Sometimes I wonder what it would have been like to have lived 1000 years ago or, even, 100 years ago. Would life have been: simpler? more centered around being in touch with nature? closely revolve around community? We invade other culture’s lives with what we think they “need”, when, really, they may have it all figured out. - These days, we are so separated from the foods we eat, the water we drink, and everything else in nature, that we don’t know where the different cuts of meat are located on a cow, where our water is coming from, and we don’t think about what our quality of life, as a society, will look like in the future. We live in a time of abundance, which creates for a wasteful society. At the end of the day, it is not the planet we have to worry about, but our own happiness on it, which involves how we use the resources we are given. Once we are gone, the planet will keep rotating around the sun, with a small geologic layer of plastic indicating our existence. . . Is this how we want to be remembered? - Backpacking this past weekend, with limited water and sources of fuel, reminded me of this wastefulness. When suddenly, every second extra that you ran the propane stove past the water boiling was a waste of fuel that couldn’t be replenished. Or, when you accidentally spilled some of the water and your next refill was at the bottom of the canyon, 5000ft below. While I like to think we aren’t too wasteful in the van, we certainly are more so than when we can’t just drive somewhere to refill our propane and water.

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