“God was on the mountaintop, in the chasm, in the waterfall, in the thundercloud, in the rainbow, in the sunset. One has only to think of the sites that Americans chose for their first national parks–Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Ranier, Zion–to realize virtually all of them fit into one or more of these categories”

I had never examined how national parks were chosen and I found it very true and very interesting that those that were the most aesthetically pleasing were the best protected. Other ecosystems such as wetland may actually have more valuable ecosystem services and biodiversity to protect, but they were not as well protected because they did not have the feeling of God.

“Society is commonly too cheap. We meet at very short intervals, not having had time to acquire any new value for each other. We meet at meals three times a day, and give each other a new taste of that musty old cheese that we are”

In some ways this passage speaks to me. Like Thoreau, I hate small talk and find it an annoying part of society. Yet I believe the more time you spend with a person the more interesting and relevant the conversation becomes. It does not have to be new things that have occurred in the recent hours since you last saw each other but instead conversation could be about the past and about learning each other’s true personalities.