It is always interesting to me how the lens of my current experience shapes how and what I perceive and find meaningful.  I came to this month's Scribe project within hours of returning from a very small gathering of colleagues who meet every year in a place of beauty to continue explorations at the edges of emotional experience.  This time we chose to meet in Sante Fe, and during this my first visit to this lovely town I fell under the spell of the State of New Mexico's motto: 'land of enchantment' for indeed the soft, clear, cold desert air amidst the centuries old adobe structures so nestled into the landscape in the relative quiet of a still-small town -- well, it was just enchanting.  

And so, with that experience so near to hand I turned to the Scribe task from the logs which had been posted, and, inspired by the 750-830 mile (depending upon whether you went over or around the mountains) Sante Fe Trail, this is what my mind's eye saw:

Threads, or meandering trails, of individuals and groups of PaBers:

--individual efforts and collaboration, perhaps gathering collective intelligence as mind and consciousness venture into the future...where the virtual and 'real' worlds might become blurred, and where mental compartments might be diminished.

--individuals who might introduce provocative topics, such as 'pro-life', perhaps trying to 'get a life' or 'make a mark' by disturbing others' repose; such efforts often draw a sense of power for the agitator in the wake of others' consternation.  Such may have been one of trails  (or trials ?) I observed.

--considerations and implications about lengthening one's day from 24-28 hours and other related attempts to alter the natural frame of physical experience perhaps out of exploration, or an effort to alter one's circumstances

--explorations in SL 'businesses' from techno stuff to tattoos 

--the multi-dimensional experience of one PaB meeting being 'exhibited' live in a university setting: wondering how this very fact of being observed 'live,' even with fore-knowledge by notecard, influenced the experience and discussion for each individual and for the group.  My imagining was that much non-verbally expressed experience (such as combing one's avatar's hair, attempting to smooth one's own thoughts)  occurred alongside the several mentioned topics  which included the natural violence and destruction of an erupting volcano followed so closely by emergent life forms, discussions of PaB experience and some close consideration of recently conveyed contemplative exercises.

--the explorations of different trajectories toward PaB and of different worlds of interest: combining art and science, the exploration of lucid dreaming and other variations of consciousness.

--and, sadly, the awareness that several unposted logs (as of this writing) carried other meanderings which would remain undiscovered by my eye and mind, at least for now.  Undiscovered and yet likely very rich, akin to yet-buried treasures. 

 

All of these and other trajectories toward PaB exploration and experience reminded me of the well-traveled Sante Fe Trail, several hundreds of years old, which has seen all variety of traveler seeing and seeking uniquely, each adding to the richness of the local landscape and the evolving emotional experience such that this 400 year old town is now the a center for art and artists in the American west.  And one last image which I only noticed in the airport as I was leaving: a larger -than- life sized bronze of a Native American reaching up and out toward or being lifted by a large eagle, each figure enhancing the other such that this huge bronze seems to be soaring: a dynamic sculpture depicting the energy of questing, the energy of PaB, a Trail we each and all share as we ride the never-cresting wave of Now.