Fugitives

Over the past few days there have been black and white pictures of three people showing up all around the village, including around our clocking systems, dorm pillars, the cafeteria, etc. These are not just any pictures, but photographs taken before arrest. There have been 4 fugitives on the run and they believed that they all fled to Yellowstone from Arizona. 1 was caught before the pictures were put up; there were two guys and one woman left. The men were put in prison for murder while the woman was an accomplice who threw wire cutters over the prison fence, letting them escape. I keep getting email updates from Xanterra on who has been caught and who is still on the run, the woman and one of the men have been caught in Wyoming while the other has not. We’ve been told to lookout for them and that it would probably be best not to hitchhike because they are armed. I was looking forward to hitchhiking here, it is supposed to be very safe – my friends have met some very interesting people in the process, but maybe I’ll wait a while.

A few nights ago I actually went to a bible study, even though I am not religious in the slightest, but a few people asked me to come along and I always like to try new things. It was their last one, because most people are leaving, so we spoke about two of the twelve disciplines. The first was fasting, the leader of the group told us about her experience of practicing during college which she had done so for up to a week. They talked about the spiritual side of it but also the health and psychological benefits. For instance, it completely clears out your body, starts you anew, a detox of sorts. Many people have spoke of how it made them feel so much better mentally and physically after practicing it occasionally. On another side, we discussed how it can change you psychologically, how it changes your connection with consumption and how it can bring around more appreciation. Also, it can be a way to discover your irrational addictions, not necessarily with food but with anything, it lets you break free from dependency – giving you more control of your life. The session leader also spoke about how it made her understand real suffering around the world, she began to know what real starvation felt like and what millions of people feel every day. This was the most interesting topic; one girl began on a fast for 4 days, doing it here is probably one of the best ideas since the staff food is so dire. An official ranking revealed that Xanterra staff food is only 2 points above prison food on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being Prison and 1 being 5 star restaurant, Xanterra was 8. Although, I don’t think I will try fasting at this point in my life.

The next topic was meditation, not the kind where you necessarily sit cross legged with pinched fingers in the air, but to dwell on things. To think about over and over for heightened understanding of anything, maybe literature, something that was spoken or any kind of topic whether it be personal or impersonal. We discovered that most people do not have a realisation that they meditate, but everyone does so even in banal thought, whether it is during hard work or sitting peacefully – we all mull over things. So, it was a more interesting event than I preconceived and it was nice to hear of other people’s beliefs – it is a very diverse place here.

I now have a 3 day weekend after struggling with my schedule, hopefully kayaking today, hiking tomorrow, then hiking the next day and going to some hot springs, I can’t wait!