Blog

The Desert Southwest

May 8, 2012

Last month I visited 12 schools in St. George, Utah, and Las Vegas over a two-week period. Early spring is a perfect time to escape the “tundra” country up here near the Canadian border. It’s a shock to leave home with Lake Vermilion frozen and snow on the ground, and step off a plane in eighty degree weather and sunshine. But it’s a good shock.

Las Vegas is a bit too neon and artificial for me, though the teachers were welcoming and kids were enthusiastic and attentive during my assembly presentations. But the high desert country around St. George, Utah, had a spiritual strength to it that left me admiring the open sky and the red rock mountains. I hiked in Zion National Park–a place I’d never been before–and found myself thinking a lot about the smallness of man in this great wide universe. But feeling small in a good way.

St. George lies in the valley. Zion is in the distance to the north and east.


 
The Broken Blade Wintering The Journal of Sean Sullivan The Journal of Otto Peltonen The Journal of C.J. Jackson Song of Sampo Lake Blackwater Ben The Darkest Evening El Lector The Winter War