By K.A.Pendergast
The other day I was waiting for my hubby and glanced out my window to see some spectacular scenery. We are very lucky to live in a beautiful picturesque area and probably take it for granted most times. This moment had me catching my breath and enjoying the beauty.
Naturally, as I am a person who likes to contemplate a variety of things, it got me thinking. I know you are shocked at that. So, I was thinking the many ways we use the term mountain, and of course just where they come from. To begin with there is the term ‘make a mountain out of a molehill.’
That implies that you make something big out of something small. Hmm, so what else is there, let’s see. I know some food services offer you a mountain of something, whether it be fries or wings or even ice cream. Yum!
Sometimes people are compared to being as big as a mountain. Speaking of people, there are also some who are called ‘mountain man’ and that just means they live there. There is the way city people want to get out and go into nature to breathe that clean mountain air. Meaning that up higher, the air seems to be much more, clean and pure. That sounds right to me.
There are songs from most types of music out there about the mountains too. Movies are full of them as well. I know sometimes people think that some peaks are mountains when in fact they are actually volcanoes. A totally different prospect.
So, one of the definitions of mountain in the dictionary is: a natural elevation of the earth’s surface rising more or less to a summit. Attaining an altitude greater than that of a hill, usually greater than 2000 feet or 610 metres. That seems to be fairly accurate, but if you can have a ‘mountain of fries’ then I suppose it is open to interpretation. There are six major mountain ranges in the world and many minor ones.
Perhaps if you were to live somewhere flat like the Prairies, then your definition of a mountain may have a bit less elevation than in other places since you compare your surroundings in your area, right? What we call a little hill here may seem an insurmountable mountain over there.
I suppose climbing a mountain may feel a greater feat to someone who has never done it as well. It is a feat no matter the height of it, I figure. The mountains in our little corner of the world bring us beauty, just saying, and we are able to use some products from them to help sustain our culture in some cases.
I guess what I am getting at really, is that they are big, useful, and pretty darn nice to look at no matter how they were formed. Heck, they even hold the snow for us to keep our rivers going come spring melting time too. They seem to block the wind a little bit I should think, since we don’t have tornadoes and such like the people in the flat areas do. I guess we should just thank our lucky stars that we live where we do and get out and enjoy them.
We can climb them, take pictures of them, or even look out a window and just enjoy that they are there. I did when I was waiting in the car, you can too!