A Shot of the Night

On Saturday night Charity and I hiked out to the north rim of the Grand Canyon and pitched our tent on Widforss Point. The canyon was beautiful in both the sunset and the sunrise. Its vast expanse encompassed a myriad of cliffs, buttes and muted red colors which shown differently in the morning than in the evening.

We tried to sit contemplatively on the ledge in front of our tent to soak in the vast spaces but the flies, mosquitoes and a lack of bug repellent forced to remain in our tent for much of our time. The distances were still spectacular and the isolation from other people left an imposing, still quiet.

As I sat upon the rim of the Grand Canyon looking out across it and down into it I found myself expecting to feel something. Our honeymoon was full of things we saw and did: Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, the worlds longest slot canyon, Vegas. I came to each place expecting to be awed and amazed. Instead I often found myself with a demanding feeling inside wondering when this particular vista was going to do its job and impress me. I paid a lot of money and expended a lot of effort to sit here!

Being tired contributed to this feeling. Our days often consisted of two to four hours in the car and a five mile hike, not what you would recommend to two exhausted wedding participants. In retrospect we probably should have taken the first day or two off from any travel at all.

But still, it was surprising and a bit unsettling to find myself infested with such selfishness on my honeymoon. I mean, isn�t this supposed to be a saintly and pure part of life?

In the end, as the exhaustion was slept away and sleep became more regular I found myself more awed by the sites around me. It was beautiful and imposing, and journeying off the beaten path on several occasions gave us a thrill to finding our own small bits of beauty.

I�d go again. I�d just take it easier.

The Highlight of Missouri

And He’s Off!

In the morning my friend Joel will arrive here in Hendersonville to begin our drive out to Nebraska for my and Charity’s wedding on May 14th. Given the travels and adventures of the next three weeks (in Nebraska, Utah, Nebraska, Chicago and Hendersonville) I am afraid the blog will drop on the priority list for while, though I may sneak a post in here or there. Look for us to be back in Chapel Hill with consistent internet access on June 1st.

Cao’!

A Helpful Context

I know that books on economic history aren�t high on the reading lists of most people, but in case you were searching for a helpful and readable history of the global economy from 1900 to the present I recommend Global Capitalism: Its Fall and Rise in the Twentieth Century by Harvard political science professor Jeff Frieden.

I wish I had read this book before starting graduate school last year. It is a readable account and it creates a context in which the particular topics that discipline of international political economy examines fit. I dearly wish the author would print the book because it is a pain to read an entire book in PDF format. But that said, it was still worth reading.

Summer reading is on the way! Anyone chomping at the bit for this one?!