Sermon From The Mountains

We’re still vacationing in the Wyoming mountains. I don’t want to piss off Harper again, so I won’t say anything about the weather, other than to note that I put on a sweatshirt after dinner and we had to pile another blanket on the bed last night.

It was a wet spring and early summer up here. As a result, the plants grew with a vengeance. That in turn led to an abundance of wildlife.

Birds of every variety abound. Turkeys are everywhere, ruffled grouse and Hungarian partridges are plentiful, and there are a multitude of hawks circling overhead. And of course the ‘lesser’’ birds such as sparrows, jays, and robins are out in profusion.

Four-legged critters are likewise prolific. The rabbits were obviously very busy last spring. Mule deer and pronghorn antelope are playing everywhere you look. There was a moose wandering around in the creek bottom by the main ranch road. There’s even been a beer sighting near the main camp, and another bear fell through the roof of a fortunately unoccupied tent at one of the overnight camps higher up in the mountains. The berry bushes and wild plum trees are covered with fruit, which attracts the furry varmints.

All of these are pleasurable distractions from the nonsense going on in the ‘real’ world. Concerns are much more basic up here – food, shelter, weather, friends and family, they all matter more than the latest plan by the fat-cat politicians to separate us from our money.

And perhaps that’s as it should be. A trip like this reminds us of what our priorities rightly are. There’ll be plenty of time when I get back home to become righteously indignant at the latest shenanigans of scoundrels and scofflaws. But for now I’m just going to kick back and enjoy life.

Later…