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I Think I Can!7/4/2021 This article is part of a series of articles written in celebration of Independence Day in the United States. We celebrate with gratitude the achievements of the Founding Fathers and the wisdom of the Founding Generation, who pledged to each other "our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor," in the pursuit of freedom against the shackles of tyranny. We wish all readers a Happy Independence Day. In the words of President Andrew Jackson: "Our Union: it must be preserved." Happy Birthday America! CHARLIE WOLTHER
The “great” outdoors are, by nature, no friend to man. We only require three things for basic survival: food, water, and shelter. As this suggests, the necessity of isolation from the world around us is a common feature of our lives. We live, sleep, work and eat mostly inside. This fact of life seems impervious to technological advancement, if not strengthened by it. Innovation has made it possible to exercise, learn, and, with the internet, stay connected to and informed on most of the planet without leaving our homes. Our safe, predictable homes stand in contrast to the natural world. Just stepping outside in a city puts you at an exponentially greater risk of attack and, if you go far enough from your home, leaves you reliant on others for food and water which you now have to get from stores and restaurants instead of your kitchen. Meanwhile, you can just forget about leaving the city and heading into the wilderness or a national park. There you’ll find no internet, no steady source of food, and the only human presence for miles around is often far away. Everything about unexplored nature should worry any rational human being. Luckily, Americans are uniquely irrational. 80% of Americans live in urban spaces which take up only 3% of the total land area of the US. In a country stretching from the Rockies to the Everglades, a vast amount of open space is left inhabited by a relatively small minority of the population that does not live close together. Large, uninhabited spaces are naturally intimidating to humans, and in other countries they are. Russians seem to have no love for cold Siberia. Brazilians stick to the coast and have avoided the Amazon so much that there are tribes within it who have never contacted the outside world. And yet, come Memorial Day Weekend or July 4, millions of Americans say things like “let’s go to the lake!” or “let’s go camping!” before hopping in their cars and driving to the middle of nowhere like it’s nothing. A friend of mine even told me two days ago that for the holiday weekend she and her family are going to a house with no internet. It would seem Americans have a proclivity for the world beyond their comforts. Evidence of this attraction pervades American culture. Every year, some 3 million Americans visit the 2,200 mile Appalachian trail to hike mountains which once marked the border of the United States because they were so natural a barrier to humans. Thousands even attempt to “thru-hike” the entire trail in one year, choosing of their own volition to live in the woods and carry packs all the way from Georgia to Maine. A minority of Americans may live outside cities, but a majority(62%) of American households have one person who camps at least occasionally. In 1872, even as the American frontier was still very much alive and dangerous, President Ulysses S. Grant signed a law making Yellowstone the first national park in the world. Looking for inspiration, the Hudson River School of American landscape painters chose their country’s roaring rivers, towering mountains, and dark forests. A meaningful life cannot be found solely in survival. Man is at, and prepared to do, his worst when all he has to worry about are food, water, and shelter. It is only while looking beyond these things that he finds love, creativity, and enlightenment. As animals, however, humans are programmed to prioritize their own survival, and many people care only for the basic necessities of their lives. No wonder why, as technology has made it easier to live comfortably, many have spent even more time sequestering themselves in their homes, afraid of the world outside and respecting its intimidating and carefully set boundaries. But not Americans. For 245 years, Americans have done anything but respect the boundaries the world has set out for them. In 1776, they broke their allegiance to the British king and decided to fight for liberty against the world’s foremost power. For decades, Americans strove for humanity and merit in the face of violently enforced discrimination. Americans have, time and time again, looked beyond their homes and their comforts to the mountains and the rivers and deserts and left, against the laws of nature itself, to climb and ford and cross them. This Sunday, as millions of Americans pack up and head out of the cities, camp in the forests, and throw barbecues outside, they will be celebrating the constant American search for meaning beyond. They will be celebrating 245 years of a nation which has never for one second respected the forces which might stop us from finding love, creativity, and enlightenment. They will be celebrating a nation of explorers. |