At Play In The Fields Of The Lord

“The sound of water needs no translation.”

I don’t know if any of you, my readers, remember Peter Matthiessen’s novel - At Play in the Fields of the Lord? Or maybe even the movie? I read it as a young boy and perhaps that should have been a hint of my later interest in travel, anthropology and even religious philosophy. I’ve been thinking of the book, our relationship to nature and our will to dominate, convert, colonize.

Why can’t we just enjoy what we’ve got, the splendors of nature, being naked and alive, here and now through the miracle of what we know not - god, chance, energy, whatever?

I’m here in Hualien on Taiwan’s rugged east coast. Mountains, beaches, clean, fresh air, wide streets, breezy, bike friendly. What more could you ask for when convalescing? It’s a gem. If you have to be sick - best it have a beautiful setting and not be a dull, dark, dank room.

My hotel offered free bikes. 5 minutes later I was alone, by the beautiful Pacific. Qixingtan Beach.

I got here by train, escaping the constant downpour and rain of Keelung on Taiwan’s north coast (see my last post). 2 hours, an amazingly comfortable train, $8 bucks. Travel here is exceedingly easy and affordable. The train doors opened and I felt alive again … hit by a beautiful, warm, salty breeze and view. Wide streets. So clean, so orderly. I felt like I was some place in Europe.

Leafy, spotless streets. Parks, river paths, ocean, mountains rising in the background …

I was still sick as a dog but managed to do some things. I got to the jewel of Taiwan - Taroko Gorge. A 45 minute, gentle bus ride to the visitor’s center from the Hualein train station. Then, I walked the trails. The whole Gorge is about 20 km in length (the highway following along) with many kinds of trails, just hop on and off the bus and hike a new trail. It’s impeccably maintained, signed, the whole trail system.

walk along paths cut into the cliffside. Stop when you want. It’s beautiful.

I met this guy, Daniel, ethnic Taiwanese but Canadian citizen from Toronto. He acted as an informal tour guide and was very knowledgeable. Thank you Daniel!

As I walked through this splendor of nature, of our lord, of the universe … I kept thinking of how our meddling brings evil in the world - just like in Matthiessen’s book, his morality play. Evil gets done with good intentions. Why? Because at bottom we don’t respect nature as it is. We have a drive to dominate, to kill and conquer and colonize in the name of our own “god”. As I walked, I thought of all the indigenous people here in Taiwan, killed, wiped out and who never appear or get an ounce of press in any tourist brochures or YouTuber travel video profiles.

And so it goes and so it goes … It’s all just one shitfest of domination, raping the land and people and their gods. And our turn will come too. I have no remedy other than to keep speaking truth to this evil power of tribal “gimme, gimme, gimme, it’s mine-ism”.

“When I consider the sadness of the world’s people / Their sadness is mine” - Ryokan

Today, my final day here, I grabbed one of the free bikes my hotel offered and explored the coast. Beautiful (see this blog for some stunning photos of my route). Beautiful except for one thing. The U.S. Airforce base. It reminds me of Sam Hamill, walking out to the bluff near his house and seeing Trident submarines as eagles soars overhead. Sam says,

"The only thing that exceeds the growth of human suffering is our insane obsession with multiplying our capacity to deliver death.” Sam Hamill, Here and Now, A Poet’s Work.

Every 5 minutes or so, you get - a thunderous roar and war of civilization, this conquering worm, screamed at 100 decibels as fighter jets, F16s, shoot off into the sky. Then, the calm, instantly translated peaceful roar of the always ocean returning and continuing anon.

I’ll leave you with that image. Those sounds. They speak volumes. I know which side I’m on.

A poem from my collection of a few years ago - 50 Poems From The Mountain.