Book 2 Post 2

The book I am reading is The Wayfinders by Wade Davis. I am currently about ⅔ of the way through the book. So far, I have learned a lot from reading it and have enjoyed it so far. Although I haven’t finished it, I intend to finish the book by the end of next week. Recently, most of the books I’ve picked up have gotten a little boring, and I usually end up only getting about halfway through. I’m determined to finish this book for two reasons; I am reading it for class and was assigned to read it, and I think it has some valuable lessons consistently provided cover-to-cover. 

I’m currently reading about the ancient cultures that lived and still live in and along the Andes Mountains in Peru and Colombia. Similar to the other cultures in the book, these Colombian groups have unique cultures and traditions with very unique and complex views of the world. Reading about their customs and their relationship with their natural surroundings, I think of how different our modern American culture is from any other to exist in history. 

The quote that opens up chapter four is, “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honours the servant and has forgotten the gift.” Albert Einstein said this quote, and I think it does a good job of putting our modern culture and way of life into the context of a human race that, for the vast majority of history, depended on its intuitive mind to survive. Now, we rely heavily on our rational brains and have forgotten many of our connections to the natural world that help make us human. It’s a good reminder to periodically consider my connection with nature by going outside and to not get too caught up in small, trivial social problems. 

I look forward to reading the rest of the book to learn more about cultures I knew so little about before.