A rustic 200-mile solo drive (2001 June 23, the return trip from dropping my son Robin off at Boy Scout summer camp, Goshen, Virginia) offers some provocative views: cascades feeding the Shenandoah valley, corrugated Appalachian ridges, verdant forests ... much the same vistas that would have greeted a passer-by thousands of years ago (if one edits out the sporadic highway cuts, power lines, and radio towers) ... reminders of our Utter Insignificance in comparison to Nature.

And then, turn on the radio and hear some provocative words: laughable "alternative medicine" bogosity, rampant celebrity gossip, and fawning sports-figure interviews, intermixed with advertisements for ridiculous merchandise — more reminders of how far we have yet to go as a species.

Humbling ....

TopicPhilosophy - 2001-08-07

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