I could never live in the desert. It is not just that I do not like heat, but also that my psyche needs green. I discovered this after I moved to Montana for a time to help my sister. I was unaccountably depressed while I was there, sleeping much more than usual, lethargic, weepy and not at all my usual self.

Then I decided to take my nephew on a college tour back to Minnesota. When we got toward the eastern side of South Dakota and the brilliant greens of a well-watered landscape came into view, my heart lifted. I felt a euphoria that was so intense it felt as though I were floating. In that moment, I realized that my misery was more to do with the colors of the landscape than any other factor. I moved within two months, back to where the land was green.

That does not keep me from appreciating and loving the stark beauty of the desert. The subtle striations of color, the cracked and blistered earth, the desiccated silver of the tree trunks and the hazy dustiness of the succulents are beautiful. I love the plane geometry of the landscape that we cannot see when covered with an abundance of flowers, bushes, grasses and trees. There is something magnificent and courageous about the flora and the fauna eking out a life in these marginal landscapes. There is a profundity in this life of scarcity – this life on the margins.

But it is not for me. I want a green land. Give me the entire green rainbow from the palest milk green of an Easter Rose to the deepest darkest greens of a Doug Fir. I need green to live. It’s that fundamental. But, one of the nice things about Second Life® is that I can visit the beauty of the desert without the heat or the misery. And the desert at ISON is particularly beautiful – a living desert, not an ocean of sand. Continue reading →