The Sensational Desert (Wednesday, November 2)

Anyone who has spent any significant time in the desert has left with the surest sense that they have just felt something. What, exactly, they felt is hard to say. Some of the most profound thinkers throughout the history of mankind have spent time in the desert and even they sometimes have trouble communicating their experience to themselves and to others. So here’s my first attempt. To make it simple, I’ll break this “feeling” down to the ways we learned as kids. Senses.

Sight. In the desert, the air makes everything crisp and vibrant. It is similar to Montana’s mountain air, only here there are different details to focus on. I have to train my eyes to notice the desert’s hidden details—the subtle overhands, the deep caverns, the patterns in rocks and sand. I try to look BIG. I try to see the whole picture at once; but it is impossible to take it. My brain cannot comprehend what exactly it is I am seeing, and I feel overwhelmed.  So I break it down in sections, staring at one piece of the vista at a time; this helps, but only a little. I think that with practice and time, I will be better at seeing all that there is to be seen in the desert.

Hearing. I remember this distinctly from my time in Northern Chile. It is a sensation one can only grasp, I believe, if she is truly there to experience it. Empathy doesn’t cut it. What I hear in the desert is silence. Pure silence. It is a heavy sound that echoes in your head and your ears physically strain themselves to notice anything at all. Occasionally, a guest of wind will hit an object or an airplane will fly overhead, and your conscious is relieved to know it still maintains the ability to hear. I hope that I can learn to take advantage of this exterior silence in order to hone in on the internal noises that my body and spirit are making.

Smell. I think if my best friend Matt were here, he would be able to describe this experience better than I. Smell, for me, is something that I do not notice until months or years after the original experience. I smell only in my memory. Certain whiffs will strike a cord, and I will be transported back to a time or place that resonates. In the desert, in this new place and this almost new experience, I smell only dry, crisp air. I look forward to the day when something will cross my nose and I will be moved back to Chile and Argentina. If it is bound to happen anywhere, it is bound to happen here.

Taste. As strange as this seems, I have found that my ability to taste has greatly diminished. I am spicing my food with great seasonings and I am cooking beautiful local produce; but the taste is not satiating me the way I had hoped. My only explanation is that I am so cold that my taste buds are numb. It is a distinct possibility. I’ll get back to you.

Touch. This has always been my favorite of senses. I have always felt the world best through my fingers. Whether I was strolling along the streets of

Commonwealth Avenue

or hiking through the forests of Montana, I would touch whatever was around me and I would be reminded that I am alive. It is no different here. I feel the contours of the rocks and I come to understand what water and wind have done to the landscape over time. I feel the trees and the shrubs and I realize how strong a species must be to fight to live here. I sit on the ground and feel history rush through me as I think of all the people who have been here long before me. I have come to understand that I am a tactile person, and I will continue to use this gift throughout my travels.

6^th sense. This may not be a typical sense that we learned from our childhood picture books, but I believe in its existence and its power. I believe that the desert allows an individual to reach a certain state of clairvoyance.  Answers are revealed to questions you didn’t even know were being asked. These revelations come from deep within us. We hold the truths in ourselves. They come from our subconscious instincts or from the lessons we have internalized from previous experiences. The desert simply provides the setting where such a state of mind can be achieved. It is a beautiful process and I look forward to opening myself to all this sense will allow me to feel.