Another Time

Millions of years ago the first humans began to grunt or click or communicate in some primitive language. Social scientists who study the history of human development will likely critique (assuming they would even read) this previous statement, among others from this post. Nevertheless, my uninformed understanding of our ancestors' evolution brought along rudimentary tools shortly after language and then simple machines. Only a few short eons later the development would be staggering. We no longer live in caves. Few if any of us hunt for survival. We have running water and sophisticated systems to deliver our basic utilities directly to our homes including a little thing called electricity which seems to be an ever-present life force in our world. When we're done with what is delivered to our homes we have even more sophisticated systems to dispose of it all. We're so sophisticated that it has become socially taboo to even talk about "disposing" of it all. We have things pretty nice. We don't have to put up with extreme temperatures for longer durations than a quick walk to the car. There is no need to protect ourselves from predators and pests, we have exterminators and highly industrialized cities to keep the menacing wild-life away. We've come a long way and we have a simpler life now than our ancestors did living in caves, hunting and being hunted. Nevertheless, this life can become chaotic and stressful, its a good thing that we've saved a bit of a bygone age.

Take as an example, McKinney Falls State Park. It was here that primitives found natural rock formations resembling modern patio covers. These areas made perfect shelter from violent storms. Anna and I headed out for a day of shelter from the storm of modern life. At least, that was our intent. In decades, centuries and eons past, our ancestors would hear thunder in the distant skies and head for the rock shelters. Anna and I headed that way after a quick google search of good places to hike within a short driving distance from our home in the suburbs. The ancients knew that storms carried awesome power and could do untold damage to the scant civilization and could hang in the air for days. We can deduce that they likely would have hurriedly gathered up what food and water they could on their way to the shelters. Anna and I knew that we wanted it to be a good full day so we packed our insulated pic-nic backpack (smarter than the average bears) with peanut butter sandwiches, cheese cubes and baked lays. We filled our impressive collection of Nalgene bottles sporting the names of local Baptist institutions that we've collected at various conventions here and there and filled them with water. That is, water with ample gatorade powder mixed in. Just as in centuries past, we scurried to the semi-caves as fast we could in my 2001 Ford Ranger pick-up truck. After a warm first half of the day we stopped in to the air conditioned visitor's center for rendezvous with modern plumbing if you know what I mean. Hands washed and sanitized, it was time for another hike now fully alert to the dangers of Texas' most venomous snakes thanks to the full color poster issued by the park service.

So maybe a retreat to another period in time was a bit ambitious for us. Nevertheless, if you live in the Austin area and can muster a bit of imagination we highly recommend McKinney Falls as a great place to escape the buzz of 2009.