{ 2008.06.27 }
I went into the woods to live deliberately … and returned from a week of solitary hiking, camping and meditation in the forests and on the beaches of Big Sur. Forest fires and incessant showers of ash did not keep me away, but Los Angeles traffic threatened to. It is an interesting test of courage and mettle to walk into the woods by oneself, with nothing but a few liters of water and other odd provisions stored away in a backpack. But it’s an even more interesting test to sit down once one gets in there — deep in the thick of those giant redwood groves — and do absolutely nothing but observe. As I once read on the scrolling vertical marquee of red LEDs outside the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art: “At times, inactivity is preferable to mindless functioning.” So it is.