So Close to Never Mind

Well.

Have you ever been drawn to something? I mean really DRAWN to something? Had the kind of “I really need to see what this is” feeling? Well I experience that somewhat regularly now and it’s just happened and been fulfilled again.

More than a year ago I was researching Granite Peak, the Montana high point at 12,799, with the intent of climbing it. In my research, I came across a reference to a climbing guide for Granite Peak published by First Ascent Press, based in Livingston, MT. While on their website ( www.firstascentpress.com) I noticed a book entitled Night Driving: Invention of the Wheel and Other Blues by Dick Dorworth. I read the promotional text and knew I needed to read it. Then I went on about my way, found and purchased the original intent of my browsing, the Granite Peak Climbing Guide (http://www.firstascentpress.com/granite.html ) written by Joe Josephson, a very accomplished Montana based climber, and never gave Night Driving another thought… for about a year.

Ok. Here’s a piece of wisdom everyone should hear and very few ever actually will. “Trust your psyche.”

So a year and change later I’m drafting a FAQ for potential posting on the Friends of Granite Peak site (www.friendsofgranitepeak.com ) and want to cite JoJo’s guide. I go to First Ascent Press, find the URL for the guide, and also find Dick Dorworth’s book again. For reasons that I am sure will become less comprehensible to me, it has been marked down in price. So I finally listen to my psyche, purchase a copy, and as soon as it arrived today, start reading it. That brings me to the point of this post.

Having now read the Forward to Night Driving, written by Jack Turner, undoubtedly another accomplished mountaineer that only in my own ignorance I’ve never heard of, and the Preface written by Mr. Dorworth, and having recognized both as works of true writing excellence, truth, reflection, and wisdom that I could never, ever, match (if you read by pronouncing each word either with your lips or just in your head… now would be a good time to take a breath) , I’ve pretty much decided that nothing that I have to say on this blog is now or will ever be worthy.

This book is going to be good. I can tell already and it’s created quite a conundrum for me… See, I’ve just started re-reading (having never completed it the first time) The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality, by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. And it’s going to be a good read too! I suppose I could consider one book pleasure reading and the other a necessary contribution towards personal enlightenment, but I suspect both will supply both rewards.

On one hand, I’m suggesting that I am quite convinced that I will have nothing meaningful and worthy to say here. Not a single uniquely original thought. On the other, I suppose I’m suggesting that I may have some personal reflections on the two very different pieces of literature I’m currently reading that may, at best, hopefully, be mildly entertaining (the reflections, that is…). Continue to follow if you are inquisitive - and have the time. Don’t if neither exists.

Regards,
JR