But it is not a cult of youthful abilities, but a cult of youthful interests. Human beings are born, suffer and enjoy, love and hate, work and rest, then die. No theory will overcome or mitigate those realities in Camus' view. The principle exemplified in the image of the song from Hair clarifies this for us. Camus praises not only the sand, sea and sun in his essay, but the social milieu as well, the jokes about death, the exchange of peppermint lozenges at the neighborhood movie, the strength of the code which obligates you to see that your wife is respected in the streets.
Nature holds no religious, no quasi-philosophical place for Camus.
He does not glorify it in idea nor does he drool over its enjoyments. He knows better than anyone that it has its pains as well as its pleasures, and that it is out to kill us. He only respects its reality. And we can appeal to the principle exemplified in The Pawnbroker image to defend Camus against a charge of anti-intellectualism. Moreover, everywhere in the essay the simple, unreflective life is eulogized.