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As I walked in RMNP this morning, I’m almost sure I heard a voice:

Mountains: “Fire is the devil’s only friend.”

Me: I heard that.

Mountains: “And don’t play with candlesticks.”

Me: Ok, trust me, speaking for all of us, we’ve learned our lesson, no more playing with fire, not even for a sacrificial rite.

After an uncomfortable pause, I tried to change the subject and “asked her for some happy news, but she just smiled and turned away.” Although words between us remained unspoken, the silence was defining; we both knew I was lying.

Try as we might, we had neither listened nor achieved wisdom. The bitter truth was that had we not learned our lesson; we were in fact, destined to repeat it. Someday, the music of the mountains would die violently by our hand, consumed by the flames of our ignorance, it was just a matter of time.

Alas, it is in our nature.

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[The part of the Mountain was played by Don Mclean.]