10-30-2008: Trash, Skunks, Nature

(From yesterday) I can't believe how people trash our natural, beautiful places. There was one fire pit at Clear Creek Campground that was full of plastic water bottles. Do people really think leaving their trash in the fire pit makes it any better than littering? There are signs all over the campground saying "No trash service, pack out trash." At Willow Creek Campground on our Gila ride we found a pile of trash that someone neatly piled and covered with bark from a tree. So, not only did they litter, they also killed a tree all so they would not have to pack out their own trash. How lazy and disgusting we are.

Dusty got sprayed by his first skunk last night, he is quite stinky now, but very cute. You can tell that he knows he made a mistake, he is acting all shy and nervous. He was so smelly, we had to make him sleep at the foot of the tent last night. We are now at a breakfast stop at the Burger King in Camp Verde, AZ. We were told we could get wireless here, but it's not working so Dan went over to the Star Bucks to pay for wireless.

"I am nature, you are nature." That is one part of Jesus's book that I really liked. I've always known that and that we are just animals not above or below any other animal on this Earth. But I never really thought of it in the terms "I am nature", I am the environment. I've always wanted to live life so I can help protect the environment, to help preserve it for future generations of plants and animals. Thinking of myself as nature, though makes me think I need to shift my role some. I'm not sure how, but to somehow become more natural, become more a part of the true natural world and less a part of the processed world...meaning cities where our natural resources have been so exploited and so overprocessed that you can no longer recognize that they ever came from nature.