"The
tendency nowadays to wander in wildernesses is delightful to see.
Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to
find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a
necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only
as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life.
Awakening from the stupefying effects of the vice of over-industry and
the deadly apathy of luxury, they are trying as best they can to mix and
enrich their own little ongoings with those of Nature, and to get rid
of rust and disease."
John Muir
"Our national parks", 1901 [1]
Este que a imagem mostra sou eu. Ou fui eu, no momento em que o Gustavo [2] registou a minha primeira passagem pelo Penedo do Alvante, em Sintra. Não sei quantas vezes tinha visitado Sintra - a montanha a que chamamos Serra - mas sei que o amanhecer do dia a que se refere esta fotografia foi o meu primeiro amanhecer "inteiro e limpo" [3], primeiro contacto directo - não mediado - com "a substância do tempo" [3].
