I was emcee for a concert that Bill Staines gave on Saturday night, the day that the collapse of the Old Man in the Mountain was discovered.    Bill had not heard about the tragedy and started to introduce the song. A few people in the audience spoke up and at first Bill did not understand what they were saying - "you fell off the mountain?". Then it became clear to him what the audience was saying and he went into the song. From my perspective, you could tell that the words were taking on a new meaning to him - at one point he broke from the lyrics to say "this is really sad".    During intermission I was chatting with him and he telling me how important this mountain was to the residents. It would be like the Statue of Liberty falling down, Mount Rushmore collapsing, or Old Faithful closing up shop.

On one hand it is certainly a loss, but more importantly it is a lesson about nature.