Brad Walsh

Topographic Design

At the moment I am a few miles above the earth on a private jet, looking down over the entire United States of America and watching it go by slowly.

We flew by Mount St. Helens and all the non-volcanic peaks of Washington and Oregon, over the fields and dry stretches of the west, the circular crops, the hills and the flatlands of the midwest. Just a minute ago I looked down over the entirety of Lake Michigan as if it were a foot away from my face on a map. There goes Huron. There goes Erie. Down there underneath that cloud somewhere is my mother in Cleveland. On this plane you can use any device you like, any time, and the windows are very large and so the views are just incredible. I haven’t been able to take my eyes or my lens off the planet down below.

Christian and I are having this amazing cross country experience as the guests of our friend Leslie. We’re beyond spoiled now… and I thought commercial first class was luxe. This is like living in a James Bond movie. We stayed the weekend in Portland, Oregon. Didn’t have an appearance, didn’t have a trunk show, just relaxed and watched movies in our beautiful hotel and ate a lot of good food. Our only real excursion was to a book store, where I bought half a dozen gigantic picture books on ancient art, maps of North America, natural disasters, and the universe.

There’s a feeling that doesn’t leave me when I fly and look out the window, which is that humans were really never supposed to ever be up here. Why should I ever be this high off the ground? Then add on to that that I’m eating halibut and asparagus and Cherry Garcia in my recliner and writing on my computer about how thought-provoking everything is and basically today life is a strange amalgam of Richie Rich and Doogie Howser.