This moment is going to be stressful. I squat slightly, look at my goal, and explode from my position. In a wave of flurry, my left foot strikes dry, right foot strikes dry, but my left foot soaks a little before I land with a soft thump on the other side. I turn around and see where I came. I just crossed a small creek of rushing water, the recent rains filling up the path with water and making crossing much more difficult than usual. I spend a millisecond lamenting the minute amount of water in my shoe and then take off back up the hill. The uphill portion of this trail started at the trailhead and so far, in 20 minutes of running, hasn't stopped. I'm exhausted from the high altitude but determined to keep going, no matter what my North Dakota legs think of this- usually the uphill stops pretty soon after it starts where I come from. Soon, I am rewarded when I pop out of the thick forest and into a gorgeous meadow. Here, up at almost 9000 feet I am still surrounded by towering mountaintops far above my head, but there is nobody here. There are no houses, roads, or anything unnatural because this is protected wilderness. The only sound is the rushing stream behind me. In front of me is an open area of wildflowers, green grass, and a stunning view of the terrain around me. I stop and soak it in; this is peace.
When I arrive back at my car, I don't even bother turning on my phone because there is no service here anyway. Ingrid and I are meandering through the back side of New Mexico and Colorado on our way back from a trip to Northeast New Mexico, and the views are amazing. We stick to FM radio to listen to music, and our phones do us little good out here. We spend days camping and sleeping under the stars, living out of a vehicle, running trails, and exploring places we've never been to before. It's a new way of living that I've experienced for this time, and it's exhilarating. I don't check my email, facebook, twitter, or really anything connected with the 'real world' for days, and it's freeing. Living in Creation for now is great.
We finish up our trip with a final push across western South Dakota and western North Dakota to get back to the camp. As we arrive, the sun is slipping beneath the horizon and coolness sets upon us. The smell of the grass fills the air and the wind is calm. Some staff play games outside with nobody to bother or interrupt them. We spend time catching up with them before they take off into the sunset, canoeing to find Pokemon for the new PokemonGo app that everybody apparently is raging about. We kick back and relax from a long and exciting trip. We already miss the mountains.
I open up my computer to check on my neglected emails. Upon finishing that, I find my way over into the social media realm. After seeing the flashing red news, I am immediately flooded with information I don't want to see. Two separate cases of police shooting black Americans. A protest in Dallas over the insanity. Execution-style murders of police officers at said protest. I watch the live streams from the major news stations- police were literally gunned down because they were police. I watch the youtube videos and hear the absolute fear in the voice of the Minnesota cop when he realized what he had done and that the lady was videotaping the whole thing- he knew his life was forever changed. I think about the families that lost loved ones this week. I think about the fact that this isn't even a surprise to us anymore. Ingrid and I were driving towards Denver and we noticed the sign for the exit to Columbine, which she then mentions as the place with the shooting. That's how we identify places now. I can't sleep because I don't want to. It's 12:56 am.
I was reading through facebook comments on one page following the Dallas shooting, and it was a person asking for a leader to stand up and actually change things. I hope that at this point we can all agree that no amount of gun control will ever solve our current problem. Yes, there are little things here and there that we could call 'common sense solutions' in regards to weapons, but those won't solve the main issue. We have people in this country who are afraid to get pulled over because they run a risk of getting shot. We have officers in this country who wonder if the person they just pulled over is a maniac about to kill them. We have leaders standing up and saying that we need to do something, but nothing gets done because that's the world we live in- everything is talk. We will sit down and have a sound discussion. We will contact to the appropriate people to determine the proper course of action. We will introduce legislation (that deep down we know will have no chance) and hope that -insert political party here- will address the issues we present. People are fed up.
You know what? This person was right- America is currently in desperate need of someone who is willing to grab the reins and say enough is enough. That isn't Trump, and it isn't Clinton. We've hit the point where we really NEED a leader for the history books. This isn't a problem that bickering back and forth and procuring laws can solve- it's something in all of our hearts. Jesus embodied these virtues when he spoke of loving your neighbor and letting people with no hope or money have a spot at your table. It would be easy for me to say that we need Jesus, but some people wouldn't go for the whole 'Christianity' thing. No, what we need is a leader who acts, talks, and lives like Jesus did. We need someone to love people, but also hold them accountable. We need someone who people can look up to but not blindly follow off a cliff. We need someone who will not be afraid to do what's right- even if that is hard.
I had an interesting thought this weekend while trekking up and trying to summit Harney's Peak in the South Dakota Black Hills: perhaps being away from it all while running on a trail is peace. I mean, I'm breathing like a darn work animal, but all of my problems disappear completely for a time. Life becomes adventure and exploring a wilderness still pure and untouched. Life becomes a lot simpler where you cannot be bothered by outward problems. Perhaps this is why mountains have always enthralled us so- a glimmer of hope and peace in an otherwise unrelenting and chaotic world. We test ourselves against a nature that wins every time, but we learn more about life through the process. If we all took a chance to stop and breathe fresh air from time to time, our bitterness might temporarily subside and our joy may abound. We are want to look for problems in others, but God has given us a playground in our midst. We have the ability to not only genuinely pray for others, but to take care of them and lend them a helping hand. Maybe, just MAYBE, our world can become a better place. Lord help us all.
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