Date: 2010-01-26
To: Humdrum Lives and Peak Experiences
Miles today: 0.0

In last Sunday¢s newspaper there were three cartoons that caught my attention. The first two were sort of ¢signs of the times¢. One showed a police lineup with two bad guys standing next to a gas pump. The caption read: ¢Number three, step forward and say ¢give me all your money¢.¢ The second one showed a drug store greetings card display, with a label at the top of the section saying: ¢sympathy cards¢. Below that, smaller sections had signs reading ¢laid off¢, ¢401k¢, ¢foreclosure¢, etc. Both cartoons were sad, but true.It was the third one, however, that struck home the hardest for me. It showed two guys standing out in the back yard talking. Near them was this dog that was lying down in a three sided enclosure ¢ a bit like a dog house, but with no roof ¢ with a really sad expression on his face. The caption said: ¢Yeah, I¢m trying to break his spirit. I¢ve put him in a cubicle.¢ I think of that cartoon sometimes when I¢m sitting in my own cubicle at the office, even when what I¢m doing is actually kind of interesting ¢ which is most of the time. I count my blessings that someone is willing to pay me to do something I enjoy, and for the chance to do useful things with colleagues who are equally committed. The point is, despite all of the good things about my job, I¢d still really rather be somewhere else. Like hiking the AT! I suspect that most people, if they had their ¢druthers¢, would rather be somewhere else too. That¢s just human nature. I think it has to do with evolution, and the process of human development, that leaves us facing this internal conflict.   In fact, ever since we learned to walk on our hind legs and carry a stick, it¢s been pretty much down hill in the satisfaction department. At first, we just hunted, fished, gathered stuff, and lived out our lives, as best we could, in harmony with nature. Then we managed to domesticate various plants and animals and started living in communities. With enough to eat and then some, the surpluses were used to support other kinds of activities, like arts, music, literature, and war. Then we learned to harness the power of nature, someone invented the steam engine, and the industrial revolution was off and running. People moved away from that simple and idyllic agrarian society (ok, that¢s probably a bit of an exaggeration, but I¢m trying to make a point here), and got jobs in factories and offices, all of which got bigger and bigger and are now mostly the way we all make a living. It¢s the ¢cubicles¢ phenomenon, which is why that third cartoon somehow hits home.   If you think about it, we¢ve gone from just trying to survive, to living, to making a living, to where we are today ¢ where the question seems to be: ¢how can we make a living, and still live?¢ A few people stubbornly insist on trying to reverse that question ¢ ¢how can I live, and still make a living¢ ¢ but those are mostly hippy-types in rural areas trying to live ¢off the grid¢ ¢ a noble objective, but not terribly practical for the rest of us. Life, of course, is filled with tradeoffs. If we work hard, stay out of trouble, and get lucky, we may eventually be able to retire. THEN we can abandon our cubicle and go do something fun, like hike the AT. Its just, when you think about it, we sure do spend an awful lot of our lives in a kind of humdrum existence, waiting and hoping for that eventual opportunity to have a go at a ¢peak experience¢. Of course, some people are smart enough to have a go at a peak experience before they submit themselves to the cubicle phenomenon. In most years, the population of AT through-hikers is starkly bi-model: you have a very large group of ¢20 somethings¢, who are out of school but not yet engaged in a career, and then you have another large group of mostly ¢Baby Boomers¢ finally fulfilling the dream they¢ve cherished during their cubicle years, with not many other folks in-between those two groups. I¢m not sure who has it best when the journey is done. You could argue it either way. The young folks will have both the satisfaction of having experienced the incredible joys of the trail ¢ a memory they can carry with them into their cubicles, and the knowledge that they don¢t have to spend the next forty years wondering whether they will ever actually get that shot at a peak experience like the AT.   On the other hand, the Boomers have the satisfaction of actually achieving their dream, at long last, but don¢t face the daunting challenge of sitting in a cubicle for the next forty years knowing very precisely the kind of joyous experience that is no longer available to them now that they have a family and a mortgage and a career and a pension to worry about. Mostly, I¢m pretty darn glad that I¢m in the position I¢m in. I will have spent most of the past eight months in a cubicle, but I¢m less than seven weeks from being out on the trail again.      As for the ¢20 somethings¢ out there, well, you just can¢t worry about what you¢ll be able to do or not do in the future. The important thing is to grab this chance while you have it, and make the most of it. The cubicle will always be there, and there will be other peak experiences ahead of you ¢ just of a different kind. Take advantage of today and, as they say in those commercials, ¢just go for it¢! You¢ll only regret it if you don¢t. Forty six more days for me, but only three more for Second Stage!