Solitude

Every now and then when I observe how routineous my life is, there is a great temptation to go to wilderness, listen the language of crows, sleep under the stars and just be one with nature. To just get out of this society, all the craziness that's going around you, and to which you're also participating one way or another. And on those moments I think about places that I have considered for such retreat. I think about Spain, the Sierra Nevada mountain range. I think about Greece, mount Olympus. I think about France and Pyrenees. And I think about many other places as well and I promise to myself that I will be there, I will make my retreat. Then I also think about the man who died recently. Man who also liked wilderness and eventually even died in the wilderness. Man who thought similar thoughts than I do. That man was Evan Tanner. Here are some great quotes from him.

"It is a shame that in this society we've been taught to judge a man's worth by what he owns instead of who he is. Everything is surface, and so few look beyond it. A man will sell his soul, he will lie, cheat and steal, for money. If he has it, he can buy respect. Wear the right clothes, drive the right car, have the right friends, that's all that matters. Our lives are consumed in a selfish, self absorbed quest for possessions, the latest and the best in a never-ending cycle until the day we die. We forget what it means to be truly human. We forget the things that really matter. We lose the magic of what life should be.

I won't live by rules that make no sense to me."

“And to think, there are still places in the world where man has not been, where he has left no footprints, where the mysteries stand secure, untouched by human eyes. I want to go to these places, the quiet, timeless, ageless places, and sit, letting silence and solitude be my teachers.”

“Everything’s been about the journey, I never really set out with goals for fighting; it’s been about the adventure along the way. When you’re on your death bed, it’s those stories, those little adventures that are going to be the things that you remember. It’s not so much getting there, but how you got there.”

This last quote he said just before leaving for his last trip:

"Now you may ask if I regret it, if I would do it differently if I could, if I would take it back. NOT A CHANCE!!!!! I went for it. I put it all on the line. I always will. I knew what the consequences would be if I failed, and I was willing to accept them. So any of you reading who might be feeling a twinge of sympathy, don't. I made my decisions, and I accept the consequences. I'm no victim. And to those who are thinking about preaching at me, don't bother. I won't hear you. I haven't accomplished anything in this life worth remembering by playing it safe. That's boring to me anyway."