[at-l] Why the Grand Unification Theory - isn't

[quoleldil@yahoo.com (Quoleldil)]

> > > The Grand Unification Theory (according to me) says that
> > > everybody hikes, camps, and enters the outdoors
> > > for the same reason. ......... to reconnect as
> > > natural animals in and with their natural habitat.

Without trying to incite or otherwise detract from this fine discussion, which I've quite enjoyed
and with which I'm inclined in many respects to agree, I'd like to suggest that the described
experience of the outdoors is far from universal or grandly unified, and limited solely to some of
the developed world's urban populations

Most of the human population in this world, even in urban third world areas, live, work, sleep,
procreate, and die out-doors or in shelters rarely meeting the specs of the AT's oldest shelters
...

Most of the human population in this world cannot comprehend why we would want to leave our
technologically advanced lives to live the way they live in a wilderness exposed as they always
are to the vagaries of climate and undomesticated animal life ... most of them would love to leave
that way of life for something only slightly more protective and convenient, perhaps a peak-1
primus stove to cook on and a roof that doesn't leak and place where their kids aren't so likely
to have their lives cut short by air or waterborne diseases and violence or bitten by insects,
rodents, snakes, or even the occasional predatory carnivore ...

I find no difficulty enjoying nature whether it appears in urban or wilderness settings, yet I
cannot throw on a back pack and go for a walk -- in either an urban or a wilderness setting --
without considering that most people in the world would consider themselves wealthy and very
fortunate to own and use what I carry merely for recreation ...

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