I was intrigued by the story of a 42-year-old Belgian tourist whose feet were burned by the hot July surface of the Mojave Desert after he lost or broke his flip-flops. *
What intrigued me? His age. He’s lived on this planet for four decades, but seems to have learned little about surviving its risks. Well, maybe that’s wrong. Maybe he knew the risk of walking in sands approaching 180 degrees Fahrenheit, but his hubris convinced him that he was invulnerable. Lesson learned, I suppose, the hard (or hot) way.
Flip-flops on a hike? A hike in the Mojave in July! What part of the name Death Valley escaped his attention? And it wasn’t an accident he was there. He traveled to the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes purposely. Probably had a brochure in his cargo shorts.
No Excuses on the Home Planet
You can find the bathroom in your house at night. You can because you are familiar with your home. Well, you have a larger home with which you are familiar, even if you have never been in every room.That place is the home planet. You know about places you have never visited because of classes in school, background settings in movies, documentaries, and even TV news reports. You have been bombarded with images from all over the planet—heck, even with images of the moon and Mars—for all your life. You’ve seen lions on the Serengeti and yaks in the Himalayas. Suffice the point with this: One would have to have lived in a mental closet in the modern world to have avoided knowledge about most places on Earth. I’m betting that if I asked you to describe the climate and landscape of a place you’ve never visited like Mt. Everest, you could mouth a fairly accurate description. If I asked, “How what would you pack for a summer vacation in Athens?” I don’t think you would say, “The same clothes I would pack for a winter ski vacation in Vail.”
We can excuse the ancients and the people of four or five centuries ago for not knowing much about Earth’s processes and features. Because no one had previously written about a pyroclastic flow and described its reach and dangers, Pompeians alive in 79 AD could be excused for not knowing what a volcano could do. It’s more difficult to ascribe excuses to residents of Naples today. They know Vesuvius erupts, and they have evidence in the ruins of Pompei to indicate what can happen. Similarly, because no one had written about hurricanes and hurricane paths prior to 1622, the captains of the Nuestra Señora de Atocha and seven other Spanish galleons that sank in the same storm could be excused for their ignorance about late summer hurricanes off the Florida Keys.
But a Belgian adult in 2024 has no excuse for suffering burns because he wore flip-flops in Death Valley. Fact is, unless he was living in a room without windows, TV, and books, he might have had to go out of is way to miss readily available information about Earth’s processes and features. Even travel brochures contain descriptions of Earth’s varied regions, many of those colorful pamphlets pointing out local dangers, including weather and geologic phenomena. What excuse does a Belgian adult give after suffering burns from super hot sands?
Know Place and Self to Survive on a Planet of Risks
When my younger son was little, he asked me why I taught earth sciences. On occasion Dr. Christian Conte tells that story to make a point about knowing oneself. This is how he tells the story in his Walking through Anger:
“My dad was a professor of English literature before he changed directions and switched to teaching earth science. When I was young, I saw fun in storytelling, in mythology, and in the subject of literature; but, admittedly, I did not see the value in studying the ground. As a haughty teenager, I asked my dad why he chose to be an earth scientist. He replied, ‘If you’re only ever going to live on one planet in your life, don’t you think you ought to know about that planet?’ I loved that answer. A few years later, when I was in college, I felt lost and didn’t know what course of study to follow. I thought about my dad’s explanation of why he did what he did. Then the thought occurred to me: I will only ever live with me, so shouldn’t I get to know myself? I decided then and there to study psychology.” (4)**
That Belgian Guy with the Burned Feet
That Belgian guy with the burned feet should get this year’s “Darwin Award.” He illustrates the folly of not knowing self and place.
No, you don’t have to know how Ordovician limestones formed in ancient tropical seas. You should, however, know that limestone regions are subject to sinkhole formation. You don’t have to know how seismic waves travel. You should know where movements along faults are likely to produce building-damaging seismic waves. You don’t have to know why the Mojave lies in its location. You should know that during summers the heat there can injure or kill.
And you should know your own limitations, like not being able to walk barefoot on hot sands. Knowing Self is often tied to knowing Place.
*Joseph Serna. Los Angeles Times Wed, July 24, 2024 at 3:38 PM EDT Online at https://www.yahoo.com/news/death-valley-heat-melts-skin-193806143.html
**2019. Boulder, Colorado. Sounds True (Pub). Walking through Anger: A New Design for Confronting Conflict in an Emotionally Charged World.
What intrigued me? His age. He’s lived on this planet for four decades, but seems to have learned little about surviving its risks. Well, maybe that’s wrong. Maybe he knew the risk of walking in sands approaching 180 degrees Fahrenheit, but his hubris convinced him that he was invulnerable. Lesson learned, I suppose, the hard (or hot) way.
Flip-flops on a hike? A hike in the Mojave in July! What part of the name Death Valley escaped his attention? And it wasn’t an accident he was there. He traveled to the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes purposely. Probably had a brochure in his cargo shorts.
No Excuses on the Home Planet
You can find the bathroom in your house at night. You can because you are familiar with your home. Well, you have a larger home with which you are familiar, even if you have never been in every room.That place is the home planet. You know about places you have never visited because of classes in school, background settings in movies, documentaries, and even TV news reports. You have been bombarded with images from all over the planet—heck, even with images of the moon and Mars—for all your life. You’ve seen lions on the Serengeti and yaks in the Himalayas. Suffice the point with this: One would have to have lived in a mental closet in the modern world to have avoided knowledge about most places on Earth. I’m betting that if I asked you to describe the climate and landscape of a place you’ve never visited like Mt. Everest, you could mouth a fairly accurate description. If I asked, “How what would you pack for a summer vacation in Athens?” I don’t think you would say, “The same clothes I would pack for a winter ski vacation in Vail.”
We can excuse the ancients and the people of four or five centuries ago for not knowing much about Earth’s processes and features. Because no one had previously written about a pyroclastic flow and described its reach and dangers, Pompeians alive in 79 AD could be excused for not knowing what a volcano could do. It’s more difficult to ascribe excuses to residents of Naples today. They know Vesuvius erupts, and they have evidence in the ruins of Pompei to indicate what can happen. Similarly, because no one had written about hurricanes and hurricane paths prior to 1622, the captains of the Nuestra Señora de Atocha and seven other Spanish galleons that sank in the same storm could be excused for their ignorance about late summer hurricanes off the Florida Keys.
But a Belgian adult in 2024 has no excuse for suffering burns because he wore flip-flops in Death Valley. Fact is, unless he was living in a room without windows, TV, and books, he might have had to go out of is way to miss readily available information about Earth’s processes and features. Even travel brochures contain descriptions of Earth’s varied regions, many of those colorful pamphlets pointing out local dangers, including weather and geologic phenomena. What excuse does a Belgian adult give after suffering burns from super hot sands?
Know Place and Self to Survive on a Planet of Risks
When my younger son was little, he asked me why I taught earth sciences. On occasion Dr. Christian Conte tells that story to make a point about knowing oneself. This is how he tells the story in his Walking through Anger:
“My dad was a professor of English literature before he changed directions and switched to teaching earth science. When I was young, I saw fun in storytelling, in mythology, and in the subject of literature; but, admittedly, I did not see the value in studying the ground. As a haughty teenager, I asked my dad why he chose to be an earth scientist. He replied, ‘If you’re only ever going to live on one planet in your life, don’t you think you ought to know about that planet?’ I loved that answer. A few years later, when I was in college, I felt lost and didn’t know what course of study to follow. I thought about my dad’s explanation of why he did what he did. Then the thought occurred to me: I will only ever live with me, so shouldn’t I get to know myself? I decided then and there to study psychology.” (4)**
That Belgian Guy with the Burned Feet
That Belgian guy with the burned feet should get this year’s “Darwin Award.” He illustrates the folly of not knowing self and place.
No, you don’t have to know how Ordovician limestones formed in ancient tropical seas. You should, however, know that limestone regions are subject to sinkhole formation. You don’t have to know how seismic waves travel. You should know where movements along faults are likely to produce building-damaging seismic waves. You don’t have to know why the Mojave lies in its location. You should know that during summers the heat there can injure or kill.
And you should know your own limitations, like not being able to walk barefoot on hot sands. Knowing Self is often tied to knowing Place.
*Joseph Serna. Los Angeles Times Wed, July 24, 2024 at 3:38 PM EDT Online at https://www.yahoo.com/news/death-valley-heat-melts-skin-193806143.html
**2019. Boulder, Colorado. Sounds True (Pub). Walking through Anger: A New Design for Confronting Conflict in an Emotionally Charged World.
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