Dragonfly Creek

I joined a friend on a little hike down Dragonfly Creek the other evening. The weather was just about perfect, and the low sun filled the canyon with such warm light. We explored around a few waterfalls, past a fun little beehive, and down to the fast flowing Nenana River. Hopping along the rocks and making our own trail when the bank became to steep, we hiked along the river until we were underneath Windy Bridge, sat ourselves down on a rock, enjoyed a beer each, and waved to rafters as they passed. It was an impromptu little trip and was ever so satisfying.





Now here's just a random thought for the day, with not the slightest correlation to Dragonfly Creek, that I would love someone to explain to me. It's a simple concept that I just can't seem to grasp. It's nothing new. Statistics are different all over the internet depending on who did what study and when it was conducted, but generally speaking the U.S. contains five percent of the world's population and consumes about thirty percent of the world's resources (energy, water, food, forests, etc.). I think we've all heard these statistics before and are fully aware of them, but why do we conveniently ignore them without feeling any motivation to alter our lifestyles. Where do we get off continually consuming more then our fair share just because everyone else around us is doing it? That's just speaking about people in general. Now take the religious person who claims to live selflessly and beyond materialism, and they should be called to live to an even greater extreme when it comes to contrasting consumerism, right? Yet often times referring to their lives as "blessed" allows them to live extravagantly. Now I'm obviously typing this on a computer meaning I'm not living the simplest life I can, but I feel like there should be such a greater urgency and heated discussion with regards to why we feel entitled to have whatever we can get our hands on. If someone could explain to me the numbness and complacency towards these facts I would be ever grateful.