A big mountain - Landscape of the Sacred #2

What is it about a big mountain? I can't help but look upon pictures and reflect on the time I visited Mt. Rainer think about how overwhelmed I was with the whole experience. I went back to my journal the day I visited that mountain and I wrote very little about my experience due to the fact that I did not believe I could capture what I wanted to capture in words. I really question what that feeling is. Why did I really not have any words for the feelings I had? I think there is some validity to the fact that there is some serious spiritual power that is consider to be on that mountain.

Belden Lane describes one of his experiences as he is observing the flow of water from the rivers, streams, and continuing into the veins of leaves and plants on this amazing journey. He says, "I, too, was washing in the wetness of this wild, inexorable life."

Lane is able to capture the complexity of the experience but also is able to tie in the power of what this place means spiritually to people. The fact that the natives revered this mountain and would not dare to go up it shows the intensity of how they viewed this place.

I wish that we as Americans would have never climbed that mountain. The fact that people pay money and get the experience of saying they climbed Mt Rainer completely takes away all the meaning of the mountain and replaces it with a human achievement. Mountain hopping as it is described in the climbing world, where people decide to climb as many mountains as they can hopping from one to the next without a thought of meaning or reason behind their actions. I really think mountain hopping is a unfair way of experiencing these wild and untamed places. It takes away the meaning of the experience, if you are only focused on the pride of the finish, do the mountains receive anything in return. They become a simple tool for us as humans. 

Culture and religion provide a richness to life that I believe is needed to life fully. Understanding the power of such an mountain like Mt. Rainer adds so much more meaning to my experience I had there. I feel blessed and honored to have gotten a chance to see that mountain with my eyes. I certainly hope one day I will be able to pay my respect again.

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