Concerning Jason Collins

In case any of you missed the significance of why media outlets gave so much attention to Jason Collins going public with his sexuality yesterday, please allow me to try to explain it to you as best I can as a straight person. Whether you believe it or not, gay people are treated very poorly in the United States (and even worse in other parts of the world). Being gay is a criminal offense that carries a prison sentence in 68 countries and carries the death sentence in 5 countries.

Homosexual teenagers have the highest suicide rates of any social group. This is due, in part, to the fact that many of them and their family members have bought into the lie that they, as a person, are fundamentally flawed. Homosexuals are frequently castigated from their own families, parents, siblings, friends, and communities once people find out they are gay.

A friend of mine came out to me in 2003 which really changed my perception of what a gay person was. Until that time, I thought all gay people were flamboyantly outspoken and that had to mean they were fundamentally flawed. Until my friend came out, I never realized a gay person could be normal, like sports, just be one of the guys. Right now there are tens of thousands of gay people living in fear every day that their sports team, that their church, that their friends, that their co-workers might find out that they're gay.

Jason Collins took a very courageous step yesterday by going public for the first time in history as an active player in one of the four major sports in the United States. Collins put everything on the line yesterday and risked being outcast by his team, friends, and the entire city of Boston. He did it for the suffering teenagers who consider suicide because they were rejected by family or get bullied at school or who get told that God hates them, just because they were born a certain way.

Jason Collins serves as notice that flamboyant gay people are a loud, outspoken minority. Society needs to wise up to the fact that most gay people are normal people whom you would never suspect until they are ready to talk about it. These people are your doctors, lawyers, teachers, friends, colleagues, co-workers etc. Most of them spend their lives quietly biting their lips, reading about what you write, what say, and are filled with sadness knowing that they'll never be able to reveal their pain with you because they know you simply won't understand.

I myself used to be guilty of this behavior. I lacked empathy and love for my fellow man and had hateful, inconsiderate thoughts and actions that I'm embarrassed to admit having. All people are deserving of respect, love, and dignity. I assert that a more Christ-like behavior would be a deep concern for the suicide rates and treatment of homosexuals rather than concerning ourselves with whether we are going to allow them to marry or not.  A more Christ-like behavior would be standing up and saying that a death penalty for homosexuals is unconscionable, unacceptable, and I will not stand for it.

Sh*t Creationists Say

I want to begin this blog post with a disclaimer, then onto the laughs. My intention is not to insult people of religious faith here. I have a lot of close friends of faith who are very intellectual, rational, wonderful people that I respect deeply. What I am making fun of here is unadulterated ignorance. I'm not mocking the belief itself but rather than horrifying thought process that leads to said belief and worse the ridiculous arguments used to uphold said beliefs.

Before we get to the fun, I think it's important to make our definitions clear. Creationism is not the idea that a Creator is the author of everything.  Specifically, creationism is a reference to the (pseudo)scientific idea that the Earth, universe, and all of life was created as-is in its present form.

First we will start with a few of the common, yet somewhat reasonable arguments that creationists make, then we'll move onto the outright crazy stuff some have argued with me before.

Common (but still bad) Arguments From Creationists

"Evolution claims that God does not exist."
False: Science makes no claims about gods, either for or against, because gods are supernatural beings. Science is a description of the natural world. Science will never even try to touch on the supernatural arena. Many believers accept evolution but believe a deity guided the process.

"This all did not just happen by accident (or chance)"
True: Science demonstrates how the universe, galaxy, solar system, planets, etc. all came into existence through the forces of nature in a predictable fashion. We know that stars and planets form as a result of gravity. It's predictable and testable. There is no "chance" or "accident" involved planetary formation.

"If humans came from monkeys, why are there still monkeys?"
First of all, this is a horrible argument. Never use it. Humans did not come FROM monkeys. The proposition is that modern apes and humans share a common, ape-like ancestor that is now extinct, different from both species.

"Why did some monkeys not evolve into humans?"
Because humanity is not the goal of evolution, survival is. Apes are not "less developed" humans. They are a separate species that evolved along a different evoltuionary chain. All dogs are descendents of gray wolves. So this question would be equivalent to asking "how come some wolves did not evolve into poodles?"

"The Earth is perfectly suited for human habitation."
Partially true and false. Only 25% of the surface of the Earth is habitable by humans. Of that available space, only 50% of it is capable of sustaining crops of any kind. However it is true that the Earth is suited for human habitation, or it could be that humans have grown to be well-suited to Earth's environment. Evolution asserts that species who are well-suited to their environments are capable of survival and reproduction. The fact that humans are well-suited to habitation on Earth can be used as an argument for creationism, but it's certainly a valid argument to support evolution.

"Evolution is ONLY a theory."
True and false. It is true that evolution is a theory. It is false that's it's a theory insofar as what a creationist thinks the word "theory" means. In colloquial language, a theory is an idea or guess. So why are scientists so adamant that a scientific theory be taught as a fact? Because in science, a scientific theory is the ultimate achievement. A scientific theory is a well-substantiated explanation for a well-substantiated body of facts and laws that is repeatedly confirmed through observation, testing, and peer-review. You may have heard of a few other theories, gravitation theory (which describes and explains the law of gravity) and also heliocentric theory (the theory the sun is the center focal point of our solar system).

Many people think that theories eventually graduate to "laws" once they are proven. This is not the case. Laws in science are simple observations, often expressed in mathematical terms that have no explanatory power. For example, Newton's Second Law of Motion is expressed as F=MA. That's the entire law. A law is merely an observation, not an "unbreakable rule." Theories explain why laws and facts behave as they do and are thus considered greater in the hierarchy of science.

Speaking of Newton's second law of motion, when Einstein published the theory of relativity, it demonstrated the fact that Newton's second law was inadequate. Newton's second law works flawlessly in a microsystem such as Earth where the force of gravity does not change. However, relativity demonstrated that space-time is curved. Gravitation and time both differ dependent on the proximity to large-mass objects. Thus, Einstein's THEORY of relativity corrected Newton's Second LAW of motion. Again, in science theories are held in higher esteem than laws.

The Craziness

The following is a collection of some of the wildest, craziest, most outlandish things I have ever read, seen or heard creationists say.

"When the Earth was made, gravity was only made on the Earth. It doesn't exist anywhere else."
You get 5 out of 5 Kent Hovind's for that comment!

"Evolution is impossible because it conflicts with the two laws of thermodynamics!"
Anyone who is familiar with discussing evolution will eventually get hit with "the second law of thermodynamics" argument from creationists. It's a poor argument that with even a little bit of research it will demonstrate why it's bunk. However, this genius not only tries to parrot the second law of thermodynamics argument, but completely blows it in the process. First of all, there are 3 laws of thermodynamics. Secondly the person heard "second law" at one time, and instead of bothering to research into it decided to repeat it, incorrectly. You get 4 out of 5 Kent Hovind's for that comment!

"You might be an ape, but I'm not!"
Actually you are. Humans are taxanomically classified as homindae, or in laymen's terms, great apes. We share this distinction with bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans. The humor in this statement is the thought that reality is dependent on how they perceive it. You get 4 out of 5 Kent Hovind's for that comment, not only for stupidity but arrogance too.

"You're calling this a mammal because someone just made up what makes a mammal a mammal. If I decided to call my finger a hammer, it's a hammer."
Since this quote is from Kent Hovind himself, he gets 5 out of 5 Hovinds.








"How come some people haven't begun to be able to fly or breathe water?"
You get 4 out of 5 Kent Hovind's for that comment!

"The similarities between apes and humans doesn't imply common ancestry, it implies a common designer."
You get 4 out of 5 Hovinds for rejecting scientific facts, and then replacing it with conjecture and believing your conjecture is superior to demonstrable truth.

"I am neither ignorant nor deceptive for rejecting evolution. I just think the idea that life formed from nothing is insane."
You get 5 out of 5 Hovind's for claiming that you're not ignorant about evolution then following it up by ridiculing something that is not evolution. For anyone who does not understand the distinction, the idea that life formed naturally from inorganic materials is not evolution, it's abiogenesis. Evolution has been repeatedly confirmed, abiogenesis not so much.

"The Earth revolves, the tide goes in and out, you can't explain that."
You get 5 out of 5 Hovinds for the depth of your lunacy. Not only is this a logical fallacy called the argument from ignorance, (we can't explain this, therefore God is real) but it's also one of the most ridiculously bad claims ever. Science actually has a really great, demonstrable, and well understood explanations for both the Earth's rotations and the tides. Hint: they're related to gravity. Bill O'Reilly said this, by the way.

"When God made the Earth, dinosaur bones were floating in space and they got buried in the ground during the Earth's formation."
A clear 5 out of 5 Hovinds and a bonus Ray Comfort for that level of stupidity.

"God cryogenically froze the animals, beamed them on the ark, and then unfroze them after it was over. That's why they didn't need all that food taking up room."
Another 5 out 5 Hovinds.

"How can evolution cause animals to evolve when evolution was invented in the 1800s? Animals existed a long time before Darwin!"
You also get 5 out of 5 Hovinds. Derp!

"Once I gave a speech for why evolution should not be taught in schools. It started thundering right afterwards. God was clapping for me."
Congrats! You get 5 out of 5 Hovinds!

"If evolution works, how come we don't see Olympic swimmers forming webbed hands or gills to breathe?"
Ordinarily this would be an epic facepalm, but compared to some of the other entries on this list, it's moderate. 4 out of 5 Kent Hovinds.

I would love to hear from some of your stories as well. Please feel free to leave them in the comments section.

John Rock Hike

Me and my pops.

John Rock is a mountain situated in Pisgah National Forest on the edge of Brevard, NC. This particular hike features a 4.5 mile trail around John Rock Mountain and a 2-mile trail to the summit.  This is a popular day-hike for a lot of people. On the back end of the trail you can head into the less touristy back country for some more scenic wildlife views and less traffic.

On this particular trip, my father and I geared up and prepared for a night out in the wilderness. We took a 2 mile portion of the trail up to the John Rock trailhead which was a pretty easy walk, then the work began. Climbing to the John Rock summit is no joke. But once you get there the scenery is breath taking.

Looking Glass

At the summit of John Rock one can easily see mountain peaks in a 180-degree field of view from a bare rock face including the beautiful Looking Glass Mountain less than a mile away.

It is worth noting that the highest summit of the mountain ranges visible from the summit of John Rock is Black Balsam Knob which I hiked about five weeks prior to this blog entry.

At the summit of John Rock is a nice open face where you can casually sit and enjoy the scenery including the parking lot from which you just came, 1000 feet directly below you. Numerous other people were on the summit enjoying a casual lunch or just the fruits of their efforts hiking the 4-miles and ascending 1000 feet.

As I was finishing up my lunch, a guy in front of me stands up, turns around and announces to about ten or so people in his field of view, "I don't suppose anyone is interested in a game of chess?"  My immediate thought was, what kind of nerd brings a chess set on a hike? But then it occurred to me that I have done that more than once, being a rated chess player.

I did not mention to the guy that I was a former amateur state champion, well not at first any way. Non-chess nerds can skip the following section.

Begin Chess Talk

I played white and the game went as such. 1.e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Bc4!?

This is the Scotch Gambit, one of my favorite attacking openings.

4... Bc5 5. c3!? Here is where the gambit comes into play. After I played 5. c3 he said to me, "I always wonder why people give up this pawn." To which I replied, "why don't you take it and find out?"

He declined the gambit but he was already getting dangerously close to falling critically behind in development. Incidentally taking the pawn is just an acceptance of playing defense for a long time and hoping to win in a king and pawn endgame. It's a fantastic opening against novice players, but not 100% sound by any means.

5... Qf6 ?!  Tsk tsk. Bringing your queen out too early. 6. Bg5! Qg6 7. O-O! Qxe4?? He's already lost. He bit that pawn which was poisoned. Find the winning move for white.

White to Play and Win.

End Chess Talk

After our friendly chess game was over with, we picked up our gear and headed on.  We reached our junction and along the way passed several, beautiful mountain streams and makeshift bridges that added to the beauty of the hike.

This was my dad's first major hike. After 4 miles (and the equivalent of climbing the Empire State Building with a kindergartner on your back) he was really worn out. We had another 40-story climb ahead of us in order to get deep into the back country.

He mentioned his hips were hurting pretty badly, and so I suggested we take an alternate route which would cut out about six miles of our hike, but still put us in some wilderness where we could camp pretty comfortably, and most importantly, it was all downhill from here. He accepted my proposal so we spent the next hour hiking an additional two miles around John Rock to our camp spot.

My father works for a meat packing plant and so he had some filet mignon that he wanted to bring on the hike. No arguments from me. We made camp, started a fire and then speared the filets on spits and cooked them over the fire. I also brought along some Hoppin' Johns, which for those of you who weren't lucky enough to be raised in the South, is white rice mixed with black-eyed peas and doused with jalapeno tobasco sauce. Without a doubt the best trail meal ever.

After dinner, we sat around the campfire for a bit, and I played a few songs and some improvised blues on my harmonica. Around dusk I told him I was going to hike up the trail for 20 minutes and then hike back. So I got an extra two miles or thereabouts into my hike before bedtime.

We waited until dark to turn in. We were surrounded by thick trees which was the only downside. The site is so far away from the city you can literally see twice as many stars than on an average night. I could only see the Southern sky pretty clearly and had a perfect view of Orion. However, the Northern portion of the sky including Ursa Major, Andromeda, and Polaris was blocked by trees. I really wanted to get a clear view of the Milky Way which runs right through Andromeda but could never find it because of the tree cover.

Bridge just before the Trail ends

Around 6 a.m. we were awakened by a pack of nearby coyotes howling. It was awesome. They were very close too, within a quarter of a mile or so. Around 7 a.m. we headed out and had a two-mile walk back to our car.

This was the second time I have done this trip and I love it. It's one of my favorite trips. I was a little disappointed that we did not head into the backcountry because there are some breath-taking views, and a long walk right beside a sheer mountain face which is really neat. However, I was not complaining about a downhill walk and an early camp which made for more relax time.

Orthodoxy, not Christianity.

Recently I have been compelled to start a journey to answer the question, "how do I know my beliefs are true?" Like most people, I have merely accepted what everyone that I love and trust in my life has told me to be true. It was not until recently when I was giving a good friend of mine some grief for his religious beliefs that it occurred to me that I have never taken the time to verify why my own beliefs are true.

My entire life I have been fed the notion that the Bible is 100% literal, accurate, truth. So you can imagine my surprise when I began a course to investigate the testable claims of the Bible and discovered that many things in the Bible conflict with history. Not only conflict, but overwhelming evidence to the contrary exists to some of the most popular claims in the Bible.

First of all, it is a well established historical fact that Hebrews have never been enslaved by Egyptians. That was a total shock right out of the gate. I'm not going to flesh out why. There is plenty of information out there regarding that.

Secondly, I have never accepted a literal, global flood but I discovered that the flood story was actually passed around to all of the Middle Eastern cultures. The story is all the same. <Insert deity name> wants to destroy humanity and picks his disciple <insert person's name> to save a few people and all the animals. This is not a story unique to Judaism, in fact it predates Judaism several times.

Just a few excerpts from the flood stories that predate Judaism, same story, different players:


Sumerian:
The gods had decided to destroy mankind. The god Enlil warned the priest-king Ziusudra ("Long of Life") of the coming flood by speaking to a wall while Ziusudra listened at the side. He was instructed to build a great ship and carry beasts and birds upon it...

Babylonian:
Three times (every 1200 years), the gods were distressed by the disturbance from human overpopulation. The gods dealt with the problem first by plague, then by famine. Both times, the god Enki advised men to bribe the god causing the problem. The third time, Enlil advised the gods to destroy all humans with a flood, but Enki had Atrahasis build an ark and so escape. Also on the boat were cattle, wild animals and birds, and Atrahasis' family...

Assyrian:
The gods, led by Enlil, agreed to cleanse the earth of an overpopulated humanity, but Utnapishtim was warned by the god Ea in a dream. He and some craftsmen built a large boat (one acre in area, seven decks) in a week. He then loaded it with his family, the craftsmen, and "the seed of all living creatures...

Chaldean:
The god Chronos in a vision warned Xisuthrus, the tenth king of Babylon, of a flood coming on the fifteenth day of the month of Daesius. The god ordered him to write a history and bury it in Sippara, and told him to build and provision a vessel (5 stadia by 2 stadia) for himself, his friends and relations, and all kinds of animals...

Zoroastrian:
Enlargement of the earth was necessary again after 600 years. When the population became too great after 900 years, Ahura Mazda warned Yima that destruction was coming in the form of winter, frost, and subsequent melting of the snow. He instructed Yima to build a vara, a large square enclosure, in which to keep specimens of small and large cattle, human beings, dogs, birds, red flaming fires, plants and foodstuffs, two of every kind...

Finally, I learned that not only is the military takeover of Canaan as described in Joshua not an historical fact, but there is overwhelming evidence to the contrary which points to the fact that Judaism flourished from within Canaan and eventually became the predominant religion with no warfare at all.

You can imagine what learning these facts had to do to my faith. Having learned that the Bible is 100% literally true, and learning facts to the contrary constitute a huge philosophical problem for me. I am not the type of person who can look at hard evidence and say, "well, that conflicts with the Bible, so it's false." Nor do I find people with that ability particularly virtuous, even though cognitive dissonance is praised as a virtue in just about all world religions.

Continuing my journey to investigate the claims of the Bible has been an interesting experience thus far. It has given me the opportunity to gain lots of different perspectives, not only on christianity, but on life and other religious beliefs in general. Having talked to numerous christians about my philosophical belief problem in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary of my established beliefs has certainly been interesting. I have spoken with christians who range in philosophical differences from "you absolutely cannot be a christian unless you believe the Earth is literally 6,000 years old" all the way to "yes, many of the stories in the Bible are only allegories meant to convey the nature of God, many of the events of the Bible definitely did not happen" and everything in between.

Numerous christians have told me that my lack of faith is nothing more than a hardened heart and open rebellion against God. Other christians have told me that my honest search for truth is closer to Christ-like than many will ever get in their entire lives of blind, unquestioning devotion.

After several months it has finally occurred to me that my entire life I have not been sold christianity. I have been sold an orthodoxy. Biblical literalism is a very young, theological idea prevalent mostly among Protestants, and Baptists fall on the farthest end of that literalism spectrum. Christians have always accepted the Bible as "truth" but they have not always accepted the Bible as "actual literal events".  Biblical literalism is fairly new to the theological game.

Recently, I was called a heretic and "not a true christian" by a friend giving me counsel. This is a person whom I respect deeply but he has bought in hard to his chosen orthodoxy. So yes, I suppose I am heretical to his orthodoxy and if his orthodoxy defines a christian as X then I suppose according to his standards I'm not a christian either. This does not trouble me in the slightest. According to this orthodoxy, numerous other of the 42,000 denominations of christianity are also "not true christians."

My journey is not complete but I think what I have learned the most is many people have many wildly, differing opinions on whether I'm drawing closer to Christlike, rebelling against God, being a heretic, being a vigilant seeker of truth, doing something God loathes, doing something God admires, etc. Despite all of their differing opinions, they all have one thing they agree on, "my belief is the correct one!"

Black Balsam Knob Hike

Our trailhead was located at the junction of US 215 and the Blue Ridge Parkway near Canton, NC. Originally we had planned to take the Blue Ridge Parkway to a different trailhead deep into the wilderness but the Blue Ridge Parkway was closed and we were forced to take an alternate route into the bush.

On our way to the trailhead, we ascended 2000 feet over the course of about seven miles. Along the ascension we got to see several stunning sites including this waterfall just off the roadway.

When we arrived at the trailhead, there was a small parking lot that had some snow on the ground. Being from South Carolina, often times it can be years between seeing real, actual snow.  Thus, seeing some snow on the ground was a bit of a novelty. We were hoping we would get to see some more snow while we were on our hike. And snow did we see.

Find the trail! Don't get lost!

The trails were poorly marked and poorly blazed and it was a bit of a challenge to be certain of where we were going from time-to-time. We looked at our map and got mixed up at some trail junctions (again horribly marked and blazed) and pressed on a different trail then what we thought we were on. Getting on the wrong trail was not the worst thing ever, in fact, were planning on hitting this trail on the way back. After about three hours of hiking we got to an unmistakable trail junction which indicated we were only moving about half the speed that we thought we were. This was horribly depressing. We were trodding through some thick snow and ice which was really slowing us down.

We elected to alter our plans to account for our very slow moving progress. Even though we altered our plans, one thing we definitely wanted to do was hit the top of Black Balsam Knob, which is 6240 feet in elevation. As you can see, from on top of this mountain, we are actually looking down at the peaks of other mountains around us.

We elected to press on to the spot which we had planned to make camp. Except that we were heading straight there instead of taking 7-mile loop around to it.  Our camp spot was beside the Blue Ridge Parkway which was 7.5 trail miles away from our vehicle. Since we were moving at only about 1 mile per hour it was going to take us 7.5 hours to get to our car on day 2, when we had only planned on it taking about 3 hours. Thus, we elected to skip the trails on the way back on day 2 and just hike on the Blue Ridge Parkway which is a beautifully paved highway with absolutely no traffic because it's closed due to snow and ice.  Our plan was formed.

We hit a connector trail heading towards our camp site, which was located in an area affectionately referred to as the Graveyard Fields. The entire time on this 1.5 mile connector trail my buddy was yelling at me that I clearly measured the maps incorrectly and undercalculated our distances grossly. He was convinced there was no way were only moving at a 1MPH pace. We were moving very slowly. Because we had several junctions of bridges with steep descents below us and the bridges themselves were covered in snow and ice, making it very easy to slip and fall.

Deep, Snowy Trail

It took us an hour and a half to walk this 1.5 mile connector trail with my buddy fussing at me the whole time about me measuring our distances wrong. I was vindicated when we reached a major 4-trail junction and a signpost confirmed the trail we had just walked was, in fact, a mile and a half. In fairness to his perspective, the trail literally seemed like it was twice as long as it indicated.  It was a very challenging walk through foot-deep snow at parts.

The sign indicated we were 2.2 miles from the Blue Ridge Parkway (and our campsite). So we knew even at a 1 MPH pace we were be there in no more than 2 hours and some change. Luckily that 2.2 mile stretch was the flattest, smoothest, and most "unsnowy" section of trail we saw the entire day and we made it to our campsite in just under an hour.

The camp was in a flat basin called Graveyard Fields.  It was a river basin surrounded by scenic ridges and mountains in every direction.  Because it was a basin it was also very wet. It was sort of like sleeping in a marshland. Having experience with the unpleasantness of a wet tent bottom in the past, I was glad I made the decision to pack the heavy tarp that I did to place under the tent.

Finding wood to make a fire was a real challenge. Finding dry wood was impossible. Nonetheless we got a modicum of a fire rolling although it took nearly two hours and a lot of effort.  We ate our traditional "victory chili" before cleaning up camp so as not to attract any visiting bears during the night and turned in for the night. After the sun dipped behind the mountain ridge, the temperatures plummeted fast. While the fire provided no particular warmth, we picked up a few of the stones that made up our fire ring and brought them in the tent to put underneath our feet in the sleeping bags to keep them them warm. This was especially nice considering yours truly had been sporting sopping, wet socks for the better part of four hours.

The following morning we had about a mile walk to get to the Blue Ridge Parkway which was at the top of the Graveyard Fields basin. The photograph to the right here shows our campsite, which was one of the bare spots in the very center of the picture, which is about a kilometer away from our vantage point.

It was about a 5-mile hike back to our car along the Blue Ridge Parkway. Even with 25-30 pounds of gear on our backs, under ideal road conditions we can exceed 2 MPH, even with occasional breaks factored in.

Sunrise on the Blue Ridge Parkway

I was actually kind of excited about hiking on the Blue Ridge Parkway even though it was not part of our original plan. Having no traffic to worry about allowed us to casually walk in the center of the road and enjoy some majestic views along parkway and certainly some better hiking conditions. I was not disappointed.

One really neat thing along the parkway were numerous frozen formations that appeared on the rock walls. The most extreme was this completely frozen waterfall.  Needless to say. It was cold outside.

A combination of absolutely no cars on the road and walking through a dark, desolate tunnel got us prepared to enjoy the post-apocalyptic "The Walking Dead" for later that evening. That ice formation on the left-side of the picture was about 10-feet tall.

The Devil's Courthouse

After exiting the tunnel, we snapped a picture of this rock face referred to as "The Devil's Courthouse."

We arrived at our car in a little less than 2 hours after stepping onto the Blue Ridge Parkway, moving at a clip of about 2.5 miles per hour, mostly uphill with a ton of gear on. That also included a 15-minute stop for a mid-morning snack. I learned a tremendous number of lessons on this trip without too much heartache and ultimately hit the two main things I wanted to when planning the hike, reaching Black Balsam Knob, and camping in the Graveyard Fields. Seeing some snow was an added bonus though it added much aggravation onto the trip, causing us to alter plans numerous times.  Still a great trip that we're planning to do again in warmer weather.

Black & White Thinking

It has occurred to me recently that an alarming number of grownups engage in a very dangerous method of forming opinions that is essentially boiling all issues down to black or white.

President Obama is either all good or all bad, gay marriage is either all good or all bad, gun control is either all good or all bad, abortion is all good or all bad, illegal immigration is all good or all bad.

The people that decide President Obama is all bad will go to any length to perpetuate character assassination, including but not limited to, repeating purposefully incorrect information. While I admit, I did not vote for Obama in either election, I certainly do no not think that he's an Al-Qaeda plant sent to destroy our freedom, take away our guns, and convert America from a democratic republic to a communist state. And frankly, it's frightening that there are people who literally think this.

It's certainly not conservative, religious people that are guilty of this. President George W. Bush received the exact, same treatment from the left during his presidency.

Difficult and controversial issues like abortion, same-sex marriage, gun control, separation of church and state, etc. are very complex subjects with a lot of strings attached and certainly a lot of potential consequences.  Therefore to label any of these subjects as all good or all bad is foolish.

My opinions on these matters not withstanding, I prefer a rational approach to making decisions. I recognize there will be some good and some bad, but I need to support the stance in which the good outweighs the bad, even when it's counter-intuitive to my emotional preference. This is not always an easy approach but I do believe it is the best approach.

One example that comes to mind immediately is welfare. Nothing annoys me more than to be in a grocery line behind someone buying filet mignon with government-issued food stamps while texting on their iPhones. I can afford neither filet mignon or an iPhone. I hate freeloaders and abusers. However, this is not a black and white issue. People like that make me want to do away with government assistance programs.  However, some child somewhere will suffer and starve if government aid did not exist. While one can make the argument that it is likely that the child's parents are worthless, drug abusers and that is why the child would starve, that may or may not be true but it's irrelevant. The fact remains that a child somewhere will suffer without government aid and my conscience could not handle knowing I supported abolishing these programs.

The conservative right would have you believe that 99 out of 100 families on welfare are drug-abusing freeloaders. Even if that were true, and it is absolutely not, to have even one deserving family suffer would be unconscionable.

It has become apparent to me that the people who are the most guilty of black and white thinking are people who have been indoctrinated. I certainly concede that one can be indoctrinated with anything; religion, political views, racism, sexism, atheism, and so on.  However, it is evident that the most fervently religious are the ones who are guilty of the most extreme cases of black and white thinking.

Black and white thinking often boils complex issues down to two (false) choices. One of the most popular ones in recent history was President Bush's declaration, "You are either with us (meaning you support our invasion of Iraq) or you are with the terrorists."  Here President Bush gives the false illusion that there are only 2 choices, one support an invasion of Iraq or two you are a terrorist. Pick one.  This is an extremely dangerous method of both thinking and presenting options.

Adults should be capable of weighing all of the information and inspecting complex issues. An honest, rational approach is to be preferred to reducing the matter to all good or all bad.  There is a lot of gray area in life, a black and white assessment of everything does a disservice to humanity and to one's critical thinking skills.

Cumberland Island

Calm Ocean

On this brisk October morning my buddy and I set out for Cumberland Island, an island off the coast of Brunswick, Georgia. The southern tip of Cumberland Island is on the Georgia/Florida state line.  We took a canoe to the island and made a decision to make an ocean side launch instead of a sound side launch.  Generally speaking an ocean side launch is guaranteed to be rough business, however the ocean was so placid we decided to give it a shot. It was worth the risk after all, because it was going to cut off about a mile and a half of our trip across the sound.

The plan was a three-day trip and an attempt to explore as much of the 10-mile long island as possible.

Dolphins Playing a Few Feet Off Shore

Our journey began at 9 a.m. on a Friday morning as we got into the water and it was about a 3-mile paddle to the Northern tip of Cumberland Island across St. Andrews Sound. During that time we skirted a few fishing boats that was kind of neat to see.  What was really nice was we had numerous close encounters with dolphins, also fun. All in all, it was about a 12-mile paddle from our launch point to our camp on the Island.

Holy Crap, A Wild Horse

One thing we were really excited about was hearing that there were wild horses inhabiting Cumberland Island.  It was our sincere hope to at least see a few of these wild horses and if we were lucky, to get an up-close encounter. Before we even reached our camp site, we saw this guy grazing close to the shore line.

Just a Few of the Thousands of Crabs at the Beach

Upon our arrival at the camp site, we were greeted by thousands and thousands of baby crabs who were scurrying to escape us. It was really interesting to see before we landed on the beach to see the ground literally swirling there were so many of these things. They quickly dispersed before we were able to get a good photograph of the sheer number covering the ground.

After all of the little creatures scurried away we set up camp on this picturesque island that is protected by the National Park Service. Our camp was on the sound side of the island and therefore, very little, actually no, waves or surf. Just a calm, serene, brackish river snaking around some abundant marshes.  Of immediate note when we landed and set up camp was the inordinate amount of horse dung which was everywhere. A bit of an annoyance, but a good sign that we could probably expect to see some more wild horses on our journey.

A Very Odd Pine Tree Formation

After setting up our camp we took inventory of the surrounding area and noticed the sprawling, monolithic oaks with Spanish moss.  Trees of this size and age would be a coveted spectacle on the mainland, but on the island there were hundreds of them in your field of view. Of particular note was this curious pine tree that used to rest on top of a sandy beach that eroded away after the tree had reached adulthood. What was left behind was a very curiously formed tree and network of roots to support it.

There was a possibility of rain so we erected our tent with a tarp below it to keep the base of the tent dry. This would end up being a mistake, but we'll get to that.  Since we paddled a canoe it allowed us to pack some luxuries like a few tailgate chairs, a cooler filled with some better-than-usual-camping fare and a portable stove for cooking our food. We were in the "Wilderness Area" of Cumberland Island, absolutely no fires were permitted here by the National Park Service.

Wild Horses

We were greeted by the island's local inhabitants, these little, biting spawns of Satan that the locals called Noseeums.  If you have never encountered these guys, consider yourself fortunate. They are basically these swarming little gnats that are very difficult to see, but it feels like they are carrying razor blades and are executing non-stop, fly-by kamikaze slicings of your skin.  They bite. Hard.

Our first encounter with wild horses was shortly after we decided to do a 7-mile hike that started at around 3 p.m. that afternoon.  We were on our trail for only about 30 minutes when we discovered these two grazing in a pluff mud bed during low tide. They were not particularly alarmed by our presence but they certainly took notice of us. The moment we took one step closer to them in order to get some better photographs they took off through the woods. I would not say they were skittish but they certainly were not going to be inviting us over for tea.

African-American Church, est. 1893

On the island was this tiny, African-American church that was built in 1893. The entire building had enough seating for about 30 people. We found out that John F. Kennedy, Jr. was married inside this church.

Wild Horses Outside the Church

Outside the church we found two wild horses grazing.

After we left the church we got into some real wilderness. We traveled a mile or so down this trail that was so narrow, both of your shoulders were brushing foliage on either side as you were walking. Imagine our surprise when we rounded a corner and came face-to-face with three horses.  Both parties kind of awkwardly stood, starring at one another kind of silently communicating, "um, we need to get by you."  I certainly was not interested in trying to force my way past these guys. Even though they were a bit smaller than domesticated farm horses, I had no doubt they were powerful and would hurt us if provoked.  After a few moments the horses decided to turn around and head into the bush.

Wild Horses In the Bush

As we walked by they kind of kept a wary eye on us.

Sunset at Camp

After toiling around in some fairly dense trails, we arrived back at our camp in time to catch this sunset and enjoy some Asian noodles and lemon chicken (like I said, better-than-usual camping fare).  It was at this time my buddy and I decided to play one of our favorite games, Dominion. It was also at this time we discovered that we left it in the car. After paddling a canoe through 12 miles of ocean and then hiking 7 miles we were pretty spent, so we turned in for the night getting ready for our big hike day.

Day 2

The sunrise splashed on the distant marsh made the vibrant green look like a golden field of wheat. During the night we heard dolphins splashing in the water a few feet away from us and we also heard horses galloping and neighing.  After some hearty oatmeal, we geared up and headed out for our hike on the southern end of the island.

We encountered some more wild horses including these two. Most of the horses were brown, with brown manes, but this one caught our eye because he was a very deep brown, nearly black.

A Twisted Fortress of Massive Oaks Lines Our Trail

We hit a trail that cut through the interior of the island, so as to be away from both the surf side of the island and the sound side. As you can see, the massive oaks covered with Spanish moss were plentiful, and stood everywhere along the trail like stalwart sentinels guarding something sacred.

Robert Stafford - 1790 - 1877

About 13 or so miles into our hike for the day, we were already pretty tired and had the good fortune to meet an adventurous chap whose goal was to do 50 hikes in 50 states.  He had saved up a bunch of money and was living out of his car, going from state to state experiencing different adventures. You can check out his blog on Cumberland Island here.

We walked with Kent and chatted him up about numerous subjects, mostly hearing about his various adventures.  After parting ways, we came upon a graveyard on the island. The headstone on the right was for a guy born 3 years after the U.S. Constitution was ratified and died 12 years after the U.S. Civil War ended.

A Mother Horse and Her Foal

The last photograph we were able to get was this photograph of a mother and her foal, not more than a few weeks old. This was our last photograph because then the rain came.

At first the rain was no big deal. It was falling softly on us and was a welcome relief to some surprisingly, stifling heat in early October. After all, we still had an additional 6 miles to walk before we were back to camp, and my foot was cramping so badly that I had to stop and actually considered trying to contact a park ranger to help give us a ride back to our camp. Alas, we pressed on.

The rain gradually got harder until it was no longer a welcome relief, but an annoyance.  We got soaked and then dry again by the time we got back to camp.  When we arrived at camp, we quite literally fell into our chairs and sat for several minutes. We hiked 21 miles in one day. That was an amazing feat in and of itself, but it came right after hiking 7 miles the day before.  After checking the damage from the rain it turned out that the tarp we had on the ground to prevent our tent from getting soaked, actually collected rainwater and kept it pooled up underneath our tent. Our tent and sleeping bags were soaked.

We decided we were too tired to care at the moment and began preparing our victory chili. Victory chili is our go-to meal for a victorious hike. It consists of black beans, ground beef, corn, jalapenos, fiery hot chili sauce, sour cream, cheese, and crackers. After putting in a very difficult day of hiking, victory chili tastes like a 7-course meal at a 5-star restaurant.

Shortly after sunset, the noseeums came out again in full force.  We were absolutely wiped out, so we crawled into the tent and chatted until about 9:00 p.m. then fell hard asleep.  We were awakened at about 1 a.m. because it was raining so hard it started leaking into the tent. That was pleasant.  It rained insanely hard for several hours.  We did check the forecast which said there was a "20% chance of scattered showers late Saturday night." Evidently, "scattered showers" on Cumberland means "typhoon" to everyone else.

Day 3

Around 6 a.m. the following morning it was still raining pretty hard. We gathered up as much as we could in our soaking, wet tent and sat silently inside the tent, wet, pissed off, and just waiting for the rain to abate long enough to gather the remainder of our stuff and head back to the mainland.

The rain finally stopped around 6:45 a.m. and we hopped in our canoe around 7 a.m. saying good-bye to this wondrous island.

On our paddle back, we made a decision to make a straight line to our destination instead of hugging the bank of the island for 10 miles then shooting a 2 mile gap back to our launch point.  By making a straight line, we were taking a risk by being out in open water for with no land around for miles, but we were making a straight line so it was going to cut about 3 miles off of our trip.

Additionally, we were riding the tide out to sea so we were getting a very nice "pull" from the tide and were making excellent time on the water.  Once we got out into open water, away from the protection of the island we learned that it was windy, really windy. So much so, in fact, that we started getting pretty nervous because we were experiencing some violent waves with pretty fierce intensity.  We got a bit further into the sound and the waves were a little more intense, but far less frequent which made for a much more comfortable ride.

About 3 miles from shore we noticed some extremely tall waves (higher than 6-feet cresting) out in the middle of the ocean. The worst part was, there was no way we were going to avoid them. A strip of intense waves was ripping right across our path and was in between us and our destination We both silently kept paddling.  We got into the middle of the waves and things got really dicey for about 3 or 4 minutes. One wave broke right after it passed underneath the canoe and we were only 3-feet or so away from getting tipped over 3 miles out to sea, with no land or boats anywhere in sight.

The surf picked up and got very choppy and rough. This was a complete departure from our smooth and peaceful ride into the island, it seemed like a completely different swatch of water the second time around.  As it became apparent that we were drawing closer to the destination, our anxiety began to wane. As we steered the canoe towards shore, we were only in foot-deep water and a wave decided to roll us right over onto the beach. How appropriate.  All we could do was laugh. How ironic that we survived six-foot waves 3 miles out to sea only to get tossed by a 1-foot break right onto the sandy beach.