Euglena's Portland Adventure, Part 2

I wrote draft 1 of this post Fri, 08-08-08,
while sitting in a coffee shop in PDX,
trying to get a caffeine buzz on before
I gave a lecture about climate change.

The original draft reflects some of the angst
that often pops up for me - & others -
about this sticky little unpleasant issue.

Since the original draft,
I've made two edits,
the most substantial
at a friend's studio
on this Mon morning
after a great sleep.
(Muchas gracias.)

It ain't finished yet
- as if they're ever 'finished' -
but this is where it's at right now.

Oh, & one more thing:
I've decided that the next workshops
I'll offer in EUG & PDX are Sys 1 & Sys 2.

* Sys 1: nonlinear dynamics & CA
* Sys 2: NET, emergence & autopoiesis

Coming in Aug & Sept ... story @ 4.669 ...

Oh, yeah ... this is gonna be a whole bunch of fun ...

OK, here's draft 3 of Part 2.
The remainder is still written
in the tense of last Friday.
______________

I didn't sleep well last night. That often happens before I travel,
especially if mass transit is involved. That was the case today.

Last night, before bed, I packed my expedition backpack - a well-traveled Gregory Atlas that's been up a lot of mountains & through a bunch of canyons - with sleeping bag, pad, extra clothes, toothbrush, projector & laptop, then went to bed early.

I slept well until 4 am, then awoke & couldn't sleep again. So, I arose at 6 - way early for me since I mostly work nights - & showered. After finishing a few things around the studio, by 7:30, I was out the door on the way to Portland to offer a weekend workshop about adaptation to climate change.

I walked with pack 1/4 mi to the bus stop to catch the bus downtown. Once there, I had just enough time to snag breakfast at Eugene's premier vegan restaurant, Morning Glory, next door to the train station. (No, I'm not vegan, I just like vegan cuisine, even if not a steady diet of it.)

Just as I was finishing my coffee, my train pulled in. I boarded. I took the back-most seat in the rear car, mainly to get some distance between me & a noisy crowd up front.

Now I like trains for several reasons. One, I grew up in a train town, so I have a certain inborn interest in them. I'm fascinated by those machines, by their sheer power.

But even more so, trains travel what I think of as "the back roads", through the brushy, seedy side of America along tracks lined with blackberry brambles. Passenger trains like the Amtrak Cascade share the rails with freight trains, box cars bearing the art of a future primitive time characterized more by tribalism than love.

Planes take one far above it all where one can see the topography, but not the details of culture, the nitty gritty dark sides. In planes & airports, too much of what one sees is sterilized & reminiscent of malls.

(I confess, I'm an odd man out: I dislike traveling by plane, & haven't for a decade. Even though it's amazing to go that high & see so much topography, given the state of our planet's climate regulation system, I can't justify the fuel use per capita. And, I disdain rude gate agents & lost baggage.)

Likewise, in cars, it's possible for one to plan a route that's mostly manicured streets, roads & highways. It's usually possible to drive around the parts one doesn't want to see.

But on a train, you've at ground level, & are stuck on the track. There's no avoiding what's there. Regardless of whether you ride coach (like me) or the vista lounger, one gets to see the undersides, the back allies behind the industrial zones, the dumps along the track.

And poignantly, especially in the morning, one gets to see the lives of the homeless who make their "homes" along the fences, walls & hedge rows along the tracks. On the way out of Eugene, I saw no fewer than 3 people sleeping on mattresses along the tracks, seemingly oblivious to the train as it sped along just a few feet away.

I was repeatedly struck by how many homeless encampments I saw along the way to PDX - especially under overpasses. Even in PDX itself, there are significant numbers of homeless sleeping in allies, under bridges & even in group camps on the sidewalks of business neighborhoods.

I wondered if I was really seeing into the future, a harbinger of what is to come, when many more inhabit those hinterlands along tracks & highways as civilization begins to come unglued as a result of climate change, as increasing numbers of Americans find themselves unprepared to deal with the effects of large-scale climate change because they ignored the warnings for too long.

OK, time to go lecture. I wonder if anyone will come listen, & if so, if they'll take it to heart, maybe even sign up for a workshop on how to adapt, then start the work of preparing to adapt.

I guess we'll see.