(This post is a week late)

My son, his friend and I spent a few days in Yosemite recently, mostly so I could do a practice hike up Mount Dana to get ready for next week’s attempt at Mount Whitney. We camped in Toulumne Meadows, which is way up in the mountains above 8000ft altitude. With no or very little cell phone coverage: occasionally we would get a text through to tell mom we were okay, but not more.

It was marvelous: beautiful, green forests. Beautiful, green meadows. Impressive granite mountains. Murmuring streams. Deer. Coyotes. Marmots. Birds of various kinds. Tenaya Lake warm enough to swim in for a bit. And the incredible 360-degree views from the top of Mount Dana.

And then, we drove back down into civilization, or “civilization” I should say. With data coverage restored, we could catch up on the news, which was some combination of:

• The madness that is the Republican nomination of Donald Trump
• The descent of Turkey, by way of a coup, into dictatorship
• The various bloody attacks in Germany
• The madness that is the Democratic nomination of Hillary Clinton
• and so forth

The contrast between nature and “civilization” was so large … I don’t know what to say.

The world has gone completely mad. Sometimes you need to be away for a few days to notice it. What will it take to un-mad it?