Why are Mountain People “Free”

We breathe the aire.

We go, where we may.

We are unencumbered by the moral vicissitudes of life.

We harm none.

Try, and help all.

We welcome, but, we disdain.

You may be entranced, by our embrace.

But you must understand that our’s is a way of entrapment.

Feel warm…fuzzy, even, in our humble entreaty.

But you must understand that this is OUR way!

It is the way of the mountain.

Here you may find healthful reward, but here, as well, is a harmful commitment.

Adopt us, as you may, but it is we who will encompass you.

These mountains are ours, and we belong to them.

It is our place on high, and here we have loyalty to our own.

Embrace us; but it is in the embrace that there is a snare.

You are only like us, when you become us; and that which is unbecoming to our way, is unbecoming to us.

Mountain people are free, but we are forever chained to the mountain.

It is here that we derive our law, and here that our law defines us.

Tread lightly on our ground on high!

We are mountain people, and we are forever free.