The Man of Action and the Hunting Lodge

When the Green Goddess married Captain Carbon, he came with a hunting lodge in the mountains. Captain Carbon was, in fact, at his happiest at the hunting lodge where he had spent a large part of his childhood--not hunting but skiiing.

During their courtship, Captain Carbon had brought the Green Goddess up to the lodge during the summer months when the roof did not leak and the lodge was warm and dry. The Green Goddess had expressed the right enthusiasm at the time so Captain Carbon, being the Man of Action that he is, decided to take her to another hunting lodge in the far off Norman lands as part of the "intensive testing program" before the nuptials could occur.

To Captain Carbon's astonishment, a tear left the Green Goddess' eye as they climbed the Great Norman Mountain. (Those who know the Green Goddess well acknowldge that she is a woman of a warm heart but cold hands and feet, and not a great pursuer of adrenelin sports)!!! Captain Carbon was dumbfounded by this reaction--having never come across it in all his days. None-the-less, the Green Goddess does not lack courage, so the next morning she attached the offending articles to her boots, and headed up the mountain on what appeared to be a never-ending gondoler ride--knowing that what goes up must eventually come down. And come down she did--not with her normal grace, but with the true grit of the celtic warrior that lies beneath her robes.

Like any true goddess warrior, once she reached the bottom of the mountain and the lodge, she headed straight for the bath to soothe her soul. On returning later from his mountain sports, Captain Carbon felt a sense of accomplishment ash he saw the Green Goddess bathing placidly. It was not until she got out the he beheld the bruises and the scars of the Goddess' recent battle witht the Great Norman Mountain. Man of Action, Noble Knight, Protector of the Gentler (!) Sex--it was then that he felt a cold chill run through his veins--the Green Goddess was no skier!!

The Green Goddess is not of feeble heart, however, and has returned to Captain Carbon's hunting lodge which is now warmer and dryer and larger so that it can accommodate all from Castle Green.

But now the Green Goddess looks out her window from the mountain lodge and experiences trauma in her heart of another kind: there is no snow! What should be white is brown and dry, and there is no precipitation on the horizon. Captain Carbon remembers the old days with snow to the bottom of the mountain and endless mists and fog at the top.

Here is the lament of the mountain gods--bigfoot must go for the snows to return. It is the spry and light foot of the vegetarian apiarist that must replace it if the snows are to return. But do the Men of Steel ever sit still long enough to hear the call of the mountain gods?