September 2010

by Lisa Miller

Ode to Summer by Utah Humanists

We humanists really know how to enjoy summer, here are responses to my question about favorite summer activities:

• Skinny dipping in the Great Salt Lake; second only to a passionate sexual encounter with my partner.
• In the morning, sitting on my back patio with some just-picked raspberries and/or blackberries in a bowl of cereal with a cup of coffee and the Trib. And then in the evening, sitting on my front porch sipping red wine watching the sun disappear from Mount Olympus and then seeing the stars come out.
• Smelling the morning air when stepping out to pick up the Trib!
• I have recently retired and now find time to take long walks in the evening listening to podcasts of Radio West, This American Life, and Point of Inquiry. It is a great way to relax, become informed, and get exercise all at the same time.
• Simple pleasures are always the best. I love the smell of rain after a summer shower and the smell of freshly cut grass. One of my favorite things is to walk my dog Tucker around the Oquirrh Lake on a nice summer evening.
• A picnic in the park with a good book.
• One of my favorite summer activities is attending the productions at the Festival Opera in Logan, the plays and musicals at the Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City, and the musicals at Tuacahn outside of St. George with our grandchildren. A second favorite activity is picking our vine-ripe tomatoes and gorging on them.
• Backpacking in the High Uinta's Wilderness Area. It affords me the opportunity to enjoy several things that I value and even treasure. To escape civilization and pack in to where the closest road is 8-10 miles away, to be among mountains that reach 12-14 thousand feet high, to be in forested and meadowed landscapes with flora and fauna of many varieties with lakes and streams. To follow streams to where they flow off a precipice and turn into rarely seen waterfalls with grottos at the bottom. To climb up the side of a peak to where trees no longer grow to full height. To sit on that slope and look out over an immense landscape and also be high enough to touch the clouds as they swoosh by (only when they are small enough to not make sparks). It's all so refreshing to be there able to survive and enjoy nature, and for me to relish in the knowledge of how nature shaped all that you see. To enjoy the campfire and the campfire conversations.
• Lying on my back looking up through the leaves of a tree, which gives me a whole new perspective, and then just breathing in the summer air and being still.

The Conversation for September:

The question I'm wondering about this month is not really a fair question; I am having a hard time answering it myself, but I am really curious to know what your favorite branch of science is. Astrophysics, biology, geology, paleontology, chemistry, evolutionary biology, psychology…(just to get you started). What is the science area that gets you the most excited? What is our group's distribution of science geekyness?

Send your responses to Lisa at HumanistsofUtah dot org for next month's newsletter.

--Lisa Miller