"In the mountains of truth, you never climb in vain."
? Friedrich Nietzsche

Early June. Dawn brings mist covered mountains and an empty road. The car's capsule draws us together. I am taking my adult son to a trail that begins at the bottom of a ski slope where he will start a twenty-one mile run up and over a series of mountain peaks and through dense forests.

It is Sunday morning and soon many will awake and go into buildings to pray. Emerson and Thoreau suggested otherwise, and my son hears the same call. "Rise free from care before the dawn, and seek adventures," said Thoreau. God is not caged in a building where preachers prattle about commonplaces meant to soothe bad consciences.