Note: This is a stupid post but I need more content on my website so I am posting it anyway. Please don’t read it.
As the former U.S. president John F. Kennedy famously said, “Ask not what your country can do for you–ask what you can do for your country”. After a winter snowstorm closed the I-70 Eisenhower Tunnel that connects Denver to Summit County and left me unable to get to the airport to make my late-night flight, I found myself not only back at Copper Moutain to enjoy another couple hours of skiing, but also with a Southwest flight credit. In the fall of 2025, I remembered that I was in possession of this Southwest flight credit, and—having heard Kennedy’s quote preached to me by my loved ones numerous times throughout my life—I instinctively asked myself not what I could do for my Southwest flight credit, but what my Southwest flight credit could do for me. The answer? Oh, Mexico. Thus, I purchased a ticket to Mexico and went to the country of Mexico.
My main motivation for going to Mexico was to see whether James Taylor’s song, Mexico, is really an accurate description of how it feels to be in the country of Mexico. As I now listen to the song on December 27th, for the first time since returning from the country of Mexico, I hear the song from a new perspective. Instead of the lyrics just being words of a song, they are reminders of distant memories of times past. Reminders of the joys and tragedies of my month in Mexico. When James said “Oh, down in Mexico. I never really been so I don’t really know.” I felt that. In my soul. Because, after all, I had never really been, so I didn’t really know. And I would even go a step even further and remove the “really”, and just say definitively that I had never been. No question about it. I had been to Mexico, Maine, though. That could be what James was referring to when he said he had never “really” been. But after all, it’s just art so we can’t read too much into it and we will never really know what James was thinking when he wrote this song.
Further, when James wrote “The sun’s so hot,” I felt that. In my soul. Becuase, after all, the sun is so hot. Before I went to Mexico, I asked myself, is the sun actually hot?Greek Mythology details how hot the sun in Mexico is, but how do we know this is true? James also told me the sun is hot, but I wondered how hot the sun really is. How high would the UV be on average in November and December? Do I need SPF 30 or 50 sunscreen? I found myself wanting to call James to ask him to provide more details about his perspective on the sun’s intensity. But then I suddently remembered the old proverb from Deuteronomy 29:29: “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.” AI (Chat) says that this verse acknowledges a divine realm of mystery that belongs to God, while the revealed parts are for our instruction and growth. This is the end of what Chat said. Circling back to Mexico by James Taylor, the song reveals to us that the sun is ‘so hot’. This information has been revealed to us for our instruction and growth. This information belongs to me and all future generations because it has been revealed to us by James. We will forever know that the sun is so hot. But Deuteronomy 29:29 tells us that any information beyond this is a “secret thing”. When we become curious about how hot the sun really is in Mexico, God urges us to not consider this as necessary information, as it is in the divine realm of mystery that belongs to God.
Now, listening back to Mexico by James Taylor, I can appreciate that James did not provide the very details that, before my departure, I wished were included in the song. Because now I know that some things are just not meant to be known, as they are under God’s divine realm of mystery. Turns out SPF 30 banana boat sunscreen will suffice if you are willing to accept moderate sunburn. Life is for learning and seeing for yourself and living through the awe, challenges, tears, disgust, and smiles that new experiences bring. See that shit for yourself because it’s pretty friggin awesome.
Mexico was a time and a place. I ate a lot of teflon, sat on the beach for many hours, ate a shit ton of mushroom tacos, walked through the woods in the dark a lot, met a lot of Canadians, got so much sand in every part of my body. I would frequently go to bed and sitll have sand caked on my skin even after showering. I saw a lot of animals too. Whales, dolphins, so many mobula rays, sea turtles, hella iguanas, loads and loads of tropical fish, lots of other things. I was sitting on the beach one time and saw a huge thing fly out of the water on the horizon. After the fact, I realized it was a whale breaching. That was one of the cooler things I have ever seen. It was so far away. And still so huge. My bed only came with a sheet (no actual blanket) which was annoying, so I slept with my sweatpants and fleece draped overtop of me.
My trip started in the Las Vegas airport with Rylee and Aiyana at 5:00 am. We woke up still shwasted, got in the uber, went to the airport. I somehow made it through security. Egg and cheese sando saved me on the other side. I had a quick layover in Phoenix, where the water was so incredibly terrible which was bad news. Does all the tap water in Phoenix taste like that. Hopefully someone can let me know. So bad. I slept all the way down to Puerto Vallarta but woke up in time to get some pretty friggin epic views of the mountains and the coast on the way in. Then I was just in Mexico for a few weeks and it was awesome and challenging and overall just a dope ass time. Probably up there with one of the hardest things I have done. More to come on this but those are my initial thoughts.