Good Friends and Big Trees

It's been awhile since I posted.  I've been extremely busy with papers to grade and a visit from my good friends Tom and Jeff.  I also want to apologize to Ms. Cain, who posted a comment on my last blog entry on exercise.  I was trying to approve and publish the comment, but seem instead to have deleted it!  I always look forward to comments on my musings, so if any of you dear readers want to chime in please feel welcome.  I'll try not to delete the next one!

My topic today is friendship, occasioned by the wonderful visit of my friends Tom and Jeff.  These guys have been special friends since our days at Claremont McKenna College, which we all attended from 1972 to 1976.  It is humbling to think our acquaintance now goes back nearly 39 years.  Tom and I were room mates for several semesters.  Jeff is in charge of rural development loans for the US Department of Agriculture in Oregon.  Tom is a developmental economics professor at Michigan State University.  He spends a lot of time in Asia working on the economics of food distribution.  I teach history at College of the Sequoias.  All of us wanted to go into fields where we felt we could contribute to society and help people.   

My friends came for a three-day weekend, flying in to the San Francisco Bay Area Friday morning and arriving here about noon.  They left early before dawn on Monday.  We had plenty of activities, most of it centered around nearby Sequoia National Park.  But of course the best thing about it was the camaraderie--the catching up, sharing ideas, views and advice.  It's uncanny how with very good friends it's easy to pick right up where you left off, filling the same roles in a group.  Tom even mentioned right away how it seems people's basic personality is formed early and persists throughout life.  Indeed it seems so.

The picture above shows the three of us taking a break on our hike along the Sugar Pine Trail at Sequoia.  That's me on the left, Jeff in the middle and Tom on the right.  We went about five hours at 6500 feet, a good workout.  I was able to go to the top of Moro Rock and get a gorgeous view of the high Sierras from there, as you can see from this closeup of Jeff.  Yes, the first snowfall of the year had taken place a couple of days before.  Our first quick visit up Friday afternoon had been shrouded in fog and cloud, but by the time we

 took this shot on Sunday it was clear and sunny.  The temperature was a comfortable (for hiking) 55 degrees.  At one point on the trail deep  in the woods we found ourselves about 20 yards from a bear!  Fortunately the critter was in a copse of bushes busily gnawing on something and paid us no mind. 

Saturday we visited Crystal Cave in the park, another first for me.  Tom had never been in a cave.  The hour-long tour was over almost before we knew it--a sure sign of time well spent.  The cave was noteworthy for its still-growing formations and its clear running water inside.  The guide was a fascinating young man.  He struck up a conversation with us after the tour about how to approach finding a college that fits his interests and goals.

We didn't spend a lot of time reminiscing about bygone days.  All of us, in our late fifties, are still focused on the present and future.  There was talk about handling job pressures and personal relations, and Jeff now has a grandchild to dote on.  Tom is on the verge of a major career advancement and was also encouraging me to branch out.  It felt so comfortable to be able to share intimacies so freely; such friends are one of the great blessings of life.

If you've never seen a giant sequoia, they are truly awesome. Here is a shot at the entrance to Circle  

Meadow in the Giant Forest Area of Sequoia.  One sign compared the size of these trees to a human, saying they are about the same relative size to us as we are to an ant.  The biggest are up to 275 feet tall and comprise 40,000 cubic feet of lumber, the largest living things ever on planet earth.  The Coast Redwoods along California's northwest shore are taller but much thinner and have less volume.  These giants can live up to 3,000 years!  

It was a great weekend.  Fresh air, the joys of good friends, stimulating conversation and humor, taking in the wonders of nature, and treating ourselves to Reimers ice cream on the way down after a good long walk reduced the relationship of life and happiness down to its essentials.  These are the true things of life to savor.