Beyond Politics
Some years ago I spent a few days by the Columbia River Gorge in Washington state. In the course
of the hiking expeditions, two things came to mind over and over. The immense beauty of the surroundings was indescribable. The physical sensation of hazard, of the lethal consequences of a lapse in judgment, was also beyond words. I remember passing a small memorial cross planted at the edge of the trail. Someone much younger than I had lost focus, ending their life at the edge of the abyss which was visible several feet from the side of the trail.
We are engulfed
in an immense
ancient indifference,
that does not sleep or dream.
Call it nature if you will…
though everything that is,
is natural—
the lignite bearing earth,
the factory,
a darkness taller than the sky—
This out-of-doors that wins us our release
and temporary peace—
not because it is pristine or pretty,
but because it has no pity
or self pity.
–A. E. Stallings
