The Spirit of Yosemite

A while ago, I took an environmental college course that included a trip to Yosemite. After our trip we had to make a presentation about certain topics, mine was about the spirit of Yosemite.

Here was my attempt to turn a seemingly bullshit topic into an interesting one:

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When we were in Yosemite, ranger Dick decided to use analogies to help us remember and understand important concepts about nature. I will do the same in describing the spirituality of Yosemite.

If I drop this marker on the floor (demonstrate), does the marker "desire" to fall to the ground?
Obviously is does not desire, it is just following the laws of nature; gravity.

Similarly, a tree does not literally desire water nor does it desire to grow towards the sun. It does not have a consciousness like humans in order to make that choice.

We, on the other hand, can choose. I can choose whether I want to drink soda or water (or at least it may seem so).

Who exactly is doing the choosing?

We are, fundamentally, our DNA coding and certainly DNA does not choose.

The 'magic' happens in the gene expression. We get a product, like our consciousness, that seems as if it is beyond the laws of nature. This illusion is deeply mystifying and provocative.

Yosemite has this same mystifying property.

Just as the human DNA, Yosemite possess very objective mechanisms that strictly follow natural laws. Trees, plants, insects, etc all follow nature's laws flawlessly and consistently – just as a succulent deposits money in its bank account or how a tree lays off the branches at the lowest tier.

Despite the mechanical aspects of Yosemite, the whole seems greater than the sum of its parts.

Just like the human consciousness, a mystifying beauty emerges from Yosemite.

This beauty is very hard to conceptualize so I will make an analogy to clarify.

Imagine all of you were watching the play "Romeo and Juliet" for the first time. Only, the characters and the scene are going in super slow motion (almost frozen) and they are in the middle of the story. With careful scrutiny of the scene you can make certain assumptions, like the fact it is a play or what time period they are living in. You might be able to construct possible plots for the story. What is almost impossible to know, are the deeper meanings of the story. The irony, metaphors, humor, or social commentaries will be almost impossible to depict.

We are looking at Yosemite like we are looking at this slow motion play, we can only understand it superficially. Maybe our human mind is not capable of conceptualizing this spirit of Yosemite, either way; it has different effects on different people.