Summer is here - finally. It’s everyone’s favorite season, except for those avid skiers snowboarders and other winter sports enthusiasts. One of my favorite Summer activities is camping - roughin’ it out. It’s the closest I get to reliving my faipopo and fai ma'umaga days.
Summer gets more appreciated and anticipated in Utah, at least by warm-blooded primates like me, because of the seasons, especially Winter. And Summer equals camping, which equals swimming, jet skiing and other water sports. Camping is one of those activities into which islanders in the States, and elsewhere, need to be assimilated. For me, it took a while to be convinced of spending a few days in the wild and in the mountains. At first I said: “Why? I just came from Samoa where I spent a lot of time in the mountains, let alone the fact that much of my immediate si'osi'omaga consisted of trees, mountains, rivers and the ocean. In essence, I have been camping for the last nineteen years. So what’s there in camping?” ...well, please pardon my impetuosity! I guess I had to live and immerse myself in the nature-deprived life of modern western society in order to finally get that “A ha!" moment.
And so after several years of being held captive in the steel and concrete jungles of modern cities and high-rises, the longing and visceral yearning for the placidity and serenity of natural lakes, the awe and grandeur of the mountains, the soothing flow of rivers and streams and all the wonders and splendors of nature, slowly crept back into my being. Now, whenever I go camping, sleeping under the stars of the sprawling night sky with the night breeze whispering sweet soft lullabies interrupted only by a wail of a nocturnal predator, all of a sudden I feel newfound freedom and it seems my noble savagery is reawakened. I feel not only refreshed and renewed but also returned to some primal glorious existence. The feeling of a certain fresh and invigorating consummation has finally arrived - again. It’s savagery of a noble kind. And to that, I say "Chooooo-soo-soo!!" which is the noble celebratory cry of a real savage.
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