“The many great gardens of the world, of literature and poetry, of painting and music, of religion and architecture, all make the point as clear as possible: The soul cannot thrive in the absence of a garden. If you don't want paradise, you are not human; and if you are not human, you don't have a soul.”
― Thomas More, Utopia
After various wild adventures from running a 5K with siblings to watching the fireworks under the Space Needle on New Years to...well, you get the idea...the five of us are once again safely under the protective watch of our beloved Hydra.
And man, has it been a crazy three weeks back! Let me tell you, talking every night about whatever is on our minds, ward activities, secret sharing, and generally having a social life means that schoolwork is one of those things you have to fit around the craziness. Not really, but sometimes it feels like it.
One pervading theme for the last few months has been the idea of Our Mountain. It all began last year and its been added upon since then. Our mountain is an ideal. We all get along so well (I mean, if the worst fight you've ever had is a passive-aggressive plea for your roommate to do their dishes, you've got it good) that we've perpetuated it in our minds through the construct of the mountain.
Our mountain is a mountain (I know it's a shocker) with a mansion and a library and a petting zoo and greenhouses and caves and, and, and...basically it's a place where I can write my verse-by-verse commentary on the Standard Works, Mellie can cultivate her greenhouses, Bon Bon can read books all day long and tend our library and learn languages, Panda can work on websites and sing all day long (much to our delight), and our dear Shli can have her own workout room. Can anyone say running...or Insanity?
Not only that, it's our fantasy land where we have pet snow leopards (domesticated of course), and octopi to make ink for clothing tags (that's another blog post...) and a petting zoo (complete with unicorns and hedgehogs...and pandas), and a treehouse. It's an anarchy, because really that's the only government any of us would care to sustain, where we're all able to pursue our passions. We'll have the free time that we crave and we'll be able to go on random crazy adventures. It's our own personal Utopia.
If you ask any of the five of us if we really think our kingdom of single-hood is going to happen, the immediate answer will be, "Of course!" This is because our mountain is the place where everything works right and we have the endless time to do and become everything we want to be. It's a place where school and occupation pressures no longer exist. We'll each have time to develop our talents and pursue our interests to their fullest. It's a fantasy that keeps us sane when the homework and other responsibilities pile around us to the point of no return.
Don't despair though! The Mountain is a concept that will not be denied. In one form or another, the concept will be manifest in each if our lives.
