TANYA'S LIFE LESSON #13 LEARNED ON THE BACK OF A HARLEY!

TANYA'S LIFE LESSON #13 LEARNED ON THE BACK OF A HARLEY – CHECK OUT THE VIEW FROM ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE; MOUNTAINS FOR INSTANCE!

I don't know why I never paid attention to the fact that you can see the Cascade Mountain peaks from the east side of the state. I guess I thought they just belonged to those of us living on the west side! I grew up with three important mountains in my life; St. Helens, Rainier, and Adams. I see Mt. Hood occasionally when I go south, but in my mind it belongs to Oregon. I've only seen Mt. Baker a couple of times, so I have no emotional attachment there. Since I am from Toutle, to me St. Helens is 'THE' mountain. My husband learned early on not to say 'Hey, look at the mountain' referring to Mt. Rainier because I would correct him by saying, 'That's Mt. Rainier. St. Helens is THE mountain!' From Cowlitz and Lewis Counties you can easily see St. Helens on your right and Rainier on your left, but even from the best vantage point you have to look a bit harder to see the top of Mt. Adams. But as we rode through the Yakima Valley coming home from our long trip, I realized the big mountain looming near us was Adams. Even though I have great childhood memories of family outings to Mt. Adams, it is still a small, elusive mountain in my life. But it's a big mountain to those living in Yakima. And even though THE mountain (St. Helens) is the most significant to me, I didn't even know where to look for it from there. We all need to stop and remember that everyone sees the same mountains we do, we just see them differently. For example, Mt. Rainier is a towering beautiful monument in most of the Northwest, but for me growing up it was the funny mountain with two humps that looked like boobs! So, before we pass judgment on someone else's opinions, (yes even religious or political!), we should at least check out the view from their perspective! It doesn't mean we have to change ours, but it might give us some understanding as to why they see it the way they do. Like I said, we all see the same mountains, we just see them differently!