There are aspects of civilization that sever us from the reality that we are a part of a vast ecosystem.

We require the connection with our origins or we forget that we are not alone on this planet. The insulation from food-gathering our western culture has developed inures us to the realities of the abattoir, CAFO and giant agribusiness.

False or irrational fears, phantom risks, dreaded and avoided — but never the subject of an open discussion — plague us like so many locusts after the harvest (and, how many of us know that “locusts” as used in The Bible, and, less commonly today — are grasshoppers?).

Fears of nature, denial of our mortality, rejection of science, all serve to cocoon us in a place GRAR (Generally Recognized as Reality) where those vast hordes of Grizzly Bears are just inside that patch of wood over there and tonight’s HBO comedy special is really funny.

The 1,500 year drought in the Western U.S. (Where did you find that much snow / glacier still in the GNP? I bet those are photos from 2001!) is an interesting, but not very, topic on tonight’s news (yet again).

And, all those climate scientists, Neil Tyson & Bill Nye, and the damned Immunization business — all that it does is to serve to interrupt Rush & limit the days I can spend at Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm. Those tar balls that closed Long Beach and that pipeline up in Santa Barbara have “people” who handle that stuff.

If I want to go to sea — I want to cram on board a giant ship, with stabilizers, and dozens of food sources with ETOH morning, noon, and night. What’s the worst that can happen? A ship-wide flu? Running aground in the Adriatic? (Not on my ship — I’m staying right here in the Gulf, where it’s safe!) they have “people” who handle things. If I want to see adventure on the ocean, well then the Dangerous Catch Crab show and that Tuna show are all that I need. Pop open a beer and relax in a chair that is twice as wide as the one my dad had.

So, some guy (I heard there were two…) decides to thread a narrow notch in Yosemite while playing Rocky the Flying Squirrel — ok, his fun’s over — where is my iPhone? I need to change the channel. The Park has “people” who handle this stuff.

(At 18,700+ ft, at the edge of the caldera of Pico de Orizaba, one can, occasionally, look east and catch a view of the Atlantic. The rolling ridges of lava flows deposited long ago are hidden below a blanket of white clouds. It’s 9:00 am — time to start down before the ice starts to get too soft… life should be lived. At least some of us find the time, take the photos, and tell the stories.)