I was going to write about April being No Child Left Inside month. Or maybe my latest set of Flat People who visited our park. But really, the topics just wouldn't write themselves. So I started catching up on some of the editorials posted at the National Parks Traveler website. In the course of various comments, I came across this quote from Aldo Leopold. I thought it was good...
“No servant brought them meals… No traffic cop whistled them off the hidden rock in the next rapids. No friendly roof kept them dry when they misguessed weather or not to pitch the tent. No guide showed them which camping spots offered a night long breeze and which a nightlong misery of mosquitoes; which firewood made clear coals and which would only smoke. The elemental simplicities of wilderness travel were thrills…because they represented complete freedom to make mistakes. The wilderness gave…those rewards and penalties for wise and foolish acts…against which civilization had built a thousand buffers.”
What do you all think?
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I think it sums up No Child Left Inside quite nicely. Exploration of our natural treasures opens up so many possibilities of adventure. Even a wrong turn, or an unpitched tent, though not necessarily good things, give way to a greater understanding and appreciation for the natural, and a wonderment for generations gone by. How they survived, and what it must have been like to see all that beauty unblemished, by smog and highways, and strip malls.
ReplyDeleteWell that's what it did for me anyway :)