Friday, July 22, 2022

Iceland is making me an asshole, and I hope one day it will do it to you, too.


I pull to the side of the road. I'm crying.

No.

Absolutely fucking sobbing.

And I can't begin to stop it.

 
 
On my right are mountains that tower into the sky like something from Lord of the Rings, with dozens of birds swooping from them, dive bombing the sky and across the snow caps and cloud mixture that drizzle over the mountaintops like some hazy mist. On my right are endless fields grazed by goats and an ocean with jagged, bright, broken glacier pieces just bopping in place. I'm listening to shitty punk music and I feel sweaty from all the stops for coffee I've had at every stop I can manage.

Enough poetry.

I can't handle this.

I'm on the side of the road crying typing this on my phone. Wildly. Madly. Swiping tears away like a useless mop that can't pick up a damn thing.

I don't care how sappy this entry sounds. I don't care if you're reading this and thinking it's stupid and I'm emotional and over-doing it and blowing it out of proportion. One day I will die and so will my voice, so might as well write it out, even if it's laughed at. Writing my truth and all that jazz. So, fuck it, here goes.

This country and, specifically at this moment in time, this stretch of highway from Vik to Skaftafell is beyond my words. I have NEVER, EVER seen something so unbelievably gorgeous in my life then this stretch of highway in the sun. It's hit me at such a level and I can't remember crying this much. This drive is the more majestic things I've ever witnessed, ever experienced. I've been to a lot of places in the word and this land here is....God, I don't even have words.

Have you had a moment like this? Where everything just comes together for a perfect moment in time, one that quite simply steals your breath and life becomes intoxicatingly JUST TOO MUCH to handle.

This journey across the whole of Iceland has, so far, been life changing. And I'm sure I'll write further entries about a standard day walking around, what it's like to drive around and camp in the most furious storms one can imagine, almost hitting a million sheep, etc. etc.

But this moment here, right here, is my new Eat, Pray, Love moment (my first was pooping in front of holy monks) for next part of my life.

This country, Iceland, is the most beautiful place on earth. Hands down and I will fight anyone about it, any time. I had another blog moment like this, where I was sobbing as I wrote it, experiencing a very spiritual moment with a (yet another) holy monk in Thailand. Since then though I have become a lot less religious. In balance, I have become much more spiritual. And this is the kind of place that makes you believe in some kind of higher power/order to everything.

And this drive. This fucking beauty makes you believe the impossible. This is a place that no picture will ever do it justice.

As I cry and as I type, I'm realizing this:

I'm becoming an asshole. And I'm okay with this. I want this.

I'm going to preach. Not even sorry about it.

This world, man. This little rock we all live on is the most amazing, precious thing we have in our lives. And all the future lives beyond us and our children.

This little blue planet is worth fighting for. And, yes, that's why I'm becoming an asshole. Global warming is a real thing and I'm ready to be much more vocal about it.

In 200 years, or sooner depending on how we act toward global warming, Iceland - that has destroyed me on the side of the highway with its beauty - will simply not exist in it's current form.

Every, SINGLE, glacier in this ENTIRE country will be gone. This is a scientific fact. 



I could go on and on about how devastating that would be to this country. It would completely rob this almost magical place from the world at large (did you know Iceland was the 2nd to last country to be inhabited in the world? Fun fact.).

Now, if you're someone who doesn't believe in global warming and thinks humans (i.e. YOU AND ME) aren't responsible...here's my asshole coming out. This is science, it doesn't matter what political party you happen to fall under. It's happening and if you can't behind the science...Get off this page. Seriously. And kindly don't come back. Just stop now because I won't social work this and be neutral with a line of thought that is killing this country and the world. I won't argue science with you - don't argue when, as I write this, all of Europe is burning down and species are becoming extinct left and right because of the rising heat.

When I get back home, I'm recycling more. I'm telling my friends and family to do so. When I get a house, I'm going to clean energy the absolute shit out of it. When I vote, I will make sure to put the environment first. When I...you get the picture.

I'm asking you, reader, to do the same. Recycle, research and use clean energy more in your house/car/life, vote politicians in that believe that world warming is a crisis for the entire planet and it's future, use and support public transportation, and so on and so forth.

Yes, the cynic in me says, "This won't change anything Nick because a billion other people do the opposite and blah, blah, blah."

If I can make a difference, whether it be one year, one day, one second longer that Iceland can keep its beauty before humans and their world warming take it down, then damn is that worth it.


And come visit Iceland. Please. Buy a ticket right now (here's the website). Message me or ask me and I'll tell you things that will make your heart happy. Experience this world and hopefully you too can (further) grasp the importance of saving this planet. This country needs good tourists! Come here and shame the bad tourists that ruin it for everyone (don't let them throw their shit everywhere [such as in the picture] or trample through off-limit land for their Instagram likes, etc), support Iceland's local economy, and become an asshole with me.

Come experience something wild and untamed and gorgeous and hopefully you too will be become an asshole about the environment and protecting this place and the world at large.

We might make a difference, we might not.

But at least we tried.


That's all one can hope to do in life, you know?
 
Simply try.

1 comment:

  1. You are right! If every one of us just did our part in helping -be it however small or large. Life as we know it has a chance for good change.

    ReplyDelete