassed them.



Maybe, in the end, the only ones left will be those who originally lived here, the people the early Europeans called "Indians." After all, they are still here, just as they have always been.



But Route 66 for most Americans is about nostalgia, not Natives.



I understand.



The '50s. Only problem is, I didn't feel comfortable in the '50s, and I was a kid then. The style may have been great, but it was rock 'n roll that freed us from all of that.

Remember?

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My Musical Genius (Who Insists He Isn't)

I have a kid who hates any kind of public attention. Thus he hates to perform in plays, he hates giving speeches, he hates pretty much any situation that places him in the eye of others.

On the other hand, he (like all of us) can only avoid being seen for who we really are for a limited period of time. Just being alive and on the planet means you'll be noticed.

The cliche is "don't hide your light under the bushel." (The final word is often shortened to "bush" in colloquial American.)

But so many special people try to do that, at all ages and stages.

In fact, it is the shyest kids who invariably turn out to be the most interesting adults, on many levels.

As much as I respect those who somehow are born with, or acquire, superior social skills, I also have to say that the deepest spirits, the oldest souls, the most intriguing people I've encountered along the way were, at least as children awkward, unsure, and probably just sort of weird.

Although he would disagree, I know that my little guy is deeply gifted as a musician. He doesn't understand how good he is because there is not enough social value around this particular skill from his peers for him to let that information in.

You know the best part about today? His big brother, whose gifts are in athletics, was even more nervous than he was. He sat upstairs in the balcony, worrying, waiting for his little brother to take the stage.

When he finally did, he was masterful. If you like music, or even if you don't, please watch this clip and tell me what you think. Remember, since it is at YouTube, to let the whole clip load before you try to watch it, for a better viewing experience.



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