i am fully aware that my brain has been so thoroughly warped by tv + movies that i have a hard time appreciating reality because i've "seen" it all on big + small screens. for example, i have no desire to see the eiffel tower or the pyramids- i've seen them in so many movies that i almost feel as if i've already seen them in real life. i'm not saying this is a good thing- there's something sad about how satisfied i am with a fictional re-creation that i have no desire to see the real thing. it's like when one of my first graders bit into an apple and declared, "It tastes like fruit punch!" (luckily, there's hope for me yet: i still prefer listening to live music than to a CD).
anyways, i say all this because on saturday i went to Petroglyph National Monument (just outside ABQ) and wandered around piles of black rocks, some of which had "petroglyphs" carved into them. i put quotes around the word because my above-mentioned warped brain had a hard time believing that these carvings were really hundreds of years old, part of the sacred ceremonial rituals of the people who lived there at the time. i stood there, staring at the images, thinking, "these can't be real petroglyphs, they look just like the pattern printed on a piece of decorative paper i used to cover a book last month." these images have been reproduced commercially so many times that i couldn't appreciate the original form. wah.
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