Day 220: Good day, sunshine!

May 4, 2011

A gorgeous, warm day today! Jacob and I went on a nature hike at Jackson Bottom Wetland Preserve. There are so many places to explore out here, and now that the weather is getting nice, I can't wait to see some more of it. The only drawback is that we have to drive to these places. 

One of the first things we saw as we started down the trail was a bald eagle soaring overhead. Awesome. Pretty close. I ran to follow it with my binoculars while Jacob was calling for me to follow him down the trail. I tried explaining how cool it was to see one but he was in his own thoughts. We also saw lots of tree swallows and a yellow rumped warbler.There are lots of bird sightings here, with all the water especially. 

Jacob had a great time throwing things in the Tualtin River, though. Mud, rocks, sticks, woodchips, dandelions. Pretty much anything we could find. There was a cool spot with lots of half dried mud with some animal tracks in it: raccoon, deer, squirrel, duck. 

 There was a little nature center there too. It talked about how this area is used to filter the wastewater before it heads back to the river all the while creating a nice habitat for lots of animals. 

This afternoon I had the chance to listen to Democrary Now. This is the 50th anniversary of the freedom riders, a group of white and black students who rode buses from Washington D.C. to Montgomery, Alabama. The documentary Freedom Riders will air on PBS on May 16th. Very interesting and sad story but also powerful. It is amazing to me that this was going on only 50 years ago. Of course, being from the north, it was different in my local history. But that people really viewed other PEOPLE this way, segregating in almost all aspects of life, is just unbelievable to me. And yet, it happened. 
I wonder what it is about the human race that gets so hung up on differences. Whether it's gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation it all seems to boil down to judging others because they aren't like us. Does that assume that "we" (whoever that might be in whichever argument) are the only right ones? Does it assume to know better than evolution which creates things differently in order to better a species, not produce a monoculture? Does it just assume that we fear what we don't know? 
Either way, I hope it's something the human race can improve on. We have made huge strides in certain areas but there are others that are still lacking. I think God must be a sociologist and is, no doubt, highly "amazed" by some of our more juvenile flounderings.