The Tao of Niagara Falls

Sorry about not blogging last week. If you are reading this, you survived despite my absence. Good! If you didn't. SORRY! I don't mean to play my theological hand so bluntly; that people exist after they pass. For good of for ill.  No Nihilist am I. 

Over the Thanksgiving Weekend Continuum (Thursday to Monday) I was visiting Niagara Falls (the Canadian side) and Buffalo, New York. Initially, I had planned to be in Buffalo only but part of my Fam planned to be in Niagara Falls for Thanksgiving Thursday, which as my brother reminded me several weeks ago, is not Thanksgiving in Canada. I think the "Eh?" nation is earlier in Oct/Nov. So, it wound up being serendipitous that the familial stars aligned. We went out for sushi and sake.

On Friday morning early before crossing back into the States, I went for a run. The purpose of doing so was two-fold. One, to get some exercise and fresh air. Two, so that I could figure out how to get across the Rainbow Bridge back into the U.S. Running allowed me to slow down and figure out the route. Rather than drive and miss a turn-off, go the wrong way down a one-way street, etc. I had come into Canada, via Google Maps, across the Peace Bridge. When I entered Canada, I turned off my iPhone as to not incur international charges. So, I had no coverage in Canada besides WiFi at the hotel. I was able to make it on my own to the Embassy Suites (the hotel is huge and high and hard to miss).  So, on the way out, so to speak, I was flying blind. 

Google Maps has just resolved one of the biggest stressors of how do I get from A to B without throwing in X, Y, Z? My sense of direction is defunct and GPS/Google Maps has made me a much braver traveler. I tend to be a homebody. Yet, I force myself to get out of the ruts I am in by travel, even though it makes me feel vulnerable and out of control quite a bit. Getting the fruit off of the tree sometimes leads to falls but no falls equals no fruit.

Speaking of Falls, when I was coming to the end of my reconnaissance of the route out of the land of hockey, I ran past a statue of Tesla who was inspired by the swirling currents of the Niagara River before the Falls itself to envision AC (alternating current) vs. the Edison-favored DC current which was much less economical and efficient as a transmitter of electricity in terms at least of set-up costs. With that churning around my mind, I came to the Falls themselves. Since it was early morning, there were only a few people around. A few masochists like me out for an early morning run/purge. A dog-walker, a Chinese tourist or two. A couple taking a Selfie.

So, it was essentially me and the Falls, face-to-face. I have been to Niagara Falls four times in my life. Once was when I was really young and have  no recollection of being there and only know that I was there by photographs. The other two times, I was more focused on the grand panorama of the Falls. A global perspective. I think being in crowds didn't allow me to concentrate on specifics. This time, I was absolutely transfixed on the edge where the water drops from the roiling and rapid river to hundreds of feet below. The sheer force and energy of the Falls playing itself on that precipitous edge. It was sublime. It was awe-inspiring. It scared the crap out of me.

I imagined letting go of my hotel key card to the room and watch it be consumed by the maelstrom and then cascading down the Falls--me somehow being tethered to it with an imaginary leash, following it down, down, down.

In a moment of transcendent illumination, maybe not unlike what happened to Tesla, I saw the edge as a metaphor for the Present. Our energies, as much as we can, must focus on today. I can't quite figure out whether the river upstream is the Past or the Future. In terms of the physical world, the river upstream is the Future in a chronological and temporal sense. Yet, in a psychic and  emotional sense, upriver are all of our life experiences that come into play and help to create the Present (I hope this makes sense, I have been thinking about this all week). So, in a very real way, which is what "Tao" means by the way, the river before the Falls is both the Future and the Past, merging into one which is called the Present. The same paradox exists on the water that has fallen: Is it the Past or the Future?

Shoot, I have to stop now before my brain gets caught in an endless loop here. Just take from this blog this one crucial point: Live in the Present, Act in the Present, Feel in the Present, for that is where the edge of Future/Past and Past/Future exists.