Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

From June 28th through July 3rd, I had the privilege of being on a raft on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. This was part of a family trip “for the guys.” On a trip put together by my father-in-law Allan, his two sons, me (a son in law), my three sons, two other grandsons, one grandson-in-law, and one great grandson spent five days and five nights on the Colorado River. These blog posts are part of the story.

The Grand Canyon is spectacular; the views are magnificent. If you like to look at rocks and all that is geology, rafting the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon is the best place on earth. No equivocation – the best place on earth.

We started on the morning on Monday the 28th in the Marble Canyon at Lee’s Ferry. The rim was 500 feet above us. As the day passed, the rim rose ever higher above us. The views were magnificent. Hour after hour after hour of magnificent views. The next day was the same – hour after hour of magnificent views which expanded into day after day of magnificent views.

I hate to admit it, but at times the magnificent views became boring. Each view was better than the last one, or was it better than the next one, or was it better than…I lost track of the “betters” and “bests” and “magnificents.”

I discovered that I was telling myself, “Pay attention. You’ll never see anything like this again. Pay attention. This is magnificent.”

I think I kept my excitement at a high level the vast majority of the time. I maintained the wonder of the magnificent. It was, however, easy to slip into monotony. What a shame. Such is the state of man that we can become bored with the magnificent.