"Our crude civilization engenders a multitude of wants, and lawgivers are ever at their wits' end devising. The hall and the theater and the church have been invented, and compulsory education. Why not add compulsory RECREATION? Our forefathers forged chains of duty and habit, which bind us notwithstanding our boasted freedom, and we ourselves in desperation add link to link, groaning and making medicinal laws for relief. Yet few think of pure rest or the healing power of Nature. How hard to pull or shake people out of town!"
The Contemplative John Muir
Photo: A marshy meadow of Elephanthead spreads out next to the Thunder Lake ranger cabin in the shadow of Pilot Mt. (L) and Mt. Alice (R); Wild Basin, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; August 19, 2013. Muir wrote this passage in the first decade of the 20th century.
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