Note: I've tried everything I know how to eliminate the unwanted underlining in this post, and gotten no results. The underlining is not in my document and it doesn't show in the draft of the blogpost. I give up. Here is the post, underlining and all.
Many times in my young teen years a good friend
and I set out to explore the mountains to the north of us. The youthful desire
to discover, find adventure, break away from adult constrictions, and stake a
claim on independence pressed us to go beyond the asphalt streets and manicured
lawns into wild territory. “Wild” territory was just following a stream that
somehow managed to survive the shackles of neighborhoods and shopping centers.
I noticed one day about 1964 that this
stream flowed along its gentle course adjacent to my high school, that it came
from the north, and that to the north was a ridge of mountains. I reasoned that
the stream must have a source somewhere within a few miles of us, and I
suggested to my friend that he and I follow the stream until we found the
spring that brought its waters to the surface.
For a number of Saturdays we hiked
alongside that stream, passing through neighborhoods we’d never otherwise have
known, cutting through fields, passing underneath rows of eucalyptus, and eventually
coming into the foothills. When we got far enough away, we had to depend on our
mothers to drive us to the place where we’d left off the previous Saturday
afternoon, and pick us up eight hours later.
As we had feared that we might, once
we entered the mountains we came to places we couldn’t get through on
foot—steep slopes with Gordian tangles of briars and the like. We had to go
around and then guess where the stream, ever narrowing, picked up. I’m pretty
sure we did find its source—somewhere on a slope. The stream burbled down the
incline into a narrow dell, turned to follow the decline, and went off to the
points south where we’d come from. And it was obvious that the water had to
emerge from the mountain at some place veiled in the briars. We considered our
quest achieved.
By that time, though, finding the
spring was only one reason we were hiking; we’d found so many hidden, nearly
inaccessible places that our pleasure was not limited to completing our goal.
We pressed on until we came to the peak of the mountain. There were four old
pepper trees near the summit. Under their shade we ate our sack lunch and
looked out over the valley in which dozens of incorporated little cities lay
and a million people had their homes—including us. We returned to that small
grove near a mountaintop several times over our teen years. This photograph
shows the view we had from near the top of the mountains.
There is a theological reason why
Moses met God on a mountaintop, why Jesus was transfigured on a mountain, why
even the crucifixion took place on “Mount Calvary”. The term “mountaintop
experience” refers to some sort of revelatory experience with God. A
mountaintop is a place removed from the rush of life and the surroundings of
familiarity. For the same reason, encounters with life-changing experiences
also take place in a desert, a forest, or other faraway place.
Many people need at some time in their
lives to be at the top of a mountain, whether it is low or lofty. The vision
they are afforded must be literal as well as internal. Sometimes people need to
see for miles and miles in all directions. Human minds and souls need remote
horizons, not compaction.
I will never forget those days, well
over fifty years ago now, when my friend and I left our neighborhood behind and
trekked into the foothills and walked through fields and dells and the slopes
of the foothills, eventually coming to the mountaintop. Those hikes began and
cemented a friendship that continues to this day, from our early teens to our
late sixties.
Note: I've tried everything I know how to eliminate the unwanted underlining in this post, and gotten no results. The underlining is not in my document and it doesn't show in the draft of the blogpost. I give up. Here is the post, underlining and all.
Many times in my young teen years a good friend
and I set out to explore the mountains to the north of us. The youthful desire
to discover, find adventure, break away from adult constrictions, and stake a
claim on independence pressed us to go beyond the asphalt streets and manicured
lawns into wild territory. “Wild” territory was just following a stream that
somehow managed to survive the shackles of neighborhoods and shopping centers.
I noticed one day about 1964 that this
stream flowed along its gentle course adjacent to my high school, that it came
from the north, and that to the north was a ridge of mountains. I reasoned that
the stream must have a source somewhere within a few miles of us, and I
suggested to my friend that he and I follow the stream until we found the
spring that brought its waters to the surface.
For a number of Saturdays we hiked
alongside that stream, passing through neighborhoods we’d never otherwise have
known, cutting through fields, passing underneath rows of eucalyptus, and eventually
coming into the foothills. When we got far enough away, we had to depend on our
mothers to drive us to the place where we’d left off the previous Saturday
afternoon, and pick us up eight hours later.
As we had feared that we might, once
we entered the mountains we came to places we couldn’t get through on
foot—steep slopes with Gordian tangles of briars and the like. We had to go
around and then guess where the stream, ever narrowing, picked up. I’m pretty
sure we did find its source—somewhere on a slope. The stream burbled down the
incline into a narrow dell, turned to follow the decline, and went off to the
points south where we’d come from. And it was obvious that the water had to
emerge from the mountain at some place veiled in the briars. We considered our
quest achieved.
By that time, though, finding the
spring was only one reason we were hiking; we’d found so many hidden, nearly
inaccessible places that our pleasure was not limited to completing our goal.
We pressed on until we came to the peak of the mountain. There were four old
pepper trees near the summit. Under their shade we ate our sack lunch and
looked out over the valley in which dozens of incorporated little cities lay
and a million people had their homes—including us. We returned to that small
grove near a mountaintop several times over our teen years. This photograph
shows the view we had from near the top of the mountains.
There is a theological reason why
Moses met God on a mountaintop, why Jesus was transfigured on a mountain, why
even the crucifixion took place on “Mount Calvary”. The term “mountaintop
experience” refers to some sort of revelatory experience with God. A
mountaintop is a place removed from the rush of life and the surroundings of
familiarity. For the same reason, encounters with life-changing experiences
also take place in a desert, a forest, or other faraway place.
Many people need at some time in their
lives to be at the top of a mountain, whether it is low or lofty. The vision
they are afforded must be literal as well as internal. Sometimes people need to
see for miles and miles in all directions. Human minds and souls need remote
horizons, not compaction.
I will never forget those days, well
over fifty years ago now, when my friend and I left our neighborhood behind and
trekked into the foothills and walked through fields and dells and the slopes
of the foothills, eventually coming to the mountaintop. Those hikes began and
cemented a friendship that continues to this day, from our early teens to our
late sixties.
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