Heavenly Art

A picture is only a millisecond record of the light waves spewing off an event. You can appreciate the color and structure, but it is never going to be like the real moment. Here is a case in point.

In the crystal clear water of Taylor Creek which flows into Lake Tahoe, salmon are spending the last few days of their life. This drama of color and hormones only happens once a year for two weeks in October. The salmon return to their birth place to spawn and start the cycle all over again before dying in these same waters.

What can't be shown in just a photograph is the frenzy of activity. There are thousands of salmon swimming fighting, and leaping out of the creek. Of course this attracts the attention of bear, birds and mountain lions who would like to feast on the confusion. It becomes a three act play written by Mother Nature and one that attracts an equal number of curious humans.

The comic "B" plot to this drama of natural selection is the fact that 15 minutes away is the frenzy of South Shore Tahoe. Here there is also swimming, fighting and leaping to get the attention of the opposite sex pushed onward by the green flow of casino money. It attracts the attention of predators as well called Pit bosses, bartenders and dealers. It is hard to conceive of these events happening so close together geographically. In my opinion they should be inter dimensional parallels to each other, certainly not happening in the same world, or same dimension at the same time.

It has been a long time since I was at Lake Tahoe. Usually I'm working and all I get to see is the casino side of the wilderness. This time was different. This time I was there not on business but for a wedding. It was a beautiful wedding, in a beautiful setting. Why one goes to Tahoe can make a huge difference in perception.

They call the ski run that practically ends down town Tahoe, Heavenly and that is certainly an accurate description. They tell me that it is really a small town and once the tourists and the gamblers leave it is a very different place. It won't be a small town for very long. The summer season is gone and their biggest season is just beginning. Come the first big snow the crowds will soar. Here come the human salmon trying to accomplish in a weekend what takes the fish a couple of weeks.

As you were,
Jay