The Glacier From the Gazebo
If the glacier is the mountain’s hat, the clouds are the feathers on the hat. These feathers sometimes engulf, sometimes block, and sometimes simply adorn the glacier graciously. I gaze and ponder the mountain and glacier from a rocking chair in a gazebo far below. The green of the grass, bushes, shrubs, and trees surrounding the gazebo contrast sharply with the gray and white clouds, gray rocks, and dark green trees climbing up the mountain until giving way to the bleached white of the glacier’s ice.
Glacier, how long have you been up there? How long will you remain in these days of global warming? From where I sit in comfort and safety, I can contemplate the beauty of the glacier high above me. I can watch the growing darkness deepen over it and imagine fanciful creature shapes in the patches of ice along the slopes.
But, what if I were up on the glacier looking down? The focus of my perception would be quite different. How would the fog and clouds obscure my view? Which white or gray patches hide a deep crevasse? Will the thunder bring rain or snow? Just where should I choose to set up my tent for the night?
I will never have to made such decisions since I am quite sure I will never be up there looking down. But I did once spend 15 magical minutes on an ice field high on a mountain in New Zealand. A four-seater ski plane had brought me up there on the way to fly around 12,000 ft. Mt. Cook. The sky was a startling bright blue, the snow was very, very cold and sparklingly white. The sea shone way off in the distance, and the silence was unlike any I’d experienced before.
The American flag droops in the windless evening. The birds chatter, twitter, and trill before bedtime. The lettuce, beans, cucumbers and tomatoes grow. The plums and pears on the trees ripen. The two cats purr, and the dog asks for attention.
The glacier’s journey has no doubt been an interesting one, spanning more years than I can imagine. But, since 1992, I have personally watched the 16-year journey of my young student in Nanjing University in China as she traversed countries, cultures, and universities to be a PhD research scientist living in a Seattle suburb during the week and a gardener on the weekends with her American rugged individualist husband on 4 1/2 acres amid a very alive rainforest that include a large home and charming gazebo with a view reaching up a 6,000 foot glacier-topped mountain called Whitehorse in Washington state.
Tags: Chinese immigrants in the U.S., Nanjing (China) University, Travel, Washington state, Whitehorse Mountain
