[pct-l] Tethers to the other world...

[Ed Jarrett]

That all sounds good.  But I love my wife too much to be that selfish.

Ed Jarretthttp://aclayjar.blogspot.com/

> Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2012 20:04:19 -0600
> From: jolson at olc.edu
> CC: pct-l at backcountry.net
> Subject: [pct-l] Tethers to the other world...
> 
> 17 years ago when the listserv started there was no discussion about how 
> to communicate with the "other world" while on the trail.
> 
> The trail has its own reality.  It now takes me just a couple weeks to 
> shift from being social to being single.  That's what it is for me.  
> Suddenly, in the first hour, I'm alone, and I can project forward and 
> know I'm going to be alone for three weeks, six weeks, a couple months 
> or five months...   Five or six hikes of 10 days to seven weeks - I know 
> this in the first moments.
> 
> There is a couple minutes of elation being away from the car and walking 
> away from it all.  Then there's the first glance into space across the 
> canyon to the granite spires beyond.
> 
> Increasingly the larger spaces come to be THE environment.  You can hide 
> in a copse of trees or make sure you camp at 8000'.  Naps in the 
> afternoon shade chase the bigness away.
> 
> Day after day you open up on big spaces.  Increasingly these big spaces 
> are internal.  When you cross the head of a drainage and cross the 
> springs that eventually become the Colorado or Green or San Joaquin, you 
> check in.  The long gaze down the basin across the flattening forest is 
> there every time you look.  The "tether" to the "other world" is thinning.
> 
> You feel an increasing sense of competence, and this competence is based 
> in choices you make moment to moment as you walk along the trail.  Week 
> after week you find yourself tested and your choices bear good outcomes.
> 
> You abandon gear or trade for or buy more minimalist gear.  Your body 
> hardens and while you can walk 25 miles a day, you can no longer jump 
> vertically more than a couple inches.  If you don't watch it, that lasts 
> a long time.
> 
> Each moment of each day surrounds us as we walk.  The presence of one 
> foot in front of the other opens up new vistas in the big spaces.  
> Emotions tarnish and churl.  Not enough water, or food, or sleep - all 
> are part of the blossoming, unfolding, magnetic call of what's ahead.
> 
> If you can let go of the tethers - others needs to feel you're safe - 
> and just leave - just head out!!!  Sure you love you Mom and girlfriend 
> or boyfriend, and maybe your dad...
> 
> Just head out.  If you die - well, you die.  That's part of untying the 
> knots that are other's worlds wanting to control our own!  You learn to 
> trust yourself, your ability to make good decisions in the moment, 
> whether from ethics, or evaluation of personal safety.
> 
> I think we're in an historical era that doesn't want us to carve our own 
> lives.  The opportunities that exist for us in the world of work are 
> pretty dull and mundane and predictable.  Whether straight or gay - 
> marriage is important to others.  The tethers hold us back, are visible 
> in the emotions - in the fear of stepping away from the comfortable and 
> known.
> 
> Can you imagine just hitching to Campo, or Horseshoe Meadows, or Hwy 50 
> or White Pass and heading out - feeling, but not knowing you'll not only 
> survive but thrive?
> 
> Hiking a long trail enables one to step out of one life into another 
> over the course of a day or two.  Suddenly, you're on the trail.
> 
> No one knows when you're going to be anywhere when.  You told them you 
> would contact them at your convenience, and their worry was no business 
> of yours.  You are stepping into a new reality, from one, into another, 
> from the past into a future you've crafted in your planning.  The 
> pleadings of loved ones that they'll worry about you distance themselves 
> into echos that slowly diminish and disappear. You're on the trail!!!
> 
> You fully understand the risks involved and trust in your ability to 
> learn quickly enough how to make good decisions, to use experience to 
> deepen wisdom.  You can say this to your folks or loved ones, and to 
> yourself.  All feel a bit, or a lot, of uncertainty.  Especially Moms...
> 
> The bottom line is a person literally steps from one life into another.  
> There just aren't many opportunities like this in modern living.  You 
> can maintain contact with the "other world" if you want, but why would 
> you???
> 
> Jeffrey Olson
> Rapid City, SD
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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