Except for 2020, when a bitter breath blew upon our republic in its winter of pandemic and discontent, motorcyclists have gathered during the moon of falling leaves (October) for 20 years to honor the ancestors in the Apache Nation at San Carlos, Arizona. But more than just a gathering, ‘Run to the Rez’ a four-day motorcycle rally, is also a mystery.
Albert Einstein wrote of mystery, “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He [sic] to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to consider and stand rapt in awe is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.”
Absent an openness to awe, our lives resemble a worn-out structure, dry bones baked in desert dust. Bereft of awe, vision is compromised, and one cannot see the ghostly remnants of an ancient past shivering down the pine boughs and over the highways.
Neither can one imagine the dark knowledge that drives seeds up through the crust in search of light. This energy steers the way at Run to the Rez, coming upon riders as a recognition of finitude and smallness in the face of rugged geography, and connectedness to something beyond singularity to the intangible roots of inclusive plurality.
“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood I took the one less traveled by
and that has made all the difference.”
– Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken
Link here to the full story in AZ Rider Motorcycle News December 2023 issue.
