How I Found Peaks of Inspiration in the Tetons
A magenta sunrise in the Grand Tetons. By Kris Cochran
I spent a couple of days hiking around the Grand Tetons to escape the chaos of our times and ended up thinking about little else.
As it turned out, nature had a lesson for me. Beauty is conceived in chaos.
I wondered, is it possible to find beauty in life again as our freedoms crash around us and the world seems hellbent on destruction?
How the earth births a mountain
A quiet stream is a haven for wildlife in the Tetons. By Kris Cochran
Like these not-so-United States, the Grand Tetons, a few miles south of Yellowstone, are relatively young. While the Appalachian Mountains are over 300 million years old, the Tetons are a mere 10 million years old and still growing.
That’s why their peaks are jagged, not yet smoothed by the weathering of wisdom and time.
To understand how nature formed the Tetons, think of an auto collision. The impact often causes the metal to buckle upwards. In the case of the Tetons, two tectonic plates collided along an earthquake fault. Nature used the chaos to conceive a spectacular landscape, bursting with varieties of life too numerous to count. All are living in harmony.
And with every tremor, the mountains rise.
After the chaos—beauty flourishes
A moose calf steps out onto the trail in a lush pine forest. By Kris Cochran
A pronghorn grazes in a broad meadow at sunrise. By Kris Cochran
A wild river twists and turns, carving a path towards the mountains. By Kris Cochran
Beneath blue skies, wild sunflowers splash yellow across green hillsides. By Kris Cochran
Jagged mountain peaks cradle crystal clear alpine lakes. By Kris Cochran
Are we watching the sun set on freedom?
The sun sets quickly in the Tetons. By Kris Cochran
Like the tectonic plates beneath the surface of the earth, politicians on the topside collide again and again in a battle for money and power. They use fear to divide us and perpetuate chaos to trade votes for false promises. Then, every election cycle, they put their hands in the pockets of lobbyists and resell the same unrealized dreams.
And we keep buying.
Rambling around the Tetons, I realized we the people are the only ones who can heal our divisions. Somewhere between clinging to the old ways and burning it all down, there is a path out of chaos.
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” R. Buckminster Fuller
What if we challenged ourselves as individuals to protect the beauty in our diversity? We don’t have to agree on our personal choices, only the freedom to make those choices.
A bison calf nurses at dawn on federally protected land in the Tetons. By Kris Cochran
Power shifts as unexpectedly as the tectonic plates. They’re always coming for some of us. If we let them.
A perfect example is Haaland v. Brackeen, a case scheduled before the Supreme Court for the fall of 2022. The lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) of 1978. The ICWA gave native Americans the right to prevent their children from being forced into off-reservation schools. The schools were intended to “civilize” the Native children. ICWA also established legal guidelines for the child welfare system to make every effort to place foster and adoptive children in Native American homes.
Native Americans are fighting for their choice to protect their children and heritage. I repeat, they’re always coming for some of us.
The path out of chaos begins when I demand my representatives protect your rights, knowing I’ll secure mine.
Otherwise, the sun will set on freedom and never rise on our dreams of a beautiful life.
Thanks for walking with me,
Kris
Links to information about Native American boarding schools, Haaland v. Brackeen, and the ICWA
The U.S. History of Native American Boarding Schools
National Indian Child Welfare Association:
Native American Rights Fund:
