une, and evenlife on the line for each other and had full faith everyone would do their assigned taskindependently and successfully. Once the fire was ablaze and our meals quickly devoured, I observed the night skyabove me. The luminous distractions I had become accustom to near the city wereremoved, and the sky revealed a heavenly display of light from distant worlds to me. Icould literally see clusters of stars in thick clouds of a dim glow. Light that had takenmillions of years to reach my eyes now filled me with amazement. A nearby stream flowedunderneath the ice all night, reminding me of a faucet accidentally left on, except thestream was part of a continuous cycle of nature not the result of someone's neglect. Unfortunately, our site for the night was marred by crude evidence of thecivilization we so desperately had attempted to evade. A kerosene can, a full bottle of dishwashing soap, a white brush, empty bottles, and heavy trash bags all littered our naturallandscape: ugly reminders of our consumer culture, relics forgotten by carelessadventurers. They were too involved in the world they came to respect or even recognizethe magnificence of nature's simplicity and underlying complexity. Instead, they inflict itwith the abuse and neglect one so often commits in the paved and constructed comfort ofcities. I had come to enjoy the natural beauty and gain a new perspective on my heritageand life by refreshing my soul with the purity of nature. I ventured to the stream to have a closer look when I spotted a young fawn in thedistance. How simple his life, his only concern: survival. Eat, drink, reproduce. Live. Sosimple yet cluttered by materialism and often lost in our world today. I was never spotted.To him, I was an example of a species determined to dominate all other organisms in theworld -- if but for only a fraction in the grand existence of everlasting time. As I left myperch from the snowy banks of the stream, I heard and then...
