Steppe Beyond Time
The steppe is a belt of grassland extending 5,000 miles from European Hungary through Ukraine across Central Asia to reach its end in Chinese Manchuria. Mountain ranges divide the steppe into distinct segments but horsemen cross such barriers with ease, so steppe riders have wandered the grass belt since before the days of Temudjin, (who in 1196 at the age of 41 adopted the name Genghis and 10 years later was elected “Supreme Khan of All Those Who Live in Felt Tents.”) Today most of the steppe, including the pampas, the puszta, the prairies and the Ukraine, has been developed for agricultural use. Only the Mongolian steppe remains.
A modern traveler writes in her diary, “It is an overwhelming visual experience of emptiness and vastness to ride across the completely silent, treeless steppes stretching away into the distance: not a fence, no trace of human activity except for the pastoralists, no telephone poles, no haze whatsoever and the horizon is sharp.”
An older diary tells a similar story: “The hunter who wanders through these lands sees sights which ever afterward remain fixed in his mind…. Apart from this, yet mingled with it, is the strong attraction of the silent places, of the large tropic moons, and the splendor of the new stars; where the wanderer sees the awful glory of sunrise and sunset in the wide waste spaces of the earth, unworn of man, and changed only by the slow change of the ages through time everlasting.” – Theodore Roosevelt, March 15, 1910
Why has my mind been drawn these past weeks to the vast emptiness of the steppe? I honestly can't say. But I suspect that some of you may be feeling it, too.
After nearly two decades of having received no handwritten correspondence longer than a greeting card, I recently received two lengthy letters, just one day apart. The first of these letters came from 17 miles away. The other from the far side of the world. The writers have never met.
Dan was a member of the founding team of Intel Corporation more than a quarter century ago. The cognoscenti have often heard me speak of things I've learned from Dan, an insightful man with the courage of his convictions. Dan began his letter by explaining why he chose folded paper instead sending an email to me, then added, “Too much 'communication' quickly degrades into 'information' which then degrades further into 'data.' I believe this is reaching full orb in American culture…” Three sheets later, Dan concludes: “My long-belabored point is that media has facilitated intrusion in the name of communication. With every advance of technology, people increasingly look for ways to protect themselves against that intrusion, thus spawning more and more 'communication' technology.”
Akintunde is 30 years Dan's junior. During his months in Austin, my Nigerian pal spent his Sundays with Pennie and me. Nowadays Akintunde spends his Sundays in Kyoto, Japan, where he's programming the next “best ever” video game for Nintendo. Like Dan, Akintunde is a technologist. He began his letter, “I'm currently taking a break here at work and I was thinking about you guys, so I thought I'd write you. It seems as I get older I become less and less interested in using technology; there's something cool about writing a letter and mailing it.”
Recreation, inspiration, meeting, work.
Entertainment, advertisement, shopping, work.
Invitation, obligation, travel, work.
And then we fall sleep, having lived in a drive-thru world.
The Mongolian steppe is the quiet heart of Asia. But where is America's quiet heart? I ask not because I need you to help me find it, but because you need to find it for yourself.
Roy H. Williams
PS – Akintunde's letter scolded me for not having posted the photos of the New Campus Celebration, so we made it a priority and now they've been posted. Just press the GALLERY button at the top of the wizardacademy.org homepage. THANK YOU to the great Speedy Peacock for taking the photos. If you weren't able to make it to that special event, or even if you were, we hope you'll join us for the opening of Wizard Academy's Chapel Dulcinea on Saturday, April 23. We'll do lots of cool things that day. (Maybe I can even convince Dan and Akintunde to come.)