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Loon Wisdom
The Wild Clarifies What the Madness of Civilization Obscures
The madness of civilization isn’t apparent to those of us caught up in it. We read the morning paper, catch breaking news on TV, and speak with others about the vast array of evils running rampant in the world, but secretly we believe it doesn’t affect us. We go about our daily affairs as if we live in a bubble. We put on our emotional armor in the morning then venture into traffic, fortified with a cup or two of coffee, alert yet confident that we can get to our workplace without mishap. And we usually do. But the madness takes root within us long before we punch a time clock or read the first email of the day.
Only after countless days of this routine do we sense a growing uneasiness at the very core of our being. Something is wrong, terribly wrong, so we pick a well-defined target for all the pent-up unease, directing it at some family member, a co-worker, a client, the telephone company, or some abstract entity such as terrorists, liberals, conservatives or authority, and everything makes sense again. Yet the madness remains firmly in place. Consequently, we fall victim to frustration, confusion and depression more often than any of us are willing to admit.
With all the desperation of a fugitive, I drive towards a big pocket of wild country one hundred and fifty miles…
