Mountain Springs Station, California

Amorella here atop a mountain gateway to San Diego from the California valley below. Orndorff wonders how the pioneers made it at all. His response to his friends has been:

“I would have remained in London or perhaps New York, no need to go any further west than that. Might travel up to Boston and down to Virginia, but no further. Back then, two centuries or so ago, that would have been it for me. No need to go further west than the east side of the Virginia and Pennsylvania mountains.”

Here is a photo from the eastern valley looking southwest upwards towards the station and points west. The rocky mountains look similar towards the northwest side of the freeway and straight ahead of course. 

Having never seen this area of California before February, 2009, the first thing I thought was: ‘Who dropped the boulders [as big as cars and bigger]?’

A scientist would immediately apologize for the above question but you are a storyteller first orndorff, no matter how you would like to refute it.

This isn’t fair, Amorella. It was my first thought, but I knew better I look at things objectively and scientific like. It was probably a volcanic eruption long ago that spewed forth such rocky matter and landed it in such a chaotic fashion. That is what we discussed in the car with our friends Craig and Alta who live in Tucson.

Did you say aloud, “Who dropped the rocks?”

I don’t know. I might have. But it would have been a joke if I did. Everyone would have known it was a joke. I could have said it. I might have if I thought it would get a laugh. I like to hear people laugh and I’ll say outlandish things sometimes (though they may be true) to hear people laugh.

I used to use humor in my lectures fairly regularly. Mostly to keep them from going to sleep. Some even enjoyed the lectures, at least they told me so privately at the end of class.

Do you miss your classes?

I miss being in the process of teaching. I suppose that is why I am doing this. Pretty sad. They were a captive audience. Existential circumstances had placed them in my classroom and I was my classroom due to existential circumstances. One does what sheorhe does under such a situation. I was there to teach. They were there to learn. So one goes about doing what one does. I loved what I did though. No one could have paid me any amount to love it more. Blogging does not have that same existential element. I am now free and so are my former students.

I am still a student. My classroom is the universe inside and outside of myself. I am stuck being alive. As such I have an immediacy of experience; self-learning requires the focus of thought and action; and I am committed to being a life long learner. Thus, self-learning is in an existential mode as far as I am concerned. In a sense, the classroom in my head continues, so I don’t miss it completely.

Others may not equate existentialism with having a spiritual value.

I don’t care. It does for me, although I cannot reason out the why.

Why don’t you think on that and I’ll ask you about it at another time.

Sounds good. I have the grass to mow anyway.