I love this video because it is concise and straightforward, conveying a clear message. I especially love the simple statement, "We're deep in the heart of a canyon... you're not going to get this experience anywhere else." Get to the river and canyons!
We make light of the idea, but we are pretty serious when we discuss "rapid onset nature-deficiency disorder" or "post riparian transit syndrome" as real difficulties experienced by our guests after they return home from a river trip - a person's just not the same after a river trip! The world is not the same once your spirit has been allowed the necessity of breath.
Have you ever avoided drinking pure water because a tasty beverage is always nearby? And then your body is tired of extracting sugars and artificial flavors, and textures from the hydrating water it actually needs, and you find yourself finally just drinking some "plain old water" and it is by far the most refreshing thing you've had in a long, long, while? Imagine that same feeling, but for your long lost soul! We get trapped by worldly (non-natural) surroundings, and sometimes we need to tell someone, "Take me to the river"! The symptoms of the non-scientifically named "cabin fever" are precisely the same as those of dehydration, so drink some water and then get the heck out of the cabin! Rehydrate your soul!
At the beginning of every single river trip we've ever launched, we say something to the effect of this: "If your neighbor on the raft seems grumpy and irritable, and maybe a little irrational, get them some water. They're dehydrated. And while you're at it, get yourself some too, 'cuz maybe it's you that's irritable and dehydrated!"
We forget because we often fail to surround ourselves with the proper landscapes. It's really not complicated: Wilderness is land - a properly remote land free of worldly trappings, and "wilderness experiences" are the natural fruit of human spirits placed in that landscape. When the conditions are right, the human spirit breathes. It is not a sensation easily forgotten. Place yourself in the land for long enough, you'll feel your spirit breathe. Drink it in. Rehydrate your soul! (#rehydrateyoursoul)
Edward Abbey once said, "Wilderness is not a luxury, but a necessity of the human spirit." So true, but so easily forgotten. How is a necessity of the human experience easily forgotten?
