Date: 2010-01-13
To: A new perspective.
Miles today: 0.0

(Warning: the following long-winded entry is a direct result of arctic temps making it miserable to go outside. Any further reading on your part says you¢re as bored as I am.)Anyone interested in drawing becomes familiar with the dynamics of perspective. It¢s the visual phenomenon where 3- dimensional objects appear to recede to a location somewhere on the horizon. There is One-point perspective (the simplest), Two-point perspective (the most normal), and Three-point which requires another axis, a vertical one. Oddly, the box is an ideal shape for demonstrating all of them.However, the most dynamic perspective of all is the one gained by a thru-hike. And how appropriate that it can¢t be shown using a box. The Thru-hike Perspective is about everything other than the box we tend to live and work in.Life outside the box is a life that¢s hard to discover. It¢s the extraordinary few who know this before a thru-hike. But it¢s the ordinary many that discover this on their hikes and it is there it gets spliced into their double helix. Most of us, me for one, couldn¢t imagine doing more than one thru-hike before my first. (And I have a pretty fair talent for imagining things.)If you¢ve never answered the voice to take a long walk along the mountains and forests of America, or if you¢ve done so but didn¢t experience the ebb of your ¢cityness,¢ then its probably safe to say you think anyone who would thru-hike has to be either nuts, a misfit or a nutty misfit? If you were to add in that some people do it multiple times, well¢¦clearly no ones driving the bus, right?In my 2006 AT journal, I posed the question, ¢Does the trail change us or does the change take place first and thus results in the thru-hike?¢ The age-old question of which came first, the Spruce Grouse or the egg scenario. When the topic is about the multiple thru-hiker, both are definitely true. But clearly not everyone finds this joy in the journey otherwise nearly everyone would finish (short of injury or matters at home).One year I met a fellow who was having the most miserable time on the hike, but his ego refused to let him stop. He truly thought anyone who would do more than one of these awful endeavors was an idiot. May I say what an absolute joy he was to be around with all his whining¢¦his trailname should have been ¢Eeyore¢ ¢ the doom and gloom ass from Winnie the Pooh.Blessedly, many I¢ve hiked with have discovered the magic of life on the trail. For these first-timers, they cherish the life rhythm that walking and sleeping and eating and gawking at beauty 24/7 affords. For us, cityness is relaxed and wilderness is embraced. Each of us finds a quality that stirs, one that either reawakens or reveals wholeness. And don¢t think that we¢re (I should probably just speak for myself here,) that I¢m incomplete in some part of my life and am seeking out distraction. Maybe we all are looking for something on our first thru-hike, but to do a second or third, it¢s more about reuniting with aspects that were discovered.The greatest blessing of a thru-hike for many (oops, for me) is simplicity. Simplicity (in many forms) doesn¢t appear instantly on a hike, its more a slow seductive reveal. The farther you hike the more cityness that¢s shed and eventually all the muck and melodrama of life is exorcised leaving you engulfed in a purity ¢ only you¢re not always aware of it happening. It¢s a quality that overlaps Buddhism ¢ but you get to keep your hair and have sex. I had never realized how much energy it took to orchestrate life until the day after my first summit of Mt. Katahdin in Maine. It was the day after this first 4-12 month adventure ended and with it my trail life simplicity that bought me to tears.Some of us who complete a grand journey are elated with its completion for sure, but a few of us didn¢t really need it to be over. It¢s great to cross a finish line, but when crossing it means returning to this, that and the other thing, the price of a little dirt under the fingernails is a fair trade. Being a purpose driven, goal oriented, ladder climbing, money making, company building, type A, suit wearing, big title, big car, big home, big overhead, cosmopolitan professional in the most competitive markets in the world kind of guy for over twenty years ¢ its safe to say my foray into thru-hiking was a bit different. The contradiction of it all is that trail simplicity requires you to still be purposeful. You¢ll work harder physically than at any other time in your life, but I believe the body responds well to this, even flourishes in the exertion. There¢s nothing like pouring 10,000 gallons of water and sweat through you over five months to purge you of sloth and mental baggage one might be holding on to.Forever present on your hike is the grandeur of our land. Not even HD on a big honkin¢ flat screen TV can come close to it. There is nothing, I mean nothing like standing at a vista of incomprehensible, breathtaking beauty that goes on to infinity to deeply touch you. Side streets of strip malls are a close second, but I¢d have to still give the nod to the job God did. You¢ll be converted (not necessarily to religion) but to a new perspective on life. It¢s a perspective that brings a new order to our longings ¢ some experience this after having a brush with death. A long-distance hike would be more aptly described with having a brush with life. For me it was a shift of appreciation, things to cherish more than a nice car (although I like nice cars). I have never needed to be at ¢the¢ restaurant or club to See-and-be-seen, never needed the best table or the limelight (although I¢ve had it), now I have a distain for it. Gossip, drama queens and kings, hissy fits and anxiety ranting are seen for what they are, self-absorbed helplessness. Clearly these are people who have lost their perspective if they ever had it. The point here is that those who seem to do multiple thru-hikes (oops, why I have done multiple thru-hikes) is that my first gave me a glimpse at a more balanced, joyful life. And I don¢t think I¢m alone on this. I¢m a happy, optimistic soul, and yet I didn¢t know I could smile for five months until my thru-hike.Thru-hiking doesn¢t make me a bum so much as a hiker bum. It doesn¢t say I¢m no longer materialistic; I love owning a down jacket that only weighs ten ounces. It doesn¢t say I¢ve gotten lazy; walking more miles in a day with a pack than others do in a year makes you many things, lazy is not one of them. The only big negative I¢ve seen is when some thru-hikers take on an arrogance of entitlement ¢ that they¢re better than section and day hikers, that the world must revolve around them and accordingly are as sour to behold as a drunken, high-fivein¢ Wall Streeter who just got out of their company paid limo.Oprah¢s show and book club is all about finding perspective, self- improvement, and even weight loss. Oprah should come out and hike with me for a bit ¢ I¢m sure she¢d dedicate a show to long-distance hiking as a result. What do you say Oprah, you game?The Thru-Hike Perspective (THP)¢¦aka, enlightenment to other things that remain hidden in plain sight to others ¢¦a greater appreciation for little things and a humility in the face of the bigger ones¢¦and knowing the difference between the important and the insignificant does not make me better than anyone else, it makes me a better me.To do a thru-hike is a great gift to ones self, a luxury without the luxury if you get my drift. Since this outing will be a half-hike (Georgia to Harper Ferry) for me, I¢m wonder what new feelings will be revealed when I can¢t continue into Maryland and all points north? ¢¦Enjoy your day. (that¢s what its for.)