Here is the China of years past that has filled my dreams and imagination. Here was my view across the lake on my way to the Summer Palace in Beijing (June 2009)









The China of today is more complicated than my imagination allowed for. It is the quintessential land of paradoxes & extremes, age-old wisdom alongside idiosyncratic superstitions about cabbage. I loved China. In that way I love tigers. Love & fear, awe and dread, beauty and ferocity.

Earth as woman

2009 Still Blowing off Steam

2+ decades of eruptions. Vog metering. Sulfur levels at orange. Portions of the park closed. Kalapana town? Air quality in paradise? Tradewinds stalled?

But it's all become a constant for us - life with the steam, the sulfur, the hissing and the rumbles. What would we do if it suddenly stopped - besides breathe a deep sigh of pleasant -sulfur-free relief? We'd probably worry. I like that she's always letting off steam. I like the reminder that this rock I call home is HOT. And angry, and dynamic, and so full of herself that she just might do something showy.

But then again, I don't live in Puna . . .