Back To Nature
Often, traveling will play a trick on you. For example, on the Wednesday before the Thanksgiving holiday, I traveled by interstate bus from New York to Storrs, Connecticut. The distance was 147 miles according to the mileage on the bus ticket. The first twenty minutes of the trip got us from New York’s Port Authority Bus Station on West 41st Street to West 84th Street and Amsterdam Avenue — a distance of about two miles.
After that we gathered ’speed’ and I exited the bus in Storrs 5 hours and 15 minutes later. More than five hours to travel just 147 miles. Just a few days before, I had flown in from Asia. The second leg of the flight was from Vancouver, B.C., Canada to New York’s JFK Airport, a distance that traversed the entire North American continent, and took just 4 hours 20 minutes. Go figure.
Sounds of Sunset
Now I am down here in Florida to refresh my suntan. This is just a short trip, a mere long weekend, Thursday to Tuesday. No jet lag from this flight. What is jet lag anyway? I think it is nature’s way of reminding us that man cannot fly. Despite this inability to fly, you can still go halfway around the world in one day, albeit a very long day. I woke up in Hong Kong at 7:00 AM then I went to sleep in New York late that ’same’ night at half past midnight. Do the math. 12:30 AM in New York is 1:30 PM the next day in Hong Kong. Yes, that made my day 30½ hours long.
Secret Watch
I went to work the next morning. Following work, that evening I had to go to sleep at 8:45 PM. I said I was exhausted; everyone else called it jet lag. But it is just nature’s way of getting even, and keeping us in our place.
Raptor’s Watch
We should be in awe of nature. For the spectacular colors that we see in the sky, for the variety of animals that populate the earth, and for the rich bounty that we call our foods — all of these are nature’s gifts. American artist Stephen Lyman had a gift. It was the talent to find the spectacular in nature and capture it in oils on a canvas.
Noisy Neighbors
Famed naturalist John Muir once said,
“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.”
Lyman followed those words his entire life. Beginning from a childhood spent hiking in the Pacific Northwest, Lyman went to school at the Art Center for Design in Pasadena, California.
Sentinel of the Grove
Later he returned to Idaho’s Snake River country where he again discovered the beauty of nature and the wonders of the natural world. Lyman said,
“All my paintings have their origins in my experience and perceptions of beauty in the wilderness.”
Lyman’s works are breathtaking in their execution, their scope, and his remarkable ability to share the wonders of the natural world. Tragically, Lyman was killed in 1996 in an accident in Yosemite National Park. His art has garnered a legion of admirers including me. Have a look.
Canadian Autumn
Here at JMM’s New AoV, in addition to admiring the beauty in the wilderness, we like to admire wild and beautiful women captured on DVD. So forget how long it takes you to get from here to there, leave your mental jet lag or ennui packed away in the closet with your luggage, and get ready to see some natural beauty by visiting this website whenever it strikes you to do so.
Ahwanee-The Deep Grass Valley
The women we will look at on our pages, in a few cases, may not be all natural, but in their natural, unadorned state, all you’ll want to think about is what you see.
This column was originally published in December 2002. It has been updated for publication in JustMeMike’s New Also on Video on December 3rd, 2007.
