I tell Simon about the mushrooms, monkeys, the white-breasted wood wren.  He says, "Brilliant!"

I realize why no one flinched at my unruly appearance – they're used to it.  Over the years, while photographing outdoors, I've met hundreds of these folks.  They are similar, in many ways, to fishermen, gardeners, mushroom hunters and those general, all-around outdoor naturalists – they thrive in collecting and understanding biodiversity.

In our very modern world, when our suburban and urban world offers so many modern diversions, why do so many seek out these simple joys in travel?  I am thinking about this Pastor, because of you.  I believe this is important.  There exists in all of us an urge and desire to find in our lives to focus on the very simple things.  The basics of humanity.

There is no doubt that you and I live in a world that is singularly modern.  It is a world in which increasingly, our greatest problems are problems of technology, progress and science.  They will be created by progress and solved by progress.  So while I admire the simplicity of your belief in seeing old things as literal truths, remember that the problems of today's world require everybody in our society to appropriately understand the power of, and authority of, science.