Montezuma Well is an ecosystem unlike any other. It’s a collapsed limestone sinkhole located in the juniper-mesquite shrublands of Verde Valley, Arizona. It holds a 55-foot-deep body of water rich in CO2 and thin in oxygen. The heavy ambient air makes a trek through the area feel like a tranquil dream. This sensation alone is a worthwhile experience. Two hot springs feed 1.5 million gallons of 76º water into the well every day. The well’s
The Finnish maternity package äitiysavustus, or baby box, is a tradition that welcomes new children to the world with a gift of life-enhancing baby supplies. Finland is a socially progressive country, and the government started supplying this box to new mothers in the 1930s to combat high infant mortality rates. The box has been a welcome tradition and a successful public health program ever since. The government combated the infant
Traffic rushes past you and pedestrians scramble on foot in the loud and incredibly dense Tokyo city streets. Japan has a culture and language you know little about, but after all, you came here to learn. First things first, though. You’re so hungry, you could eat a zebra. You walk into the nearest building that looks like a restaurant. You’ve decided you’ll take anything they have. As you wander in,
For me, the act of writing is like drinking from a tinted blue glass filled with clear, cold water, the sides of the glass condensation-streaked with ice shards clinking against the heat of a summer day. The experience is waxing organic, like a growth in the soul. Phrases appear as exotic plant sprouts, joining together in a garden of mind-babble and intentional awareness where each thought is a separate and
More often than not, political obsession is just an extension of character flaws cloaked in a mantle of patriotic concern. As I mention in another article, if you live to be 82 years old, you have around 30,000 days on Earth. After subtracting the time for obligations like sleeping, eating, working, paying bills, and so on, you only have 12,000 days of free time—from birth. That’s all you get, and
“The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.” – Francis Bacon Liberal arts and humanities programs in colleges across America are feeling the heat. For instance, during his presidency, Barack Obama offended one of the traditionally Democratic support groups by belittling the value of four-year degrees in the Arts. He asserted that people can make more money in the skilled trades and have a better career than
