El Dorado

The color of the day was gold.

We chose one of our favorite trails through the woods, splashing along through fallen leaves.

All the reds had fallen and lay prostrate before us like a royal carpet spread along the path.

The leaves that remained were of gold.

Some newly minted gold, still retaining the past-life memory of green.

Some were a rich, buttery gold.

A golden fire ignited by streaks of sunlight filtering through the attending pines to dazzle the eye.

Gold that dazzles the brain with imaginings of splendor.

Others were soft, deep golden brown, like the skin of an exotic lover.

Aztec, perhaps. Or Incan....

El Dorado, they called it. "The Golden One."

A legendary cache of jewels and golden coins.

Or an entire city made of gold.

Explorers -- Gonzalo Pizarro, Phillip von Hutten and Sir Walter Raleigh among them -- searched for it for a couple of centuries.

They searched in Mexico, in Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela and Guyana.

They looked for it everywhere, unable to resist the lure of easy money and the easy life it would bring.

Some are still looking.

But maybe it’s not a golden city.

Maybe it’s the holy grail, the fountain of youth, or Shangri-la.

Maybe it’s true love.

Or happiness.

Or The Truth.

A black pearl or a white whale.

Something somewhere over the rainbow or just at the end of one.

Maybe it’s your own personal “holy grail,” whatever that means for you.

Some ultimate prize important enough to you that you spend your whole life questing after it.

Even though you know you may never find it.

Even though you know it might not even really exist...

We paused on a high hill overlooking a valley strewn with autumn gold.

The subtle breeze was cool and clean.

The sun stood arms akimbo in a cloudless sky.

A distant smell of woodsmoke.

He caught a mouthful of green grass and munched thoughtfully as we surveyed the scene.

“Still trying to find El Dorado, huh, Jack?”

“Maybe,” I said.

“Well, then,” he snorted. “Don’t... you... move.”

He was right, of course.

He usually is.

sj