A lovely essay which reminded me of the hiking experience

I am a long time admirer of Kevin Kelly (KK) and heard of him through his Cool Tools emails. I recently read his 2007 Christmas Card (
NPR: The Universe Is Conspiring to Help Us) and really related to it following 3.5 months of hiking last summer. He describes very well the way you relate to people around you when you are living simply. Sometimes, when you are standing by the roadside in the rain and hoping for a lift and maybe some food, having hiked 100 miles over the last few days, what you really need is for a kind soul to stop and help you out. Give you a lift, or, almost as important, just be nice. Have a laugh and a smile and wish you well. I saw a lot of this over 1,500 miles of hiking. In fact, I have few recollections of people who were not nice, though, in some places unfortunately people seemed to scared to pick up hitchhikers, which was a shame. Mostly though, hiking 1,500 miles was a very human experience and KK captures it very well.