Ascendant Dreams 7-3-10

Sta. Elena, Guatemala

For several weeks people have expressed fear about my coming down into this part of the world. I have found no sense of danger whatever. What I have found, as have those I am traveling with, is a wondrous sense of beauty, of entrancement with how very large life can be. As I write, I have had an utterly expansive day; just finishing dinner at a magnificent lakeside resort here in St. Elena with some of my favorite friends, friends of twenty years duration now. I have not often found a group of people so simply easy and comfortable to be with. Fine jazz music is playing here in our grand lakeside resort restaurant. My fellow diners have all spread out to link to their own worlds. Lush tropical night sounds provide counter point to the jazz strands of Brian Culbertson. Across the lake in two venues I can hear hard driving fusion bands fueling the night dreams of those living here.

Our abode is a hybrid of Mayan temple, botanical garden, and all-inclusive resort sensibilities. Those of you that know me know that I don’t take pictures of places I stay. I have taken no less than two hundred of this one in less than twenty four hours. I would like to project the image of staying on a rickety camp cot in a hot tent, flicking off scorpions, and eating dust. Alas, I am sleeping in air conditioned comfort these present days. A botanical treasure trove enfolds us.

With each passing day I am feeling a bit more like Indiana Jones. We give up air-conditioned comfort during the day and get decidedly tired, hot, dehydrated, and defy gravity at every opportunity. To climb the hundreds of steps, sans rails, ropes, or other impediments to gravity, we arrive breathless on top of the world as it was two thousand years ago.

Tikal is simply staggering in its magnitude, coherence, and magnificence, covering fifty square miles with more than 4,000 structures mapped. To walk into the central plaza between the high Temple of the Jaguar and a dozen other temples is a staggering jump to another time and way of life. The Temple of the Jaguar at Tikal is by far the grandest of all the Maya pyramids to be found in four countries. It simply is one of the epic wonders of the ancient world. Somehow climbing to the top these ceremonial pyramids becomes more important that staying grounded and safe. Climbing what amounted to steep ladders this afternoon several of us turned around on top and found ourselves slammed back against the wall of the temple comb by the sheer force of what lay before us.

Having never looked below during the ascent, we were overtaken with the sense of vastness of the space below. Individuals below were as ants – small ones. We had a panoramic vista of endless jungle spreading across the lowlands. It was inconceivable to us that we could have this vantage from a man-made structure. It was as if having summitted a high mountain range on the ice. While catching our breath up there, we wondered if cell phones could be used to summon helicopter pick-up from a two foot ledge in the sky. A thunder cell clearly visible a mile away, moving our way while dropping its load of life giving substance on the rain forest, prompted our descent. We had no interest in finding out how slippery those narrow steps might be in a tropical down pour.

About 3 PM we were back on earth, having climbed on the best stair climbers in the universe. I never have had such joy at getting serious aerobic exercise. Joyous as it was, we were majorly hungry when we landed on terra firma. Our little group followed Juan, our guide through the jungle on a narrow little path to a very large thatched structure with no walls. Wandering inside we found a long table set with white linen, cut flowers in vases, and an attentive and affable wait staff who plied us with a magnificent hot meal served on china. I wondered if I had just fallen off one of the highest pyramids and gone to the ninth level of heaven in Mayan cosmology. I drank over half a gallon of juice and water with what amounted to an expansive early supper.

Life is so very large and generous. As the affable British theologian GK Chesterton liked to note, some very large flecks of paradise have washed up on my shores of late. I am definitely on bonus time. Tomorrow promises twelve hours of hard travel with a stop at a site a couple hours boat journey from the road and new wonders to behold.

Beauty is an infinitely renewable resource. The odds are 100% you will find it, if you but look for it.