February 25, 2013
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doc brown’s road map for marty
Funny thing about people and the idea of travels in the world. When it comes to me versus other people , i begin to notice that my idea of places of interest on earth are completely different. Bear in mind, i really do think this way , when it deals with travel bucket lists of life. One thing i find funny is how , if a person comes from a place that is in someway romanticized in global mindset, it is not exactly for the same reason that they love their homestead. My favorite place on earth will ultimately always be the pacific ocean at Huntington beach. I was born there and California is where the world introduced itself to me. The ocean is always spiritually calling me. i dream of it constantly. however, if i was to ask anyone or, if anyone for that matter were to agree with me at least about California being a place worth visiting, you can be rest assured it isn’t for the same reasons. i am pretty sure we all know some of the more prominent reasons people would choose California. me, i am not really in tune with that.
the ocean, is the most magical place in the world for a boy to be near. even now i can feel the same excitement or fascination i had walking along the surf. with desirous anticipation of what i may come upon where the waves meet the land. you really never know what you will find. however, for me, it never ends only at the beach. there is the red sequoias, ancient trees and largest in the land. one can only marvel what they saw, these trees. the fact that they still live. such secrets, would be seemingly lost. were it not for the actual fauna being found in the tar pits. Smilodons , cat like and precursor to what we would know as big cats, who in their primal zest threw abandon away and attempted to capture prey such as giant bison trapped in these tar pits and like the carnal zest i seen in some cats and dogs , so lost in the primal blood lust, unwilling to give up their prey, going down with it. words, i think can never truly describe what this event, often repeated must of been like. the ironic justice of it all.
Smilodon were a strange cat like thing. they had more squarish faces , the sabers were not as strong as we thought and the over all shape was like a squat pitbull of a cat. huge in size but still just strange to see at various angles.
such are the hallmarks that draw me in my imagination to places on the earth. my bucket list is a strange one when it comes to wanderlust. suits me fine.
some places i would thrill in being would most likely make no sense at all to normal people.other places would be logical, superficially, like my home state, but have a deeper meaning to me, pending investigation.one such place would be Alaska. to me, this place would be the same, literally, as the religious types returning to the holy land. i could get so lost in my fascination and sense of this place. for one, it is still pretty much as it was. as far as the geology is concerned. the igneous rocks are pretty much far reaching , the sharp mountains which become Vancouver and then California, are young and a testimony to an incredible recent volcanic event. the land is both very new and very old. i find this type of stuff exciting. the other thing is the animals, all of whom are survivors of the ice age , the very source of the form the species exist as, still present. but ultimately, it has to be the idea of the land bridge or ice bridge that existed during one of the most dramatic times of the earth for life. to be in Alaska, near the ocean , where the bridge surely existed is nothing short of discovering the actual path of humanity. how can we just not dream about what kind of adventure these humans faced when traversing the bridge, entering the continent at a time when the giant sloth still existed and horses were native? the wild and savage encounters of the American lion, a huge species of the cat, with no mane on the males. dire wolves , providing the competitive edge to us , for the same prey we chased. cave bears , huge and worthy of fear and respect , towering over us as we began our incursion into a land that was somehow spared at a time of transition for the mammalian appearance. this place, this continent. this land, where marsupial and placental mammals both have representatives coexisting. it shows a time when the earth was just alive with its new creations.
that of course doesnt compare at all to australia, the place that marsupials ruled. which means it was at a crucial apex of the earth when it separated. but for Australia there is also the ancient human linage, as is depict by the aborigine, relatively new comers, but, oh this is exciting, erectus may very well of also been here. the very idea of homo erectus being in Australia and somehow influencing the human population s indirectly or directly through competition is exciting.of course, the vast display of wildlife in Australia is as always a huge draw. like i said, there is the superficial connections that i would surely share with everyone else. but again for me, i just barely touch this. the sharks, so incredible have a vast dominion in Australia, which proves stunning for that eternal whirlpool at arctic oceans, constantly turning and constantly in a state of massive rotation. to think, that just over there, (pointing blindly) penguins, the greater majority of the species types thrive and found passage is stunning. the bird that survived the ice age, within the polar waters. another thing that would draw me to Australia,is the erratic nature of the weather within it’s interior. it is so perfect an example of what life had to experience at various times in it’s pursuit of survival. yes, Australia is certainly a place i could be lost in forever.
but as varied as that is or special and unique, Madagascar is probably the most magical place on the earth. it has living remnants of prehistoric animals still surviving in its realm. separate sometimes by a few hybridization or speciations , but nonetheless you can see and find animals that are in all ways connected to ancient animals. it is like seeing an rhinoceros. an animal directly connected to the very one we can find in fossil record. that whole are of the earth is so primal and so close to what it was like for prehistoric earth, it doesn’t surprise me at all the most ancient animals are found there. celeocanths. which is more then enough reason for a person like me to place Madagascar on the map. Indonesia, also qualifies as this type of place. though i would be more fascinated by Madagascar.
such is the way i think, i cant help it. for me, i am lucky really. i can go pretty much anywhere and find something absolutely fascinating enough that i can be enraptured for a span of time. up north, in Ontario, near the Canadian shield. there is the oldest earth crust. bared and in the sunlight. the actual earth , as it existed 3.5 billion years ago. before life, or just before life showed up on earth. to even imagine this, is just incredible. then Alberta with its fossilized mountain range, so amazing to see, so ancient and bewilderingly timeless. the strangest thing about me is, i can travel in my mind. i have more or less just taken a trip in my thoughts and imagination , along with mental snapshots of the sights with you , while writing this. nothing can dissuade me from this type of wanderlust. to a person of my science, even the idea of the continents being at one time connected. the way that must be somehow reflected in the animal world and geological record. the clues, no matter where they are, is so much of enticement, i would be comparable to any treasure seeking pirate. Africa, is always the most alluring place of all. one could not even hope to denote the possibilities for exploration there, in the science that i embrace. to be lost amongst the fossilize footprints of predecessors of elephants. follow them and sense the natural way they pursued their course. just to do that, just to be able to breathe the same air and see the same landscape and do that. my god, words can not describe. but ultimately, my best trip, is when i share things like this with my fellow humans. i can not contain the eagerness.