setting my sights on effigy mounds as the foundation of this trip and starting it all at a site in pikes peak state park was perhaps the best decision i made. not only is the location beautiful and breathtaking and all it claims to be on the tourism sites, it has a real sense of power and so much lined up for me there, i can feel the aligned purpose there. i feel like it helped me to lift so many mental concepts and carry them to the path of the beam, if that makes sense to anyone.

i was initially intrigued by the official purpose that archeologists have given this place, or more so that they really haven’t been able to clearly and succinctly define it. our modern world and frame of reference doesn’t contain any similar life paths to the effigy mound builders, perhaps artist or priest is the closest, but there’s a resentful omission of art and building for its own sake that is lit up and vibrating on the surface of our society’s paradigm. there’s a blockage in our lens in that regard. it’s so clear while being among the mounds, this dedication to exchange celebration and gifts with the earth and with future generations is important. important enough to dedicate your life to building hills with your hands, shaping the land’s future into an effigy of all it sustains, a testament to eternal spirit, and teaching others to do the same — this role is an integral part of community; without it, it’s broken.

also striking: it was so clear that i wouldn’t have had these same thoughts there if i had visited at any other time in my life, with people other than the twins, in anything other than these exact circumstances, even down to reading material. i recently got a copy of the firefox book set (vol 1, 2, & 3) from my dad, which he’s talked about many times but i never read or had the full scope of. i knew they contained recipes from our ancestors about simple hillbilly life, flora, and fauna, that i thought would be useful to read along the trip. reading the intro to the first volume i was floored by how actually relevant it was as a whole, not just the information within, but how it came to be.

you can read the intro yourself here, but i’ll summarize: an english teacher at a private school in 1966 had become so disenchanted with teaching and the behavior and apparent unwillingness of his students to learn, that he contemplated quitting.

“About six weeks later, I surveyed the wreckage. My lecturn (that's a protective device a teacher cowers behind while giving a lecture nobody's listening to) was scorched from the time Tommy Green tried to set it on fire with his lighter—during class. Charles Henslee had already broken off the blade of his Barlow knife in the floor¬ boards. Every desk was decorated with graffiti. My box of yellow chalk was gone, and so were the thumbtacks that had held up the chart of the Globe Theatre. The nine water pistols I had confiscated that very afternoon had been reconfiscated from under my nose.

And it was with a deep sigh that, as I launched one of several paper airplanes within easy reach, I began to ponder greener pastures. Either that or start all over.”
-eliot wigginton

this brought him to a very introspective place because he loved to teach, and came to the conclusion that he must be the change he wanted to see. his class from then on became a space to create a literary project together, based on what the students wanted to learn and what they each had to share. the incredibly successful magazine came from those incorrigible students diligently interviewing the older members of their families, off the beaten path, and recording them in beautiful, earnest authenticity. they also learned how to manage the business side of things, together, and the publication still exists today.

this spoke to so much of what i’m really trying to do with this life, and brought up a lot of my feelings about education, its future, and how i think i’ve learned best. in april of 2024 i decided to become a kind of worldschool teacher to my kids, like a montessori method without the confines of a classroom, and reading this introduction confirmed so much of my decision. it was written in 1972, but he might as well have been talking about the current day, as far as our country has progressed in this area. foxfire honestly should have become an industry standard, but it was no surprise to read intros from later volumes to find the structure of School itself pushed back on this revolution.

despite this, i remain inspired by his work for and with youth, for forwarding these ideas, and can think of no better place to have shared them than among the effigy mounds. the process is the purpose really, we’re seeing the world up close and learning from it, digging into the things that make us excited, and sharing all we can along the way. building effigies of what’s come before us to remind and inspire those who come after.

from the very beginning, i wanted us to find projects we loved, and want to learn about to better throw ourselves into. to see something we could do in all the unique things we come across on our explorations. we’ve been growing into that, and indeed, it is the best way to learn. i’m more sure of that than ever, though i may have underestimated the size of our scope and reach before.