Something About A Mountain – Hidden Language

Jay takes us along on a climb up a mountain in search of nature, solitude, and perspective.

JAY is walking upon a gravel trail.

“We Ants Can be Friends” by Lobo Loco plays

JAY: It’s the first day of March. I should be thinking about spring, about the buds that will soon appear on the trees and the daffodils that will splash yellow on the brown winter landscape. I’ve already seen two tell-tale signs of spring: both red-winged blackbirds and the robins have returned. And I’ve heard the sounds of spring as well: high up in the sky, hidden in the mountain fog and clouds, flocks of geese honk on their journey back north.

But it’s hard to clear my head today, hard to think about anything except Ukraine. I have no new words, no new thoughts about this unprovoked invasion of a sovereign nation that you haven’t already heard. You’ve surely read some of the takes on social media, where last year’s arm-chair epidemiologists are suddenly this year’s foreign policy experts.

JAY walks faster, breathing gets harder… 

JAY: And this morning, the International Panel on Climate Change released their latest report. Hundreds of international scientists reviewed over 34,000 academic articles and concluded that we are changing the climate faster than we can adapt. The last line of the report reads: “The cumulative scientific evidence is unequivocal: Climate change is a threat to the human well-being and planetary health. Any further delay in concerted anticipatory global action on adaptation and mitigation will miss a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all.”

JAY stops walking and sighs.

JAY: Sorry, sorry. Look, you know all of this, too. Maybe you, just like me,  struggle to clear your head of the simultaneous crises that envelope our world. But that’s why you’re out here with me today. We’re going up a mountain together. Because there’s something about a mountain, something about how it lifts us above the world below and, in turn, helps us refocus. So stretch your legs, put on your shoes. We’ve got some wandering to do.