Pack Creek Ranch, San Juan County, Utah
Clear skies, 17 degrees overnight, calm
The 12th day of January in 2012

One of the first things I do every morning is take a look at the news of the day from the world of Astronomy – the long, long view.
Just to put the rest of the news in perspective.
Astronomers said yesterday that each of the billion stars in the Milky Way probably has at least one companion planet. That’s a billion planets.
The article went on to say that until April, 1994, there was no other known solar system except ours. Now, after the Hubble and Kepler telescopes took pictures, it turns out, ours is only one planet among billions.
And that’s only what we have evidence for now.
It’s as far as we can see . . . now. . .

Before you read the following, go to “Monument Valley” in Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monument_Valley and take a look at the panoramic views posted there.

MONUMENT VALLEY REPORT

There are at least three Monument Valleys.

One is an American Indian Theme Park that caters to the nomadic Bilaganaas - a Navajo category that includes White people, Chinese, Africans, and just about anybody else who is not Dineh – the Navajo word for themselves – meaning “The People.” The tourists come from all over the world to look at Indians and the landscape, buy curios and souvenirs – mostly made in China – and take pictures.

A second Monument Valley is the ancestral home of the Dineh - the real world of the real Navajo people, who go about their lives largely un-noticed by the Bilaganaas. The Navajos have, of necessity, stopped herding sheep and now herd Bilaganaas. Don’t fleece the sheep – fleece the Bilagaanas.
It means jobs for the Navajos, so they accept the situation.

The third Monument Valley is a landscape made of red sandstone buttes and spires of volcanic rock. This scenic part of the Colorado Plateau has been heaving up and weathering away for a jillion years – long before the Dineh or Billagaanas showed up to live in it or look at it. Words really can’t touch it – so do go to the website.

The View Hotel in the Navajo National Monument in Monument Valley is an example of the Theme Park. Take a look on the web. http://www.monumentvalleyview.com/ The hotel focuses on Western Movies. Stagecoach, Apache Junction, etc.Mostly starring John Wayne, who is always the hero of the films.You can see where John Wayne stayed, where he stared at the scenery, and probably where he took a leak – if you ask – whatever . . .The movies dominate the menu in the View’s restaurant.
Food named after characters in the films – the Billagaanas, not the Dineh.So . . . in the spirit of the Theme Park mythology, I had a John Wayne Burger for lunch. Ground, cooked meat on a stale bun, with pickles.Somehow, it did remind me of John Wayne.

As for the second Monument Valley and what’s going on in the lives of the Dineh, take a look on the web at The Navajo Times http://navajotimes.com/ – the newspaper of the Navajo Nation. The excitement is in the winter basketball games – take a look at the Sports section on the website. High school Navajo basketball is the hottest, fastest, fiercest form of basketball – both boys and girls. You never hear about the players – they don’t go on to college ball or the NBA – the Dineh are not tall, just tough. The high school teams really kick butt – while the spectators pound drums and chant in the stands. Wild!

But I went to see the full moon rise over the landscape of Monument Valley.
I did that.
And saw the sunrise the next morning.
Awesome.
Worth the trip.

Talking with an old friend who lives in Alameda, California, he reported seeing the same full moon rising red out of the clutches of the trees on the top of the Oakland hills – meanwhile sitting at his dinner table eating cracked crab.
Just as awesome.
It’s not where you are, I guess, but just that you manage to look – to be there.
Putting “Watch the Full Moon Rise” on your Things-To-Do-List helps.

So what did I bring back from Monument Valley?
First, a traditional Navajo ceremonial basket – a flat form made of juniper root and yucca fibre, in a red and black pattern that has a spirit way in it – an open path for the ritual powers to come and go.
It was made by Mary Holiday Black who lives on the Navajo Reservation near the Arizona/Utah border.
She is the driving force behind the revival of this Navajo craft.
She says considering the baskets will help calm your mind.
(Go to Mary Holiday Black Navajo Basket Weaver to see for yourself.)

Besides Mary’s basket, I brought home a bag of fine red sand – so fine it seems more like flour. The soft sand is the main component of the great read monoliths of the Valley – stone weathered by wind and time into sand.

I collected the sand from the dry river bed near Oljato – way, way out in the emptiness of the land of the Dineh.
Oljato means “moonlight water” – referring to the way the light of the moon is reflected on the fingers of water flowing into the wash from a spring at that place.
Somebody, sometime, must have looked . . . and thought . . . and called it,
“Moonlight Water” – Oljato.

I brought some of the water with me, as well.

I placed some of the sand in Mary’s basket.
Along with a small bowl of the water.
And lit two sticks of pinon incense.
And placed this ritual offering outside in the moonlight last night.
Mary is right.
My mind was calm.

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And lest you think this is all ooo-wah mystical hooey, the sand has a practical use as well.
It is part of my plan to catch mice.
After catching 61 last winter, but not seeing any recent signs, I wondered.
Last winter I learned that if you put out a cookie tin covered with the fine red sand on it – in a place where mice travel – with a pine nut in the middle – the mice will leave their tiny footprints in the sand on the way to the nut.
Then you know . . . and can set traps . . .

Ah, but no mice tracks this morning.
Perhaps the basket and the water and the incense and the sand calmed the minds of the mice.