Re: [pct-l] Journals

[Bighummel@aol.com]

I am rewriting my journal, interestingly enough, twenty three years after 
having thru-hiked.  What I find that I didn't put into the journal but has 
remained clear in my mind in exquisite detail is the emotions, feelings, 
frustrations, elations, joy, despair, etc.  I seemed to have recorded the 
events, the physical details, the problems and left out ME!

I am currently reading "River" by Collin Fletcher, an accounting of his 
source-to-sea raft/backpacking trip down the Colorado River (I highly 
recommend any or all of his books for excellent insights into long distance 
mentality issues).  In it he hits this point and several other long trip 
issues very clearly.  He says that when confronted with an incredible 
panorama or scene we tend to record the physical details and leave out the 
huge feelings that it stirs within us.  We do this because the small physical 
details we fear will be forgotten, but the feelings are so clear and 
magnificent, we have confidence that we will never forget them.  However, 
this omission then leaves out a critical part of the journey that other 
readers of the journal will sorely miss, not having shared those feelings.  

IMHO,

Greg "Strider" Hummel
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