[pct-l] did you enjoy it ?

[goforth at cio.net (Joanne Lennox)]

When I was traveling along the trail, especially with a horse and
especially on the Continential Divide where people rarely have seen any
species of thruhiker(or rider).  Upon find out my intention was to go from
Mexico to Canada, the first question was generally:  "Why would you do such
a thing?'"

Since I thought I was doing it for a whole slew of reasons, and in the end
probably did not know precisely why anyway, I developed a repertoire of
answers that were partially right and that I thought would satisfy the
questioner.  None of these answers included an answer like "to see if I can
get there".  Basically for me this is an inward journey that has an outward
metaphor and I am interested in the "spiritual aspects" of a long journey,
not just getting to the end or another place.  This is why I keep going,
why I haven't got there yet.

The second question that comes up is: "are you enjoying it?"  This always
stops me dead and I am mystified on how to answer because of the chasm I
see yawning between us.  I explain that I would not attach the word
"enjoyable" to the experience as a whole although there are enjoyable
moments. Interesting, experience, learning, expanding, powerful, process,
etc. are words with a better fit.

So.  Why do the rest of you "do such a thing" and "do you enjoy it"?

Goforth