Well, today the EarthQuaker Bike Trip has ended, with a 36-mile ride from Shawnee State Park to Johnstown.
Today’s ride was beautiful, on back roads with vistas and greenery abound. I grew up in the Pennsylvania Alleghenies, and it’s amazing how spiritually connected I feel to them. It’s almost as if they’re calling to me as I arrive, softly and sweetly. The earth is so lush in Western Pennsylvania, and it’s fitting that it should nourish me spiritually as well. Check out this view, which didn’t translate so well into my camera, but gives an inkling of what I mean:
Today was also the plenary meeting of the Friends General Conference Gathering. I’d say it was rather uneventful, although there was an extremely inspiring speaker from the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. She’s a peace activist who expresses her faith through instructing doctors, nurses, attendants, etc. in holistic medicine. She feels that by centering them emotionally, they will convey peace and tranquility to the troops they serve. I’m not doing her speech justice.
But what was really moving about her words were her descriptions of the broken men and women that are returning from Iraq. She spoke of their inner torment to the point they could barely breath. She asked one soldier to describe in singular words what he felt, and I remember the first one clearly: “profanity.” That word, rarely used to describe oneself, convey so much. It communicates a wrongness so deeply permeated that the person is no longer part of the community, and a helplessness to fix it. I feel that the word will stick in my consciousness for a while.
I’m currently guerilla camping in the woods off campus, which I’m not technically allowed to do. Campus officials tranquilized and removed a black bear from here this week, and I’m hearing strange hooting and hollering animal sounds, so I’m not really at ease. It’s supposed to thunderstorm all night and day. I hope I can sleep.
