Via con Dios, Caballo

The world just got a little bit poorer.

Caballo Blanco, true embracer of the simple life, ultrarunner extraordinaire was found dead on a trail in New Mexico after a four-day search.

Caballo was an inspiration to many, myself included. He did what he loved every day, he discovered a simple way of living the good life, and even as he rose to be a well-known figure in running circles, he was low-key to the point of near invisibility.

I had the pleasure of running with a good friend of his a few months ago, Barefoot Ted. Runners like these are the antithesis of the stressed, rushed, and frantic lives many of us lead. Maybe it's all the dopamine from so many miles and miles logged, but Ted, and Caballo from what I've heard, have cracked the code to happiness.

I can't help but wonder if Caballo had some kind of foresight about his fate last Tuesday morning. He had breakfast, he left his dog as the Wilderness Lodge with his friends, and he did what he loved most, he ran out into the wilderness.

"When I get too old to work, I'll do what Geronimo would've if they'd left him alone," Caballo said. "I'll walk off into the deep canyons and find a quiet place to lie down." There was no melodrama or self-pity in the way Caballo said this, just the understanding that someday, the life he'd chosen would require one last disappearing act. -Born to Run

And disappear you did.  You're running with the ancestors now, and I'd bet good money you're smoking them all.  

Art (design) imitates life OR Biomimicry

Have you seen the new TV series called Touch?  It's a great show about the interconnectedness of the universe.  I highly recommend it.

However, this post isn't about the series, just the opening credits.  I can't figure out how to embed them, but you can watch them on vimeo here.

The credits showcase some pretty stunning examples of awesome design in nature, and a few of how we as humans have manipulated our environment through art and architecture to imitate this design.  It's called "biomimicry," and I'm fascinated!

Reduction is relative

So... my efforts to simplify my re-entry into American culture have led me to... Bombay?

No kidding.  After three months of Walden, I've moved back to India, this time temporarily, to help my parents get settled into a new life.  It was hard enough to make the decision to leave the first time, and the tides of fate have just pulled me right back into my adoptive home.  You can't make this stuff up

Though the country is the same, there are a lot of differences this time around.  For one, despite my efforts to simplify my life, I am now living in a 8,000 square foot super posh flat overlooking the heart of what I affectionately call Bombay's West Village.  I also come with renewed purpose in life.  I have started my Masters in Sustainable Design (two courses taken online, but it's a start), and I'm working with the Indian School of Business on a solar policy research project that I helped them design last year.

The refrain keeps beating in my head... "simplify, simplify, simplify" but it seems at odds with my current surroundings.  On Friday I met Mukesh Ambani, the world's 9th richest man.  His idea of a simple family home is Antilla, the world's most expensive single family home, clocking in at a mere $2 billion.  

At least that makes our 8,000 sqft home look humble by comparison!

The Hand of God

I was very lucky to go to school in New York, and even luckier to be brought up to enjoy art and culture.  As a junior undergrad, I visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art and discoverd Rodin's "The Hand of God."

I fell in love.  For the second time in as many months.



I can't explain why this sculpture moved me, and it seems incomplete to have only one view, because this scupture is meant to be seen from all sides.  The two lovers are gently held in the palm of a hand.  In one swoop it confirmed my beliefs about God, sex, and French sculpture.

Then, this week, from Slate's Political Gabfest, I heard about BBC 4's "A History of the World in 100 Objects" from the British Museum.

And I found this -- the Ain Sakhri figure, found in Khareitoun, modern day Sudan, in 9000 BC. 

 

It was then that I realized, that it wasn't the cultural anthropomological aspects that I was tuned into at the Met.  It was the same instincts that have ruled and propegated civilization since the beginning of time :)

But please check out the British Museum's Podcast

And Rodin's statuary -- he did "The Thinker," too.