Spiraling into control

An Earth Day visit to an iconic work of Art.

The world's first Earth Day happened on April 22, 1970. I was born on April 22, 1963. Which means I'm regularly reminded that I'm older than Earth Day. But because Earth Day falls on my birthday, I have a special affinity for the . . . what does one call Earth Day, a holiday?

In celebration of this year's Earth Day I left the stresses of ailing parents and office layoffs behind and revisited one of my favorite places, Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty. The result was just what I'd hoped it would be: a peaceful, strange, meditative, even melancholy day alone with my thoughts and the spectacle that is Spiral Jetty.

I suppose Robert Smithson might not approve of my use of "spectacle" to describe his most famous work. He'd probably prefer something like subtle or even better, entropic. But whether Mr. Smithson likes it or not, Spiral Jetty is definitely art-world spectacle.  That said, I might get his point. I felt an immense sense of entropy radiating not just from this endlessly changing art work, but also from my heart. Maybe that's too Romantic a sentiment for a work of 20th-Century Earth Art. But hey, it's my Earth Day birthday. And somehow the whole experience helped my world, which seems to be spiraling out of control find a few peaceful moments.