There is that silly nursery rhyme about “the bear went over the mountain.”

Like most nursery rhymes though, there is a little truth in it.

For sometimes, life is big and grand and magical.

And other times, you get about what you thought you would get.

For example, you might think that money and title might bring with it boatloads of happiness and satisfaction – when all that money and title gets you is money and title.

Sometimes there is just the other side of the mountain.

Like the bear who went over the mountain, I went out to see what I could see. And, I might as well warn you, like the bear, all that I could see was the other side of the mountain: more of same. On a good day I might catch a glimpse of another wooded ridge rolling under the sun like water, another bivouac.

-Annie Dillard, Pilgrim At Tinker Creek