Some people go through life blindly following others, not seeing the full picture. Not looking for themselves. I want you to look around you at all times, so you do not miss any of the small details in life for yourself.

One day last summer my son was up from the states to visit us. As he had not seen the Rocky Mountains, we decided to take a few days to show them to him, up close and personal. The Rocky Mountains are not visible from our home, but within a few hours drive a person can be hiking in the woods completely away from everything. Which is not entirely unlike living at our home, out in the country, completely away from everything. The only difference is that in the Rocky Mountains, you have mountains.

My wife did most of the driving, she insists it is so I can enjoy looking out the window, but truth be told it is because she is a control freak. The drive to the mountains was uneventful.

What happened that is of interest is at one of the places we stopped along the way to go for a walk in the woods. We were in Banff National Park, and one thing they do is have the highway separated from the wilderness by a fence. When a person stops to go for a hike, they have to pass through a gateway, which are designed to keep bears off the roads, but let people enter the park. Some of the gates were rather extreme, you had to climb up things before passing through a gate, then climb down the other side.

Where we stopped they had taken the trouble to make the gate appear hidden by using rocks. It almost was as if we were walking through a cave to get into the park. We joked that a cave would be the obvious place for a bear to go. My son wanted a picture taken of himself once we passed through the gate because we all thought this was so silly.

I took the picture. I was looking at my son at the time, but soon became aware of the details within the picture. A pit formed in my stomach.

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I could not yell, I could not tell my son to “RUN”. I didn’t want to alarm him, or it, the Mountain Lion on the rocks directly above him. My son could tell something was gravely wrong. He said something, but I cannot even be sure I heard him.

What would you have done? Would you have done the right thing, would you have put your life at risk for that of your child? Would you have run? I didn’t. I stayed right there, and took another picture.

After all, I wasn’t in the mountains. I wasn’t in the Rocky’s at all. We were in the Museum, and the Mountain Lion, as beautiful as it was, was not alive. I was safe, my son was safe.  My wife was safe too, and not only did she drive to the Museum, she helped me write this article. 

The Background is Important. My background being a bit silly from time to time.

The other background some of you might have noticed is that the picture has a black “sky” so we are clearly not outdoors.

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I want people to ask questions about everything, not to follow anyone blindly. Look at the background for yourself. Do research. This is for everything, from being certain that your partner is right for you, to being certain that your religion is right for you. Do not just follow somebody (or something) blindly, because most are only looking out for themselves. They are the Mountain Lions hoping you never see what they are up to.