I’ll never forget the first time I went hiking in Aspen. I was a young starting professor attending a workshop at the Aspen Center for Physics. I fell in with some enthusiastic but long-legged colleagues who quite soundly beat me to the top of a mountain while I struggled to keep pace.

Having pushed myself too hard, I paid the price in soreness for the rest of the workshop. I now approach these mountain hikes differently. I prefer to savor the journey, marveling at the breathtaking scenery, relishing in how many types of moss, lichen, mushrooms and rocks I find along the trail. I recently learned from a mountaineer that my style has a name: I saunter. He saw the word as connected to the French Alps phrase “sainte terre,” literally “holy terrain,” as in why would you rush it. Unfolding his

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