Arrogance

Arrogance.

Easy to see in others. Harder to see in me.

I’m sitting in a bar in the Catalina Foothills looking at a beautiful mountain range. Sun is hitting it just right. It keeps changing colors. Green, to gold, to red.

Doesn’t get much better than this.

The thing about the mountains is they speak if you listen. They all say the same thing. They say: “We don’t care about your problems”.  They know they are too big for all that.

But what about the problem with my neighbor?

Mountain says: “We don’t care”.

What about my divorce?

Mountain says: “Don’t care”.

What about war, health care, elections?

“Nope”.

Mountains are just mountains. You can’t do anything about them. They just sit there stable. Ego-less.

I order another beer. (It’s called Roho, it’s local).

They have a TV on behind the bar. There’s playing some show where the people are visiting the Black Hills of South Dakota. Visiting Mount Rushmore.

So I’ve got the Catalina’s on my right just outside the glass wall. To my left there's a flat screen and they are showing Mt. Rushmore.

They are documenting how they carved it up. Put on it the faces of the old warriors, leaders, and politicians. Founders of our country they say.

These were great men. Men who made difficult choices. But still, they were ONLY men.

But I’m also wondering what I would think if I were sitting in a bar in China. If I looked up and saw a mountain range carved with the face of Chairman Mao. Or if I were in Russian and it was the face of Putin.

They say Mt. Rushmore is a “national treasure”.

But it was already a treasure before the artwork. Real treasures are gifts from God. Maybe it’s arrogant to think we can improve the work of Nature with a chisel.

I look back at the Catalina’s. They are changing back to gold again. I wonder what they think of this business of carving up mountains with faces.

Silently I ask.

They answer the way they always do: “We don’t give a shit about that either”.