Now, three days of hiking on the Appalachian Trail on the highest mountains on the East Coast is hard enough, but it's doubly so when a hurricane decides to attack the East Coast like Dick Armey attacks welfare moms. Yes, Hurricane Floyd messed with my vacation. After one glorious day of sunshine and eight hours hiking, Jeff and I spent two days in wind and rain. But Floyd hit us much more mildly than it hit other regions and we spent our nights warm and safe in the Appalachian Mountain Club's trail huts. And the rain only increased the majesty of nature that surrounded us.
Nothing makes a man feel smaller than mountains.
And yet nothing makes him feel greater. And after looking out at the valley, I felt so mighty to have climbed the mountain, and mighty for having a mind capable of seeing so much beauty and realizing how lucky I was. But pulling yourself away from the political debate to look at mountains every now and then is an important exercise. Let me explain. When you follow politics long enough and write about the political struggles from Washington to small town America, you can get obsessed.