There is an underlying subject in the last two posts, but you probably haven’t noticed it. Until recently it wasn’t really clear to me either. I danced around it in “This I Know to be True” until I got distracted, forgot I was dancing, and walked away before the music had even stopped. In “Walking in Sixes” I danced, I sang, and I had such a generally great time that, as is too common for many of us in our fifties – even without Alzheimer’s, I totally forgot why I had hosted the party. It’s all become clear to me now though so let me clarify that both of those posts and this one, are about me getting religion.
After forty plus years of deliberate and conscious but admittedly not regular contemplation on the subject of religion, until just recently my assessment was that formal religions, western religions and fundamental interpretations of any religion in particular, are nothing more than devices for managing the masses; tools in the hands of those who want to stay in power to suppress ambition, free thinking and free will; and ways to give those with very little capacity for autonomous thought a system of principles and rules which if followed regularly would likely keep them out of major trouble. The only real benefit I’d concluded that practicing one of the mainstream western religions might legitimately bestow upon the regular churchgoer is a sense of community and the opportunity to regularly interact with friends. But for me the price of admission to that social club was way too high. I never understood why anyone would want to practice what always seemed to me such archaic dogmas and doctrines to get closer to God. Admittedly, while I’ve never doubted that there was a God out there, I’ve also never felt the pressing need get in close touch with Him.
To quickly resolve the potential for concern that has erupted in the minds of those who know me and are confounded by my use of terms here, please understand that I use “God” and “Him” in the broadest of interpretations. For me, these are terms that in essence acknowledge that there is something greater than the individual that has to be considered; infer that no woman or man is an island; and suggest that there is a spiritual component to living. It was that spiritual component that recently reawakened in me and forced me to consider some aspects of what are most commonly considered to be religious practices in a different light.
The Japhy Ryder quote referenced in “This I Know to be True” was an avenue of introduction to the notion that going to the mountains makes me feel closer to God. Climbing mountains, gaining elevation, getting higher into the clouds and sky is a workable metaphor for getting closer to heaven and God. Although, I have to admit, I didn’t find that metaphor on my own. Yet, I’ve known it to be true since I was about six. As a young boy who often went to the Elkhorn mountains south of Helena, Montana with his mother to a friends mountain ranch, I was once heard to say while climbing over a corral gate that led to a lovely mountain meadow that I was “going to go talk to God.” I had never been to church but I knew with confidence where to find God.
From that perspective you can imagine my surprise when from a very interesting book about avalanches entitled The White Death: Tragedy and Heroism in an Avalanche Zone by McKay Jenkins, I recently learned that to early Christians the “wilderness represented the moral chaos of an unregenerate world, with primeval forests the domain of demons and spirits all too eager to steal a good man’s soul.” Really! Further, in Mountain Gloom and Mountain Glory Marjorie Hope Nicholson reported the common belief among Christians of the 1600s that “mountains, like other distortions of the earth, were an immediate result of the sin of Adam and Eve...” Distortions of the earth? It’s no wonder Christianity has never appealed to me. To their credit and as far as I can tell, in the last four hundred years Christian religions have evolved a more benevolent, or at least less demonic, perspective on mountains. That’s an encouraging bit of progress so I’ve made a note to give them a thorough re-examination in another four hundred years or so.
In “This I Know to be True” I revealed that for me going to the mountains on a three day solo up Mt. Wood was much more than just a backpacking trip, it was intended to be a journey. The objective was to climb Mt. Wood but the journey’s destination was unknown. In “Walking in Sixes” I talked about chanting, but I didn’t reveal my motivation. The truth is as I began my hike up the West Rosebud valley I started to experience an emotion that was unfamiliar to me - fear. Three days and two nights high in the mountains alone, with no expectation of encountering any other humans to acknowledge my existence, let alone come to my aid, was outside my comfort zone. I was processing a long and intimidating list of unknowns that, in the dark of the night alone in a tent high in the mountains completely out of contact with anyone, might even include bogymen. At the least, I was walking alone up a valley known to be inhabited by grizzly bears. McKay Jenkins describes that awareness well.
“Your senses become more alert. You become aware of tiny sounds – every creak of a tree limb, every snap of a twig. In bear country, you become aware, perhaps for the first time in your life, that you are not at the top of the food chain. For once, nothing is so important as the direction of the wind; there is something out there that, with a mix of your own ignorance and bad luck, could finish you off.”
For the first time in my adult life I was feeling vulnerable, not adequately prepared, not in control. I felt the need for comfort and support but saw no immediate source. I was perhaps for the first time actually consciously feeling a weakness of spirit, the void that I had been benignly ignoring for more than thirty years. The conclusions of prior contemplations disallowed the option of surrendering myself to a superior non-being, a god whose holy attributes demanded emulation but were known to be unattainable by mere humans; a Pantene god who demands we confess our sins to him and then pray for our sins to be washed away, until the next time we soil our soul – shampoo, rinse and repeat.
In “Emptiness, Ghosts and Empties, Graceland, and Connectedness” I suggested that all living things share a connection; that there exists a collective consciousness, perhaps even a spiritual unity. I know with certainty that there is shared energy among all living things and that it is possible to access and utilize that energy. I very consciously did that once when I was younger, in danger, and really needed help. The outcome was astounding. Significant physical harm to me and a friend was avoided, tensions were eased, and the potential assailants just walked away. It was Luke and Obi-Wan Kenobi’s market-square encounter with Imperial guards on Tatooine. Afterwards I effectively blocked the whole event and behaved for thirty years like it never happened.
In the last few years as I’ve aged and begrudgingly relinquished some of the confidence of youth upon which, with that one exception I’d always relied, I’ve started to re-explore and embrace these concepts of connectedness and shared energy again. That’s what I was doing when I started chanting to myself while hiking toward Mt. Wood. With Om Mani Padme Hum and other mantras, I was connecting to the energy that all living things share. I was asking for strength, guidance, safe passage, courage and comfort. I suddenly got religion, that is to say I thought I understood it. I was acutely aware of a void within me that I’m assuming the acts of going to church, and praying fills for many people. My chanting sought to fill that void perhaps differently than many, but one could say I was praying, in my church, the Church of Higher Elevations.
Continue to follow if you are inquisitive - and have the time. Don’t if neither exists.
Regards,
JR
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Walking In Sixes
Walking. How many different kinds of walking are there? We’re going to explore that a bit more later but for now let’s consider two – well… really just one. One can either walk with others or alone. Imagine yourself walking with others - in town, in the city, in the country, or even in the mountains. What are you likely doing? Talking! Now, imagine yourself walking alone in any of those places. Same question – hopefully a different answer. In the first three settings you’re probably going to find people looking at you slightly askance if you are talking to yourself. Someone so long ago in my past that I can’t even remember who it was used to say “I was givin’ them the old hairy eye ball”. I think you know what I mean. Technically, you could probably get away with talking while walking alone in the mountains. Yet, I suspect (hope!) most of us would have the wherewithal to raise a reflective brow within a mile or two. So what does one do while walking alone in the mountains? Trick question! Anything they want to do – or nothing at all.
The sequence of events that created my preferred option for mental (i.e. non-verbal) activity while walking alone in the mountains is frankly, not the point of this post. So with your assumed consent I’ll skip that part and get only slightly more directly to the point. It turns out non-verbal chanting, i.e. to yourself, exclusively within the confines of your own cranium, silently – but make no mistake the target audience is the entire universe – is a great way to go. Recognize that there is a plethora of potential chants – everything from “Hi ya, hi ya, hi ya…” to “Hup, two, three, four…” to “The ants go marching one by one…”. You get the picture. Now, allow me to take a leap. Please leap along with me.
Om Mani Padme Hum. Familiar to you or not, we’re going there. For those familiar, please allow the pathetic abbreviated personal interpretation that follows to suffice (or, as always, you are free to write a comment directed at this post). For those not familiar with Om Mani Padme Hum, it is a mantra which Tibetan Buddhists believe when repeated to oneself silently or aloud invokes the powerful benevolent attention and blessings of Chenrezig, the embodiment of compassion. It is also said that all the teachings of Buddha are contained in this mantra. (These same words and more can be found at: http://www.dharma-haven.org/tibetan/meaning-of-om-mani-padme-hung.htm if you want more information.)
For those of you that didn’t put enough personal effort into the leap we just took, what I’m suggesting here is that one could, when walking alone in the mountains, on say, a three day solo climb of Mount Wood (see previous post), choose to repeat this mantra to themselves more or less endlessly. It is said that repeating this mantra helps one to get centered. It turns out that being centered spiritually, mentally, and physically can be of great benefit when climbing in the high mountains. I had some sense of this as I headed out toward Mount Wood so I took to repeating this mantra in my head as I walked. The results were…, well…, wow!
It is helpful to imagine that there are lots of ways one can walk and chant this mantra. It could go like: ommanipadmehum – step with the right foot, ommanipadmehum – step with the left foot step, ommanipadmehum – step with the right foot, ommanipadmehum – step with the left foot. Repeat. I have to admit I never got there. It seemed a little too angsty when done quickly enough to make any kind of time while walking in the mountains. You know, sort of contrary to the intent of the entire exercise. It could go like: Om – step with the right foot, Mani – step with the left foot, Padme – step with the right foot, Hum – step with the left foot. Repeat. Or it could go like: Om – step left and right, Mani – step left and right, Padme – step left and right, Hum – step left and right. Repeat.
In my limited experience with chanting this mantra on this trip (really only almost every waking hour for three days), I found that how you chant, i.e. the cadence of chanting depends upon whether you are walking on the level, climbing, or descending. It also depends upon whether you’re walking fast or slow, and whether you are walking on dirt, grass, rock (scree, talus, boulders), or water (only sort of kidding…). Synchronizing the cadence of the mantra with your breathing is not only an option, but likely, and very beneficial. On a prolonged climb up a 45 degree talus covered slope at 11,000 feet it became:
The sequence of events that created my preferred option for mental (i.e. non-verbal) activity while walking alone in the mountains is frankly, not the point of this post. So with your assumed consent I’ll skip that part and get only slightly more directly to the point. It turns out non-verbal chanting, i.e. to yourself, exclusively within the confines of your own cranium, silently – but make no mistake the target audience is the entire universe – is a great way to go. Recognize that there is a plethora of potential chants – everything from “Hi ya, hi ya, hi ya…” to “Hup, two, three, four…” to “The ants go marching one by one…”. You get the picture. Now, allow me to take a leap. Please leap along with me.
Om Mani Padme Hum. Familiar to you or not, we’re going there. For those familiar, please allow the pathetic abbreviated personal interpretation that follows to suffice (or, as always, you are free to write a comment directed at this post). For those not familiar with Om Mani Padme Hum, it is a mantra which Tibetan Buddhists believe when repeated to oneself silently or aloud invokes the powerful benevolent attention and blessings of Chenrezig, the embodiment of compassion. It is also said that all the teachings of Buddha are contained in this mantra. (These same words and more can be found at: http://www.dharma-haven.org/tibetan/meaning-of-om-mani-padme-hung.htm if you want more information.)
For those of you that didn’t put enough personal effort into the leap we just took, what I’m suggesting here is that one could, when walking alone in the mountains, on say, a three day solo climb of Mount Wood (see previous post), choose to repeat this mantra to themselves more or less endlessly. It is said that repeating this mantra helps one to get centered. It turns out that being centered spiritually, mentally, and physically can be of great benefit when climbing in the high mountains. I had some sense of this as I headed out toward Mount Wood so I took to repeating this mantra in my head as I walked. The results were…, well…, wow!
It is helpful to imagine that there are lots of ways one can walk and chant this mantra. It could go like: ommanipadmehum – step with the right foot, ommanipadmehum – step with the left foot step, ommanipadmehum – step with the right foot, ommanipadmehum – step with the left foot. Repeat. I have to admit I never got there. It seemed a little too angsty when done quickly enough to make any kind of time while walking in the mountains. You know, sort of contrary to the intent of the entire exercise. It could go like: Om – step with the right foot, Mani – step with the left foot, Padme – step with the right foot, Hum – step with the left foot. Repeat. Or it could go like: Om – step left and right, Mani – step left and right, Padme – step left and right, Hum – step left and right. Repeat.
In my limited experience with chanting this mantra on this trip (really only almost every waking hour for three days), I found that how you chant, i.e. the cadence of chanting depends upon whether you are walking on the level, climbing, or descending. It also depends upon whether you’re walking fast or slow, and whether you are walking on dirt, grass, rock (scree, talus, boulders), or water (only sort of kidding…). Synchronizing the cadence of the mantra with your breathing is not only an option, but likely, and very beneficial. On a prolonged climb up a 45 degree talus covered slope at 11,000 feet it became:
Inhale lift and place left foot, exhale Om – step up.
Inhale lift and place right foot, exhale Mani – step up.
Inhale lift and place left foot, exhale Padme – step up.
Inhale lift and place right foot, exhale Hum – step up. Repeat.
During the first day, mostly on the trail and on modest grade, I’d get distracted by one thing or another and forget to chant. Then I’d find myself walking around a blind corner in tall pines with thick underbrush and the wind to my face, and suddenly I’d remember why I wanted to chant and I’d start up again.
This is the part where providing the reader a frame of reference would be helpful. I mentioned this in a previous post but I’ll briefly set the stage again. Taking a three day solo trip in the Beartooth Mountains was not in my comfort zone at the time. The Beartooths are aptly named. When hiking in the Beartooths it is common to see clowns carrying 44 Magnum revolvers with eight inch barrels. One also encounters many fairly normal looking hikers carrying bear spray – the US Forrest Service’s recommended bear deterrent. Occasionally one experiences a Zen master walking bare (pun totally intended). I know at least one Zen master and when walking in the Beartooths with him I don’t carry my bear spray either. But as I was going solo I thought I ought to start developing my Zen side. So I took up chanting. I also made occasional tobacco and cedar offerings in the spirit of Native American practices – to which I have had some exposure (perhaps the topic of another post at another time). I really am working my way toward the title of this post…
You’ll note that Om Ma-ni Pad-me Hum has six syllables. Recall that within these six syllables are all the teachings of Buddha. That makes pronouncing each syllable seem kind of important!
As an aside, I will admit that I found occasion to stretch this mantra to eight syllables: O-om Ma-ni Pad-me Hu-um. It just fit the situation. Remember all of this is going on quietly in my head. So no-one on the outside world was any the wiser. I don’t think it was demons or the dark side that brought this on and I don’t think I’ll face eternal damnation for this personal deviation from a practice that is thousands of years old. It’s just not the Buddhist way (Thank God! [smirk]).
As I said, on the first day I’d get interrupted, or I’d mispronounce the syllables, or I’d get distracted and get them out of order. By the second day, I was eight to twelve miles in to the back country, navigating my own way to the intended destination without the benefit of trails or cairns, not likely to see anyone at all, and needing all the support I could get to climb my way up 3,000 more feet of vertical and over thousands of acres of boulders, talus, scree, and delicate sub-alpine tundra to negotiate Mount Wood. It’s fair to say I was “in the moment”. By that time chanting the mantra was at least easy, if not totally automatic.
Breathing, chanting, stepping.
Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum. Climbing.
Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum. Navigating.
Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum. Being present.
Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum. Being grateful.
Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum. Not only becoming the little engine that could, but being elated to find a whole new way to engage with Mother Nature.
Om Ma-ni Pad-me Hum. Om Ma-ni Pad-me Hum. Walking in sixes.
Continue to follow if you are inquisitive - and have the time. Don’t if neither exists.
Regards,
JR
Friday, September 25, 2009
This I Know to be True
“The closer you get to real matter, rock air fire and wood, boy, the more spiritual the world is.” – Japhy Ryder
For those of you who don’t know him, Japhy Ryder is a real character. No really, he’s a character in a book called The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac, first published in 1957, and the character is based upon a real person (a poet) by the name of Gary Snyder (more info at http://www.litkicks.com/GarySnyder/).
The truth in this statement became abundantly clear to me last weekend when I spent three days on a solo trip climbing up Mount Wood, the second highest peak in Montana. Admittedly it had been a long time since I’d done a solo overnight trip and I was going somewhere I’d never been before and which was miles beyond the end of the established trails I’d use to access the backcountry, so I had reservations. Yet, somewhere deep down inside my consciousness the lesson this trip had to offer was calling me like temptation calls an addict. “You know you want it, boy”. I knew I wanted it.
It was no big deal really. Start at 6,500 feet. Climb a trail for 6 miles to 7,600 feet, past an often visited lake, leave the trail, cross the outlet of the next lake up the drainage on a 200 foot long serpentine log jam, climb 2,000 more vertical feet and find a level place to camp at the edge of the forest where the trees reluctantly yield their hold on the ground to rock.. The next day climb a quarter mile long 45 degree slope of loose scree and retreating ground cover to the top of an unnamed plateau, and then just keep climbing slope to shelf to slope to bench for another 2,600 vertical feet and almost three miles until atop the second highest mountain in Montana. Even in theory and on the maps, it certainly didn’t look like a walk in the park, but as I said before I wanted it. So that was that.
This was for me, what Joseph Campbell might have called The Hero’s Journey. This of course is a long standing historical, even biblical, metaphor for the journey a young, troubled, or seeking soul takes to find themselves - seeking answers, experiencing trials, and then returning to the home and family a different, more evolved and mature soul.
Ok, Maybe The Hero’s Journey is a bit of an exaggeration. I wasn’t going on a ten year crusade, in fact I wasn’t even going into a subterranean cave on Dagobah to face my Vader voiced father, although some in my family have inferred something to that effect. All the same, the challenges of this trip were enough to set me on edge. Little did I know that I’d come home from the trip with no sharp edges at all.
Continue to follow if you are inquisitive - and have the time. Don’t if neither exists.
Regards,
JR
For those of you who don’t know him, Japhy Ryder is a real character. No really, he’s a character in a book called The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac, first published in 1957, and the character is based upon a real person (a poet) by the name of Gary Snyder (more info at http://www.litkicks.com/GarySnyder/).
The truth in this statement became abundantly clear to me last weekend when I spent three days on a solo trip climbing up Mount Wood, the second highest peak in Montana. Admittedly it had been a long time since I’d done a solo overnight trip and I was going somewhere I’d never been before and which was miles beyond the end of the established trails I’d use to access the backcountry, so I had reservations. Yet, somewhere deep down inside my consciousness the lesson this trip had to offer was calling me like temptation calls an addict. “You know you want it, boy”. I knew I wanted it.
It was no big deal really. Start at 6,500 feet. Climb a trail for 6 miles to 7,600 feet, past an often visited lake, leave the trail, cross the outlet of the next lake up the drainage on a 200 foot long serpentine log jam, climb 2,000 more vertical feet and find a level place to camp at the edge of the forest where the trees reluctantly yield their hold on the ground to rock.. The next day climb a quarter mile long 45 degree slope of loose scree and retreating ground cover to the top of an unnamed plateau, and then just keep climbing slope to shelf to slope to bench for another 2,600 vertical feet and almost three miles until atop the second highest mountain in Montana. Even in theory and on the maps, it certainly didn’t look like a walk in the park, but as I said before I wanted it. So that was that.
This was for me, what Joseph Campbell might have called The Hero’s Journey. This of course is a long standing historical, even biblical, metaphor for the journey a young, troubled, or seeking soul takes to find themselves - seeking answers, experiencing trials, and then returning to the home and family a different, more evolved and mature soul.
Ok, Maybe The Hero’s Journey is a bit of an exaggeration. I wasn’t going on a ten year crusade, in fact I wasn’t even going into a subterranean cave on Dagobah to face my Vader voiced father, although some in my family have inferred something to that effect. All the same, the challenges of this trip were enough to set me on edge. Little did I know that I’d come home from the trip with no sharp edges at all.
Continue to follow if you are inquisitive - and have the time. Don’t if neither exists.
Regards,
JR
Monday, September 14, 2009
High Mountain Solo
Ink black high mountain
Night sky and my solitude
Dipper holds a tree
Continue to follow if you are inquisitive - and have the time. Don’t if neither exists.
Regards,
JR
Night sky and my solitude
Dipper holds a tree
Continue to follow if you are inquisitive - and have the time. Don’t if neither exists.
Regards,
JR
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Emptiness, Ghosts and Empties, Graceland, and Connectedness
In Buddhism there is a major philosophical insight described in the theory of emptiness. My understanding of this theory – honestly, calling it a theory diminishes its clear impact on reality – is infantile at best but in essence as I now understand it, emptiness is a recognition that how we see and interact with our world is based upon a fundamental error. That error is the assumption that the things we encounter in this life – people, material things, events, and even abstract concepts – are discrete intrinsically unique and exist independently of all other things (people, material items, events, etc.). This assumption leads to a whole host of what I would call “obstacles to enlightenment” – the greatest among them being ego. Think about it… without ego would we perceive anyone as better than or less than anyone else? Without ego would we have prejudice, conflict, attachment, or control issues? Again, working within my limited understanding, one of the realizations of the acceptance of emptiness is that all things are connected. That is to say, all things are subject to interaction with all other things. In more simplistic and demonstrative terms, none of us is an island. We are all susceptible to influence by external forces. I dare you to proclaim that you are not!
Personally, I don’t struggle with any of that. I am regularly impressed however by the magnitude of the impact external influences can have on who we are and what we become… Is anyone else besides me recoiling at my use of the word “external?” Isn’t THAT inconsistent with the theory of emptiness? Anyway, there are hundreds of influences exerted upon us every day by friends, family, the public, the (bleech!) media, and then those things to which we willing expose ourselves like books and mountains.
Each and every encounter has the potential to shape what we think, what we do, who we are, and what we become. But the emptiness, or more accurately the connectedness, can go deeper. A non-trivial transformation occurs when one internalizes the connectedness. Instead of being influenced or acted upon and then responding, when one really “gets it” – more to say understands, embraces, and incorporates this concept into their being – then one goes looking for the connections and then willingly accepts and appreciates those with learning attached. If in your personal pursuits, you explore this concept far enough you start reading and hearing phrases like “collective consciousness” or “the consciousness of many”. The idea that we are all connected, that we all share connections – whether it be only three degrees of separation or the carbon atoms from the same dinosaur or an often masked and rarely recognized spiritual unity – is a staggering concept for most. Embracing the emptiness, the collective consciousness, is a big step. It takes courage and it yields instinct and grace – all of which are subjects for future posts.
Continue to follow if you are inquisitive - and have the time. Don’t if neither exists.
Regards,
JR
Personally, I don’t struggle with any of that. I am regularly impressed however by the magnitude of the impact external influences can have on who we are and what we become… Is anyone else besides me recoiling at my use of the word “external?” Isn’t THAT inconsistent with the theory of emptiness? Anyway, there are hundreds of influences exerted upon us every day by friends, family, the public, the (bleech!) media, and then those things to which we willing expose ourselves like books and mountains.
Each and every encounter has the potential to shape what we think, what we do, who we are, and what we become. But the emptiness, or more accurately the connectedness, can go deeper. A non-trivial transformation occurs when one internalizes the connectedness. Instead of being influenced or acted upon and then responding, when one really “gets it” – more to say understands, embraces, and incorporates this concept into their being – then one goes looking for the connections and then willingly accepts and appreciates those with learning attached. If in your personal pursuits, you explore this concept far enough you start reading and hearing phrases like “collective consciousness” or “the consciousness of many”. The idea that we are all connected, that we all share connections – whether it be only three degrees of separation or the carbon atoms from the same dinosaur or an often masked and rarely recognized spiritual unity – is a staggering concept for most. Embracing the emptiness, the collective consciousness, is a big step. It takes courage and it yields instinct and grace – all of which are subjects for future posts.
Continue to follow if you are inquisitive - and have the time. Don’t if neither exists.
Regards,
JR
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
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
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
Kicker (aka kickoff) Post
Ok, finally, I'm present. No promises, but lots of promise. It's JUST A BLOG... It is about quality. Anyone can do (and nearly everyone is doing) quantity. Read on if you are inquisitive - and have the time. Don't if neither exist.
Expect reflections on life, and entertaining short stories mostly about mountains. Feel free to comment, respond, flame or compliment.
I'm following my bliss.
Regards,
JR
Expect reflections on life, and entertaining short stories mostly about mountains. Feel free to comment, respond, flame or compliment.
I'm following my bliss.
Regards,
JR
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