[pct-l] thrus behaving badly

Sat Apr 19 21:11:48 CDT 2008

Very insightful and well stated, Jeff.  Makes my lurking worthwhile.

Cris
...mountains don't tolerate fools...
> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 7
> Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:44:06 -0600
> From: Jeffrey Olson <jolson at olc.edu>
> Subject: Re: [pct-l] thus behaving badly
> To: "pct-l at backcountry.net" <pct-l at backcountry.net>
> Message-ID: <48094056.6090201 at olc.edu>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
> 
> I've been avoiding becoming part of this thread because it is so close
> to the heart of my professional and personal interests.  I'm 55 years
> old.  I went to work for Oglala Lakota College (OLC) in 2005 to start a
> social work program/degree.  For those of you in academia, you know how
> rare it is for one person to be able start a whole
> department/curriculum/program.
> 
> 
> I'm all about going as far upstream as possible to deal with social
> problems.  My focus is prevention and wellness promotion.  When you move
> upstream in your perspective, you no longer look at individuals for
> data.  Data comes from surveys, from archival sources.  Decisions about
> what to do are made on the basis of individual cases aggregated into
> wholes that you hope are generalizable back to the population from which
> the data was gathered.
> 
> 
> When you go upstream you start working in the realm of norms and causes
> and really slow paces of change.  Most people aren't willing - or
> perhaps able - to discipline themselves to slow down and become wise.
> Most of us that actually achieve an historical perspective beyond our
> own lives do so from the weight of personal experience - we learn to
> recognize patterns.  There are many people who do so from their
> educations - you don't need to be 60 years old to "understand" how
> things work.
> 
> 
> Behaving badly is something we all do...  Think about it.  Think about
> the vitriol within this thread.  We all hurt and deal with it by
> inflicting it on others.  All and each of us...
> 
> 
> One of the things you younger persons will learn when you head out on
> the trail by yourself for any length of time is how hard it is to be by
> yourself.  Older persons, if they develop perspective, have learned this
> from years being alive.  You younger people are heading out with no idea
> what you're going to encounter.  You think that the hurdles will be
> physical.  That may be, but overall, the hurdles are all
> emotional/mental.  Many older persons will too - I don't mean to
> bifurcate...
> 
> 
> What's hard, is dealing with the suddenly freed emotions.  No longer is
> there a social world within which you find standards for feeling and
> behaving.  What is and isn't acceptable is a fond remembrance, one that
> sometimes becomes longed for.  What's real is the ongoing, never-ending,
> so, so present pain...
> 
> 
> Freed emotions equals emotional pain.  I couldn't deal with the pain on
> the three or four long section hikes I've taken.  I had to leave the
> trail, and cut off the opportunity the pain presented me.  I wasn't up
> to dealing with it.  I wasn't up to hiking alone, day after day after day.
> 
> 
> So what is this leading to?  Thru-hiking offers the possibility to feel
> compassion for oneself.  Plain and simple.  Most people who hike alone -
> read their journals - either don't get there, or can't handle the
> responsibility.  The emotional pain is too intense.  In 2010  or 2011
> I'll be advertising for a like-minded 55 - 60 year old woman to hike the
> CDT with me.  My best experience on a long hike was with someone I loved
> and cared for deeply...  I never want to hike for more than a couple
> weeks alone again.
> 
> 
> What does it mean to feel compassion for oneself??  The effects of this
> is the inability to judge another person by their actions.  How can you
> judge someone else when you are unable to judge yourself - that "I" have
> to accept I am weak, needy, hurting, and more deeply, driven by an
> intense pattern of being-dissatisfied with my life?"
> 
> 
> There is simply an inability to do something that is so normal most
> people don't think about it.  This is the wisdom gained from
> long-distance hiking...  I have learned from hiking that when I judge
> the actions of another, I am hurting and not dealing with it very
> well...  Plain and simple...
> 
> 
> When I was hiking in 2005 I was told that the trail angels in Etna were
> disgusted with hikers because of their bad behavior.  No more hikers.
> No more deals.  No more welcomes.  Luckily, the immediacy of having good
> intentions taken advantage of washed over and the deeper, more
> meaningful intentions re-emerged.  A few jerks don't screw it up for the
> rest of us.  Trail angels who adopt the role year after year have to go
> through a maturation process just like us on the trail.  There will
> always be the narcissistic, blind, "i'm the center of the universe"
> person to deal with...  The threads of the last day offering ways to
> give back what was given obviate the damage done by little people/minds
> - those who hurt so intensely their worlds are tiny, tiny,
> tiny!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
> 
> 
> I'll end this with an entreaty to feel compassion for the hiker who
> feels so much pain they inflict it on others.  We all have done it, in
> our own ways.  Grow into a bigger world and work to help others do the
> same.  What else is there??????
> 
> 
> Jeff, just Jeff (said to the rhythm of "Bond, James Bond.")
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 8
> Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:19:41 -0700
> From: "Michael Herrera" <mikeh at casaherrera.com>
> Subject: [pct-l]  thus behaving badly
> To: <pct-l at backcountry.net>
> Message-ID: <000001c8a1bb$72b240a0$3501c6c2 at casaherrera.local>
> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="iso-8859-1"
> 
> wow that was cool , thanks for your insight,if your ever on the pct stop
> by
> for some water shade and rest 128 miles from the boarder mike
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------
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> End of Pct-l Digest, Vol 4, Issue 98
> ************************************