PARADISE LOST

PARADISE IS LOST! That's right, they closed it (this marvelous free campground) to build something new. My companions murmer in despair saying our world of free camping is disappearing. But suddenly images from another PARADISE LOST, John Milton's classic poem, flash in my brain and I take heart. In one of the most dramatic scenes and heroic speeches in all of literature, the archangel Satan stands on a knoll and addresses his fallen legions. Here, in essence is what he said: RISE UP AND RECLAIM YOUR DIGNITY! We have wonderful work to do and a whole world to do it in. We shall amuse ourselves wrecking God's creation, seducing his people, subverting his plans. We shall make a glorious game of our situation; wage fierce and fascinating war againt the ultimate enemy--- God.
Thus inspired, I climbed atop my truck and addressed my dispirited companions: "SUCK IT UP MY FRIENDS----SHOW SOME COURAGE! Yes we are cast from paradise, but for us it shall be a fall forward, mobilizing us to search out ever more wonderful places to camp----awakening our battle instincts for we are at war with waste of life. Billions of our fellow humans labor in needless drudgery, possessed by their possessions. We are the pathfinders to new values, savoring time rather than merely filling it. We are houseless not homeless. We prove with our lives the possibility and glory of freedom. We are a light to the nation. All who see us glimpse a flash of freedom and may thus be inspired to find it for themselves.

METAPHYSICAL ADDENDUM

I cannot pass this opportunity to chide the religious and superstitous among us who may be off-put by Satan's heroic speech. GET OVER IT---THERE IS NO SATAN---focus with me on the larger points made here----they are relevant to your life and mine.

SATAN EMBRACED HIS CIRCUMSTANCE----precisely what makes any of us heroic. Cast from eternity into time, he chose to glory in it. All of us enter time from (eternity?) and our challenge, like his, is to revel in the flux.

SATAN GENERATED HIS OWN MEANING----The first existentialist--humans have the damnest time doing this. Most believe meaning is revealed in holy books---it isn't! Rather, it is generated out of courage, desires and intention.

A curious epilogue to my day---Just before leaving paradise this bold (finch?) flew into my rig and took up this strange posture on my carpet--holding steady while I slowly got my camera. It seemed to be saying: Why is everybody leaving?