Mountains, Trees and Ice

By: Andrew Sakach

Topic of Choice: 3

After watching the film with the big glaciers in them we discussed the difference between habitus and habitat. Habitat is the environment that is occupied while habitus is the way of dwelling in that environment.

We then talked about how when people become alienated from their environments, such as being separated from the food we eat through stores or by living in cities that are completely artificial environments. By becoming alienated we effectively make the environment that we dwell in a simple background while living. That sort of disturbed me because I constantly felt that, while being on the AT that everything felt so surreal, like I couldn't quite grasp that we were on the very same kind of mountains that I saw in the distance even though that's the closest I've come at living among the land in that kind of intimate way before. Is it because I'm constantly separated that I felt this? Can one really appreciate the land if they live in this kind of separated way we tend to? I really don't think so, unless people can incorporate the world around them into their everyday lifestyle or maybe make 'Haj's' to the mountains every year in order to reaffirm their desire to be connected and their way of life while not connected with the land. Another question was if an apathetic person could precieve the sublimity of a giant glacier or a mountain or a beautiful sunrise? Can someone really experience the sacred within the land if they aren't open to it from the beginning? Mmm questions...