I love the Mountains

I was trying to explain to a friend today why I love going to the mountains for a week of my vacation.

I think it's a little important to do without the extras for a while, though. It's a reminder that, in some ways, our society is an artificial construct. For one thing, we are often distanced from our food these days. In the mountains, you are facing an environment in which living things feed off of other living things. Animals like ourselves have no choice but to feed on living creatures in order to survive. Even a vegetarian eats living things; sometimes just taking a part of the plant, and sometimes taking its life. That's the way it should be.

It's also interesting when you think about how we live in such elaborate homes, built by someone else. We have so many features in these homes, and rules about how a home should be built.

It's not so much that I think our society is wrong, but just that we should recognize that it is our construction, and not a thing in itself. Being "civilized" is an artificial standard, but one that has generally been accepted.

Just some thoughts I plan on pondering on while I'm taking a week in the mountains.