Date: 2006-04-10
From: Chatfield Shelter

To: Crawfish Valley
Miles today: 10.8

Bravehear left the shelter earlier because he wanted to go to the truck stop early and hang out there. I let Dad get a head start while I got started reading "Mere Christianity" by C.S. Lewis. Geez, that book is just full of stuff. I don't know where to start. I guess the first point that I learned is that there is something with the human species that we all adhere to. Something within us that we might no always obey but in some manner expect other to adhere to. Lewis describes it as the Moral Law, or Human Law, or Conscious. It is like a constant truth that has survived through many cultures, through many years. Yes, there have been differences, but the streamline thought is true throughout. Lewis uses the example that one culture might say that you should only marry one wife while another might say it is ok to marry 4 wives. Though different, the commonality would be that neight believe that it is ok to marry whoever you want. And there is some sort of moral law that tells us that marrying whoever we want isn't right. Some might say that what Lewis called the "Moral Law" just human instinct but he says to that that the deep conscious within is something very different. If a man is in the need of help in a burning building, there are two instincts that kick in: the "herd instinct" that insists that you help him and then the "flight instinct" that says don't go into harms path. If there was no absolute Right or Wrong and these two instincts were the only things in which decision were made, then more than likely the flight or whatever selfish instinct that would benefit the host would win out. But there is something deep within that sides with the weaker instint and usually leads us to put away our own interests and help the man in the burning building. If there was no deep Moral Law then there would be no overal standard to which we all would adhere to. That would mean the Nazi's and the Allied forces could never had thought that one side was in the wrong, yet in the end the world would agree that the murder of milllions of Jews was wrong, which could only have been concluded if there was absolute truth, or Moral Law we all adhere to.The stuff in there is quite amazing.Anyways, I caught up to Dad and Braveheart at the truck stop which was just a glorified shell station of Atkins Virginia. And this is where the land of isolated incodents dwells. In the middle of our meal, the manager comes over and tells us that we need to move our packs outside, they were taking up booth space. Braveheart asked if we could keep them there until a customer came in, we were the only people in the store and there was still empty seats, but the manager said no and in a gruff voice said no one would mess with our stuff outside and told us he wasn't there to argue but tell us to take the packs outside. Many thoughts crossed my mind. this was a truck stop, yet no one would mess with the packs? Right. So we took them outside and paid, but they made us come back tot he register and pay again because they forgot to charge us for the drinks, which we already once reminded them about. We bought 3 drinks but they charged us for 6 because they said there wasn't free refills on fountain drinks. There was no sign saying that. The lady at the counter said we were wrong for thinking there would be and assumed we were wrong ecause we were "well travelled", and that they would go bankrupt if they did free refills due to the through hikers - rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrright. Gas is like 1,000 dollars a gallon yet fountain drinks could make them take the plunge. The then said that coffee had free refills - but there wasn't any signs for it, just like the soda. so we left, found a campsite and just chilled at Crawfish Valley