With sponsorship, side jobs, contests, and sale of photos and video, I can pretty much stay above water. Is it the life of the rich and famous? No, but I can do what I want whenever I want. Which is better. Andy Lewis
Morning,
The mountain is an island in the clouds at the moment. After yesterday's storm moved on, I've been atop a breathtaking inversion. The overnight low dropped to 21 degrees after staying in the mid-40's during yesterday's gray chaos. It was 21 degrees and clear at 7am observation. The high reached 46 degrees and the mountain received .95" of rain. I wish it were snow, but it's hard to complain when sunrise looks like this...
On my way back from sunrise, I got to wondering if living up here could actually be physically bad for me. How much is too much beauty? Could being up here act like ecstasy on one's brain? I've read that heavy users potentially damage their serotonin receptors and are much more prone to depression, among other unsavory results. Could the constant beauty sap me of joy and make me physically incapable of a baseline level of happiness later in life? After my thru-hike, I joked that I was depressed because I was suffering from 'post-traumatic no stress disorder'. Is it possible that it's not a joke, but could have an actual physical basis? That it is not just a lifestyle adjustment, but is based on a biological mutation? I wish that I could do more than just guess at this and see a PET scan on people's brains before and after their thru-hikes...
No point in speculating in the grim, I should get out and enjoy the day... while I'm still here.
The mountain is an island in the clouds at the moment. After yesterday's storm moved on, I've been atop a breathtaking inversion. The overnight low dropped to 21 degrees after staying in the mid-40's during yesterday's gray chaos. It was 21 degrees and clear at 7am observation. The high reached 46 degrees and the mountain received .95" of rain. I wish it were snow, but it's hard to complain when sunrise looks like this...
On my way back from sunrise, I got to wondering if living up here could actually be physically bad for me. How much is too much beauty? Could being up here act like ecstasy on one's brain? I've read that heavy users potentially damage their serotonin receptors and are much more prone to depression, among other unsavory results. Could the constant beauty sap me of joy and make me physically incapable of a baseline level of happiness later in life? After my thru-hike, I joked that I was depressed because I was suffering from 'post-traumatic no stress disorder'. Is it possible that it's not a joke, but could have an actual physical basis? That it is not just a lifestyle adjustment, but is based on a biological mutation? I wish that I could do more than just guess at this and see a PET scan on people's brains before and after their thru-hikes...
No point in speculating in the grim, I should get out and enjoy the day... while I'm still here.
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