Two days ago I returned from hiking/photographing Yellowstone National Park for a week. Being in such an immense beautiful place, I was able to turn my mind off of the many things I do or attempt to do in my normal life. Hiking in Yellowstone, I merely walked about, noticing  beautiful things and trying to take photos that hit the sweet spot, a task that is largely intuitive. I looked for images that would work as pretty photos or as works of art (I blend some of my photos with numerous texture and blending layers on Photoshop). As I hike and take photos, I tend to think of only those few things and I tend to not think much in words, which is a wonderful change of pace from my normal life. Somehow I don’t think of much other than what is in front of me and it calms my ADD-ish monkey mind).

Now that I am back home, I am tempted to think in many directions at one time, whether it be processing the photos, reminiscing about the trip, planning another trip someday, reaching out to treasured friends, working as an attorney, trying to understand the culture wars, writing an article (or two or three), working out, walking in the nearby park, playing or composing music and many other things/distractions/opportunities.  I am lucky to live a life where these things are realities.  But what should I do when there are so many things I want to think about and do?  I am in my mid-60s, which lends a bit of urgency to this quest, because I don’t know how many more active years I will have, physically and mentally. This quandary/opportunity reminds me of the following quote by Frederick Nietzsche (aphorism #249 from The Gay Science):

Oh, my greed! There is no selfishness in my soul but only an all-coveting self that would like to appropriate many individuals as so many additional pairs of eyes and hands—a self that would like to bring back the whole past, too, and that will not lose anything that it could possibly possess. Oh, my greed is a flame! Oh, that I might be reborn in a hundred beings!” –Whoever does not know this sigh from firsthand experience does not know the passion of the search for knowledge.