I love man-made facsimiles of nature. We can indulge the feel-good nature lover in us without all of the bother and mess of actual, well, nature. Take, for instance, the lake we went to this weekend. It was surrounded by majestic pines, painstakingly planted to avoid obscuring the 1.5 million dollar lake house views. There was a water slide, powered by lake water---although it was filtered and run through an industrial pump to get it up to the top of the slide. And there were the life guard towers and the anti-stagnation water spouts with their 24 hour roiling of lake water to avoid pesky things like algae...besides, the fish are fed a 'proper' diet of nutrient rich pellets. Much more healthy. My kids had a blast. They floated about with their county-issued life vest, strongly recommended, and played well within the cordoned-off buoy system's designated areas. Ahhh summers at the lake...I can't wait to read their school essays.
