Missing Out

"What, you don't hear the babbling of the stream over there? You don't hear the chirping of all the birds? You don't hear the leaves rustling in the wind? You don't hear the rodents scurrying about the forest floor? Damn it, boy, there is an orchestra playing for you and you haven't heard a thing."

—Stuart Alve Olson,The Jade Emperor's Mind Seal Classic

I see people out walking, jogging, with earphones on. Not just in the city, where it might be reasonable to cover up the sounds of traffic, but out in the wild. In the forests. They can't hear the natural music around them, so they substitute artificial. More than that, they don't SEE the beauty around them. At least in some American Indian tribes, children were expected to describe everything they'd seen and heard every time they returned from an excursion. I think our society could benefit from such an attitude. From a practical perspective, awareness of your surroundings is the most important self-defense skill. From an aesthetic perspective, people miss out on so much!