Miniature Golf

Spring 2019

Saturday night is the annual Piano Burn. A friend of ours has a huge pit in the desert outside of Tucson. Burners gather each year to set fire to a stack of collected pianos, all of which are too far gone to keep. This year, we also enjoy around 100 dry Xmas trees, and 60 pallets. They are looped around in a conch-like circling. A surfer rock band will be assembled to set the perfect tone as we munch, drink, dance, remark on burns past, and party. But first….

Up the hill in the intentional community, DF and I have an appointment with The Turtle, our friend’s oddly shaped sauna sweat. We arrive about 4pm to find it already warmed and cooking. We eagerly strip immediately while saying our hellos to friends, old and brand new. We grab a towel each to sit on and we enter.

It is a wonderful detox. A new rig in the pipes holds the heat in, much more efficiently than before. We take top seats and begin to howl in the echo of the carefully worked out acoustic bubbles of ferro cement. We stretch and pull our muscles by feel and conscious yoga moves. We get out, enjoy a bit of potluck dinner, sit in the sun and a light breeze and then return.

It is a fine place to be naked. The soft sandy soil has little vegetation. Prickers are few. We can wander barefoot all over and we do. We inspect the new restrooms being constructed of rammed earth. We take a stroll in the desert, and back.

There is a crop of odd plants out back. We inspect what is identified as a field of tall onions, but have another discovery on the way. It is “A Whole in Oneness.”

One of the residents has opened a caddy shack and a miniature golf course. A line of free putters are resting against the shack.

We each grab an instrument and a ball and give it a try.

The sun is setting bright orange and lighting everything up. We get the gist of the course, before it sets.

The course’s surface works well, as we put on the smooth dirt.

I’m reminded of the remote copper mines in Cocapella, Peru that I visited back in the 1970’s. They also had a golf course. A few holes were in rolled hard packed sand greens, or should I say tans.

Stay Away From the Rough

Another dip into the sauna heat, then a donning of dark cloaks for effect and we are off as burners.