mountain man lemon shack

in the mountains of southern italy, along an epic, beautiful trail called “the path of the gods,” there is an italian mountain man who sells lemonade and shaved lemon ice from a little shack. only the very curious and lazy will meet him, because his shack is early on in the 7 km hike, marked by a levitating boat and a cardboard jesus (?). but when you walk into his shack, it will feel like entering a secret world — filled with nonsensical wood sticks and piles of gigantic lemons, displayed like trophy seashells.

this mountain man will barely speak english. his italian will sound very country. he will be wearing jeans and sneakers, a black t-shirt that says JUST DO IT, and a hat that says ITALIA on it, with the colors of italy. when you ask for the toilet, he will show you inside to his bathroom. and there, amongst his laundry machine and open doors, you will realize that you were just in his backyard. this toilet is in his house. his bedroom is just around the corner, and so you wonder who else lives here, and, does he ever come down from the mountain, and, how does he get up? is this how he makes his living — by selling lemonade and granitas to passing hikers?

he will be curious to talk to you — and he’ll sit on a wooden plank table (which he probably constructed himself) with his feet dangling over, and look at you while you drink his lemonade and eat his shaved ice. and your cheeks will be hot and red like tomatoes and your entire body sweaty, but this sitting here, in the shade of his shack, listening to the music playing from the speakers tucked in the tree, charmed by his gigantic lemons — this will all feel very good.

and at some point maybe you’ll think that this must be it, this man has it figured out, this is happiness: to be a mountain man with a lemon shack. to build a garden with your own hands, to wake up to this blue dream every morning, to welcome strangers with fresh lemons and shaved ice, to blast music from a tree. what freedom, what simple joy, what total disregard for the traditional rules of living life.

perhaps this metaphor can be applied to anyone who chooses an unusual life, and dares to live it. who is crazy enough to set up a lemon shack on a mountain, and to welcome people to it. I think that’s exactly what I am building here. now we are on this mountain together. and you are in my lemon shack.