It was a good day, however guilty or awkward I may feel about taking this warm, sunny day off from biking when tomorrow is supposed to rain, and when I couldn't fulfill my purpose of getting new tires. I forget that everything closes in many small towns on a Sunday. I kind of forget about the whole church business too. I was glad that aside for a little wheedling by the cyclist, I got no pressure to attend the mass. Instead, I got to spend some time hanging out with a 4 year old boy who came to play in the nursery because he's a little too young for Sunday school. He's a fun kid. I heard all about his week and his gifts from the Easter Bunny.
I will never understand why parents just assume I won't want to listen to or entertain their kids. It's come up multiple times so far on this trip. All it takes is some attentiveness and interest to make them happy. They're self-centered by nature, yes, but their demands are much lighter and more basic than most adults'. I'd much rather listen to a young boy tell me about his day with straightforward expectations of my mutual interest than hear a grown man lecture and expound in pomp and pride that begs my passivity and praise. Spending time with the kid both during the mass and in the afterward reception here in the event room was as good for me as for him, granting me fond thoughts of my niece I miss dearly.
As the other cyclist and the rest of the congregation gathered at the event hall departed, I did as well, heading out to see the town. With it being my day off and all, I walked rather than biked. I think I walked about 15 miles total, around downtown a little, out to the very cool lighthouse, and then over into the magnificent redwood forest and back. I'm told one section of that forest is where one of the Ewok Villages in Return of the Jedi was filmed. Standing underneath those massive trees towering above me higher than I can guess at was a humbling experience. Those trees have stood across the span of many, many generations of humans, continued living and growing disaffected by the rise and fall of so many civilizations and empires. It's good to remember in a world that wants to tell us how big and meaningful we are that we are truly small, our lives dwarved by mere trees, with no need to venture to the cosmic scale to make us insignificant. Is this the issue some of us have with kids? That seeing their lives as small reminds us ours are no less so in the scheme of things? ...Or am I egoistically transposing my own feelings onto others to make comprehensible to me sentiments I don't understand?
...Such reflections aside, the gist is: beautiful forest, really big trees, long walk, good day. I came back to the church in the late afternoon, called my host to let me in and drop off the keys I had forgotten to get when leaving for my walk, and then settled in for the evening. I ate some of the various packaged foods made available to me on the designated Warmshowers shelf, plotted the difficult course ahead, searched for hosts, messed around on the internet, wrote on this blog, enjoyed my alone, restive time.
This is a nice place. It's been a nice day. I wrote in my host's journal, jotting down my thoughts amongst the hundreds others to offer my thanks. I decided since everyone had already praised her so many different ways, I would focus more on offering her my well-wishes instead in attempt to make my entry stand out in some way. I hope the sentiment came through and did as intended. ...But then, like a child in a redwood forest, I really ought to be able to graciously accept the smallness of my own presence here and how easily lost I am amidst the trees, hadn't I?
It was a nice Sunday at church, as well as in the cathedral of nature as Muir might say. Tomorrow it's back to the real world, where it will surely rain and I have a huge climb to make right from the start. Let's hope I'm rested enough.
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