and there are places where there’s peace to be found and streams that tickle the under soles of our feet but i can’t bring us there. i choose mountains and gravel and steep cliffs that threaten to swallow us whole and you said, why all this when we can have more, and i sputtered, no this is all there is, this is everything, the maw and yawn of a harsh sun, the vast open plain where the cracks never end.