Squaw Peak

So the other day I got into a conversation with my sister about my social habits. She couldn’t understand that I rarely, if ever, prefer to be alone. I love being with people. That being said, I’ve realized that there are some things that are best done alone. Today, for instance, I decided to go on a drive up the canyon to the Squaw Peak overlook. Now, obviously people go there for other “activities,” but I just love the scenery. It’s so amazing up there and I went up rather spontaneously. 

After going to the peak I drove up to some campgrounds and along the way I got to see some of the most beautiful scenes. There’s something great about not being able to see the city and submersing yourself into the nature around you.

So here’s a little history about the peak: Squaw Peak is said to take its name from an incident following an 1850 battle between Mormon settlers and Ute Indians led by Big Elk. When the chief was slain, many in his band fled into Rock Canyon. Big Elk's wife died when she fell off a slippery cliff during the winter escape.

It was still sort of raining when I began the drive up, but I thought it’d make for some great color contrasts. The different colors of leaves really stuck out amidst the post rain midst. And as the sun came out and the rain stopped it made some great light effects.

What really surprised me was how the mist from the rain caused the clouds to swirl around and cover the mountains. It was magnificent. 

I even got to see some animals. I saw three wild turkeys. They ran across the path and I couldn’t get a picture in time. And I saw four deer. Two of them let me get really close as I drove past them. We were probably like ten feet away from each other. 

I ended the drive by going back to the lookout. It was amazing. The sun was poking through and shinning down on the city. There was no one else around and it was great to just lookout and think about my life and the beauty I was witness to. I really was a great moment. I hope everyone takes an opportunity like this to reacquaint themselves with nature. It’s a beautiful thing.

Rock Canyon

So I went on a walk up Rock Canyon after school and I brought my camera along with me. It was really beautiful since the colors of the leaves were beginning to turn. I took some great pictures and thought I'd share them with you.

I really loved the contrast between the greenery and then these vibrant burst of orange, red, and yellows. It was such a great day, the weather was perfect and there wasn't a cloud in the sky.

As I was walking back down the trail I was amazed at how grand the view of the mountains, valleys, and Utah Lake. It really was a great day.

Perceptions

So I was writing a paper tonight about Nietzsche and the way that words are perceived and understood in the world. I use an example from my childhood. It's a little weird to understand but can raise a lot of interesting questions and points so I thought I'd share an excerpt from my paper with you. Let me know what you think and if it made sense. Here goes:

(Not my Photo)

As I was trying to understand this concept it reminded me of some ideas I had when I was probably fourteen years old. I was very interested in the way in which people see things- their sense of vision and how that is interpreted and expressed to each other. I had recently done a career research paper on ophthalmologists and read how they examined the eyes and performed eye surgeries. In my research I learned how one actually is able to see things, the image being translated in the eye and then sent as a visual electric stimulus to the brain. At one point I began to wonder if everyone saw the world exactly as I did. For example, say I am looking at the sky and I see the color “blue” as signified by its hue, saturation, and brightness, and a friend of mine is also looking at the sky and seeing what he calls “blue.” I wondered if I were to switch consciousness with him in some way so that I could see out his eyes yet translate the color with my own brain would I still identify that color as “blue” or would it suddenly appear to have a different hue, saturation, and brightness so that I would call it turquoise or even green. As a fourteen year old I came to terms with the fact that I would probably never know if my theory was true, but I never forgot how intriguing it was to try to understand another’s perceptions of reality. I think this is what Nietzsche is trying to express.

On Friendships

So I’ve been thinking a lot about friendships lately, how they’re defined, what they entail, and what you can get and receive out of them. It’s been really interesting to look back and see the many different types of relationships we have.

One of the most interesting things for me are these Facebook Friends that everyone has too many of. I mean, I am actually taking the time (just one simple click…but still) to say that ‘yes this person is my friend. I want them to be able to keep in touch with me and see what is going on in my life.’ The only problem is that these Facebook friends can range from my sisters and brothers to the person in one of my classes that I talk to every once in a while. There are no real electronic distinctions between the two. Honestly if I hardly know the person I’ll just contemplate if I get a positive feeling about them, and if so I accept their invite (I don’t normally add people I don’t really know). I have exactly 554 friends on Facebook but I probably only hang out with like 20 of them on a regular basis. And those ones I really don’t need to be Facebook friends with since I know what’s going on in their lives. It’s just interesting.

Now that I’m done with my Facebook rant there are other things I find intriguing about real friends. We all know that friends are extremely important to us. They make up a large part of our emotional lives. Yet different people seem to treat their friendships differently. For example, I love to share my friends. If I have someone that I love I want them to meet other people that I also love. I like them to get to know each other, and if there are differences between two friends I will share them with other friends instead. I love large groups of friends. But there are other people I know who seem to hoard their friendships. It’s not that I think this is bad; it’s just that I don’t understand this. People hoard their friends when they cannot mix friendships with others and groups. They have different groups that they hang out with and it’s not that they can’t have their friends mix, they just don’t think to do it, or would prefer not to mix friendships. This just frustrates me because I don’t understand why they wouldn’t want to share their friendships, and it can cause feelings of exclusion.

Anyway I don’t want to ruffle anyone’s feathers with this. It’s just something I noticed and have been thinking about lately.