That’s sad.

I could hardly believe it! That was my daughter’s initial reaction upon seeing that our local ski area had used snow machines to cover the “mountain” in white.

Instead of asking what she could have possibly meant by that, I began to lecture her on the achievement of man-made snow, about the business of running a ski area, and on the exceptional ingenuity of man. I then questioned her, rapid-fire of course, if she’d rather see cave people dancing naked around a campfire chanting to the snow gods, if she’d rather the ski area was boarded up and closed, how she could possibly see man-made snow as sad.

I like snow that comes down from the sky.  I like to walk around in it.

Oh.

Still – I went on to explain the difference between the lovely serendipity of walking in the snow, which I also enjoy, and the business considerations of a ski area. I quickly began to question why I became so animated at her initial reaction.

There are too many people who hold the attitude that man-made is bad and nature is always better.  While we continue to use and study nature in order to discover how best to use it, there is nothing sacred about it. Nature is neither good nor bad, it just is.

There is something sacred, however, about man’s ability to use his mind in order to shape his environment.

The only thing sad about it is the relative scarcity of those of us who have that reverence.