CLIMBING AND JUMPING AND RUNNING: THE GREAT WALL

THE GREAT WALL, was, of course, unavoidably epic. Epic is China. Much like all the many historic structures I've visited in Beijing, at THE GREAT WALL you feel faintly connected to an unidentifiable history.

In a parallel reality, once upon a time in the East, I was a sun sore warrior perched on THE GREAT WALL ... drinking sparkling rice wine ... straddling my canon ... watching out for Mongolians ... hunting wild animals out of sloppy boredom ... making costumes out of dead wolf ... trading my popular wolf wear for rice wine refills ... living the dream ...

Above I can be seen harnessing the power of THE GREAT WALL ... stealing a quick charge from it's endless glory. Aileen had the camera, so you are unfortunately blessed with a handful of photographs featuring me playing supermodel in a collared shirt I'm beginning to notice I wear all too often. If you remember, faithful reader, I packed limited options. I promise it's washed.

If you take a moment to pause, to become an open vessel, to breathe in the vast structure unfiltered, you are overwhelmed. Your muscles tighten as your toe tips tingle and question after question slides up and down the juicy center of your brain.

To distract myself from being crushed by the experience, I focused on an opportunity to sweat like Ric Flair under a spotlight. All the visitors that I walked by, by all appearances, also seem to silently make this same decision.

I challenged myself to climb to the highest point, to march across the stretching endless, to the point where tourists cannot cross. In the photograph above I can be seen over halfway to my objective, my lasers targeting my finish line. Tower 23.

After we thoroughly dominated THE GREAT WALL, Aileen and I literally hopped over the side of the wall and walked down some half tamed trail towards escape. Aileen may have injured her foot in the jump. It will heal. I was unharmed, but damp from heat.