It's been one week...!

Feels like a month

I heard a talk by a guy who, as a child, had fallen from his roof. He’d been struck by the time-dilation that he experienced – the two seconds felt like much longer. So he became a physicist to figure it out, and after much experimentation, proposed that new experiences are experienced more fully than regular or mundane ones, expanding the perceived time. If you take the same route home everyday, he said, you will barely notice it. But if you take a different route, you will notice the whole thing. If you want more life, he suggested, do new things more often.

We’ve both been experiencing this all week. Seven days have gone by – not slowly, but somehow felt like much more than seven days. I think if I wrote it all out, that might take another week, so I’ll be quick for all of our sakes and just give the headlines:

Two Americas

We’re in and around Glacier National Park, which is an “international peace park,” shared and maintained by three nations: Canada, the US, and the Blackfeet Nation. It extends from Montana into the Blackfeet Nation and up into Alberta. The park is lovely beyond measure. The towns around show two sides of this complicated country.

West Side/East Side

In the towns on the west side of the park, we’ve seen a fair amount of strange and ugly USA! USA! USA! stuff. No masks, anti-mask vibes, Trump 2024 signs, and some aggressively stupid, strangely confident man-children. On the east side (nearer the Blackfeet territory), it’s all pretty chill people in masks doing their best in a hard time. Of course, these are generalizations, but it’s been a pretty stark difference. Lots of really dumb shirts (e.g., “FAITH FAMILY FLAG FREEDOM” and “GUNS BEER TRUCKS FREEDOM” – I’m not sure if the wearers understand what freedom IS, except for freedom from the responsibility to grow up.

These billboards and crosses are called “10 Commandments Park.”

I had vowed before the trip not to “get into it” with anyone, to be a quiet observer – and I have succeeded, despite some road aggression by pickups and rude reactions to our wearing a mask indoors. I didn’t bring any political t-shirts and left my pink jeans at home, hoping to be a little un-spottable as a libtard. But when we picked up our rental car, well, fate outed us as outsiders. I’m sure this very cute car is why the pickups are being dicks. Not its fault. We’ve named it Chairy.

Glacier National Park

We’ve been into and around the park all week, and it is glorious, a sort of heaven on earth. Everybody inside the park is pretty happy - how could you not be? We decided to dive right into the hiking with a 15-kilometre hike into the mountains to see a glacial lake. We broke our bodies a bit, but – worth it! And we’ll get stronger. The pictures say it all:

The glacial lake, sometimes featuring little icebergs (not seen by us).

The snowy bits are glaciers. For now.

Uyen gave us two walking sticks for our wedding back in 2010 - so useful!

Trying to Take a Selfie

We laughed so hard at this picture. Took about five tries to get the one below.

Okay, look natural!

Living on a Ranch

The last couple of days we’ve stayed in a gorgeous Tiny Home on a ranch, with 11 mules and a very old, beautiful dog outside our door. We were planning to head out and hike, but changed our minds and decided to just stay here today, listen to the mules chomp grass, and bask in the sun and quiet.

It’s not easy to find good beer here. But we did.

Bonus Science Fact:

They stretch their legs back so they don’t pee on them!

We feel grateful and unbelievably fortunate. Hope you are all doing well.

Much love,

jep and marjan