Timeless Wisdom: A Mountain’s Perspective on Human Impact

A majestic and ancient sentinel encompasses the horizon. It began its ascertainments before the dawn of time. From the first creature to scale its eminence to the now senescent thickets spanning its plateau, it mutely observes the delicate world born upon itself. Eons of wisdom and antiquity have entrenched its vista. An unspoken understanding of a simple balance ensconced within its acclivity still eludes the human mind. Humans capable of creating such magnificent, beautiful works of art, prose of thought, and music defying description are also capable of pure devastation and destruction of this very delicate and life sustaining balance of the planet. If the human mind were as evolved and experienced as the mountain in its understanding of

In order to understand the process of critical thinking we must first define it. The website of The Critical Thinking Community, defines it as: “ The intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action” (Defining Critical Thinking). By this definition, a mountain can emulate most of the more important elements of critical thinking. The information gathered within its sedimentary memory layers reside experiences of water erosion, nutrient rich skeletal remains, and other unique deposits, which are the evidence of its accumulated knowledge and keeper of its history. The dense foliage that disappears when consumed by the wildlife inhabitants leaves it barren and aged. The time spent in reflection of the wildfires and floods that have transformed it into a well-balanced ecosystem capable of self-renewal and revaluation. The mountain is unconsciously reactive to the surrounding stimuli and does not interfere the actions of its inhabitants. It merely co-exists with them without the interference of emotions. Simple natural logic placed into action. This is the very essence of critical

In the book entitled A Sand County Almanac, the author infers that men should think like mountains and gives this example: “And perhaps with better cause, for while a buck pulled down by wolfs can be replaced in two or three years, a range pulled down by too many deer may fail of replacement in as many decades” (Leopold 132). The interference of human emotions upsets the balance of this eco-system and hence is not included in the elements of critical