Why Do People Camp In Alaska? - A Perspective On Life

I like to travel a lot. And I was in Alaska a couple of years ago. And I went to see Mount McKinley. Mount McKinley is like the cream of the crop in Alaska, largest mountain in all of North America. And you don't just take a taxi to Mount McKinley. You got to take a 4-hour drive on pothole-infested streets. [music] And then you got to take a 3-hour bus from the entrance of Denali National Park to see the the mountain. I'm on this tour this bus. The typical tourists are on this bus, you know what I mean? There's >> [music] >> the old retired couple in the matching yellow hats. There's the family from London. There's the honeymooners taking way too many selfies. There's the Chinese family. The regular tourists. Then we get there, we spend an hour, do a little hike, take some pictures. We come back on the bus. But this time, packed. We picked up hikers and campers who are out there in the wilderness. And they're coming back, they're hitching a ride back. And I was amazed. Alaska is not Central Park. There are creatures out there. There are a gazillion brown bears all over [music] Alaska. And brown bears are not black bears, you know, the cute little things that you see in the Catskills rummaging through your camp's garbage cans to get some Mike and Ikes. >> [music] >> Brown bears are the size of cars, they have claws the size of kitchen knives, and they're not looking for Mike and Ikes, they're looking for you. So I I'm on the bus, and a camper dude, he sits right next to me. The guy smells like he just completed two consecutive 3-day empties. He has pine needles in his beard. He's eating with his hands canned sardines. I turn to him and I say, "Hey, nice to see you." "Why do you camp out? You're not afraid of the bears? He looks at me and he smiles. And he says, I don't camp out there despite the bears. I camp out there because of that. What, you want me to camp in some local park with mowed lawn and public restrooms >> [music] >> and a playground? That's for wimps. I camp out here because this is how you camp for real. And it hit me. Hashem could have put us straight into Gan Eden. This whole world could have been unnecessary. But he didn't. Because that's not real life. Real life is struggle and it's doubt and it's anxiety and it's saying, Hashem, did I do enough? And it's confusion and I'm not sure and I had a whole year and I did I grow? I had a whole long list of bad things, but where are the good things? I'm not sure. That's real life.