11:19pm The Last Heat of Summer

Dear A,

I forgot how much I love this John Mayer song. I wonder why it has yet to be properly recorded and released. It's so beautiful.

I was thinking of it because he mentions Lancelot in the lyrics, and I've had my fair share of knights today! I wonder if people thousands of years from now will have a festival that features traditions from our time period. What will people do? iPhone demonstrations? What a strange thing to think about. But if we're reenacting traditions from Medieval Europe, it's not so far-fetched.

I've always thought that I'd like to live in the 1800s. Aside from the diseases, slavery and horrific toilet situations, I think I'd like it. I'd love to wear swishy dresses and ride horses everyday. I'd like to light candles instead of flipping a light switch. I'd like to hand-write letters instead of sending emails.

This might be why Thoreau's Walden speaks to me (and happens to be my favorite book). Although he was a bit of a fraud, he stresses the importance of simplifying our lives, of living within our means and finding beauty and joy in the natural world. "I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion." I mean, the man's got a point. And while I happily buy into our culture of technology, I am equally as happy to leave it all behind for a camping trip in Yosemite or at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. There is something so liberating about surrendering everything that ties us to the digital world, and immersing ourselves in the simplistic wonder of the earth below us and the universe above.

Can't you tell I grew up with a mother who was obsessed with camping and backpacking, cooking on a tiny propane stove and drying her own beef jerky? A significant portion of my childhood was spent playing make-believe games with my brother in all of the national parks west of the Mississippi.

I don't know a lot about what my kids will be like, but I do know that they won't waste their lives away in front of screens. They'll play outside. They'll jump in mud puddles and build forts and camp in the back yard until they're old enough to explore Arches, Joshua Tree, Crater Lake and Glacier. They're going to have imaginations, and use them. They're going to run around barefoot in the summer, and finger paint, and decorate the driveway with chalk art. They're going to read books and ask questions and learn how to save money for the things they really want. They're going to pursue what they love, even if that means they grow up to be ventriloquists or ice cream taste testers. They're going to travel so that they realize the world is big and diverse and beautiful, but they're also going to appreciate the familiar comfort of coming home.

I can't wait to meet them.

Love, M