Go see the world

“National parks are the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst.”  —Wallace Stegner, 1983

I’ve just finished re-watching America’s Best Idea, the PBS special from 2009. In 1988 I wanted to go see the western National Park and signed up for a trip. Now, I just want to go see all the National Parks; I just want to go see the world. As much as I can. Ken Burns inspired travel.

Following Isabella and My Colorado Adventure, Book Review

Robert Root writes the story of how he followed Isabella Bird’s three-month (Sep-Dec) journey at age 42 through the Front Range of Colorado in 1873. While Bird seeks to understand this place, Root seeks to see what Colorado will mean to him after living most of his life in Michigan. 

He writes about that first view of the Rocky Mountains while driving from the plains; it is impossible to forget. It is a spellbinding moment of beauty and awe – that first glimpse of snow white peaks in the distance. He enters Colorado from the east similar to all migratory Americans, and me too. (17)

I know that view he describes from driving west from Maine in 2004. Like early adventures and explorers Root is lured west by the promise of new beginnings. 

As an outsider, Bird entered each new world with an openness to experience and an intention to record what she encountered. (19) I think this is a similar sentiment for me. I feel like every new trail or new state I move to there is an intention to record it and understand it. 

Bird was labeled high strung along with being an adventurer. In 1873 there were few women adventurers exploring the frontier.  Root writes her health improved while traveling. When home, she “wilted”. Her life was traveling and exploring but she preferred the less traveled parts of the world. She was always looking for the path less traveled, less populated areas. Also, novelty and freedom kept her healthy, Root writes. And this 1873 Colorado  challenged her resourcefulness and curiosity. A place unfettered by duties to her family and society is the world she created for herself. The plains and the makeshift settlements unsettled her but once she reached the canyons and mountains she remarked: 

“the canyon became utterly inaccessible…this was exciting; here was an inner world.” (47)

When she entered Estes Park, she came alive.

 “Mountain fever seized me”, she writes in her journal.

Root writes that she didn’t have much interest in the science of the place; she was interested in the mood it created in her or the circumstances it created for her. (63) I am captivated by her journal writing about the hike to Longs Peak. I just so happen to be reading this section of the book on the plane as I fly from Knoxville to Denver knowing I will see the peak in the distance. I never thought of climbing Longs, even after 10 years of living in Colorado but for some reason, I want to now. Maybe it is the emotion she writes about the trail to the top. I want to experience it the way she does. 

Root writes that Bird worried about writing about beautiful places because you don’t want the masses to find it. Similar to other nature writers, particularly Edward Abbey, she wanted to keep it to herself and unspoiled. 

Root reflects on Bird’s writing and his, and defines memoir and compares it to autobiography “Autobiography is a chronological art, an act of recordkeeping with commentary, not, like memoir, an attempt to revivify a period of the past, make it possible for another person to live the moment too through reading. Autobiography eschews the intimate, the commonplace detail,  the unexceptional private life; memoir embraces them.” (113)

Are you a sticker or a transient? Root answers: “If you stay too long in one place you can no longer  call yourself a transient or a traveler. You’ve become an inhabitant and you spend your time learning how to dwell there, day by day. For most of us, perhaps, this inevitable change is not only expected but anticipated. For Isabella Bird, it was frustrating and unacceptable.” (271)

I’m not a sticker but I’m not transient either – I think, maybe.

Bird came to Colorado on a recommendation of a friend, writes Root. She found more than she expected and didn’t expect to stay longer than she did. She traveled to remote places, places on the edge of the frontier, and avoided settled places. She preferred the wild and less cultivated areas. She went on to other places and wrote books about the other places and never mentioned Colorado again; and she never came back. She wanted to be in motion and test her limits. She retreated from a regulated life of responsibility and obligation and social constraints. 

Root is a nonfiction writer of place who wrote this book after moving to Colorado. He falls in love with the place as he follows Isabella’s travels in the Front Range. 

Like Root, I love to explore new places and find its “distinctive qualities” and learn its natural and cultural histories. “I’ve merely wanted to know where I am…I like who I am when I’m here,” he writes. I can say the same thing about the mountains towns I’ve lived in. I consider my current place, Sevierville a mountain town. 

Root ends his book with a pithy statement about Colorado that rings true to me and my discovery, while living in different places: “I can imagine moving on. I can’t imagine letting go.”

“The mountains are hard to ignore, hard to be complacent about, and yet the sight of them so often startles me, stuns me, as if I’m repeatedly discovering them anew.” (265)

“A Human Touch” (from “5B” soundtrack) 

“A Human Touch” (from the “5B” soundtrack). About the song and collaboration from Billboard magazine. Although this song is from the documentary 5B about San Francisco General Hospital’s AIDS ward during the early ’80s I feel like it’s so appropriate today. It’s been one of my favorite songs since the beginning of the year.

“You can call it a decision. I say it’s how we’re made. There’s no point in shouting from your island proclaiming only Jesus saves. There will always be suffering and there will always be pain but because of it there’ll always be love and love, we know, it will remain.

Everybody gets lonely. Feel like it’s all too much. Reaching out for some connections. Or maybe just their own reflection. Not everybody finds it, not like the two of us. Sometimes all anybody needs is a human touch.

Everybody wants a holiday, everybody wants to feel the sun. Get outside and run around, live like they’re forever young. Everybody wants to be beautiful and live life their own way. No one ever wants to let it go, no matter what they do or say.”

The World is Going Crazy

The economy is plummeting and we are afraid. Afraid of losing our jobs, our homes, our family and more. 

I’m trying not to panic. I’m trying to stay calm. 

I just adopted a dog. I’m only thinking of her, Winnie, my job, my parents, and lastly – training. 

Anne Lamott, my favorite, favorite writer and muse, writes on Facebook today, a repurposed post

“So where do we find grace and light? If you mean right now, try some radical self-care: friendly self-talk, a cup of tea.”

“So how do we shelter in place in the midst of fear and fear? We stick together in our anxiety and cluelessness. We reach out for any help at all; we share any truth and encouragement and humor we come upon. We feed the poor and send money to people who are helping save children around the world. These are good responses. I am going to recommend that we do that today, and tomorrow.”

“Tom Weston taught me decades ago that in the face of human tragedy, we go around the neighborhood and pick up litter, even though there will be more tomorrow. It is another blessed sacraments.”

Today, I will walk to the park across the street and pick up poop. All the poop that appeared when the snow melted. Thanks Anne.

I’m going to work hard. 

I’m going to run.

And I’m going to call my mom.

Hugging your dog helps too.

Failure, Being Daring, The Call to Courage

I’m watching The Call to Courage. One of the first stories Brene Brown tells is how she discovered the above quote from Teddy Roosevelt while obsessing about her TedTalk comments on YouTube. 

She is so awesome. It was perfect timing to watch this documentary since 1) I didn’t quite hit my training miles and 2) life is kicking me in the butt.

What I learned from watching her talk: 

  •  I’m going to show up, take chances and fail – a lot. 
  • “When you choose to live in the arena you are going to get your ass kicked.” Brene Brown
  • Fall, failure, heartbreak – it’s a choice you make every day.
  • If you are brave with your life you will fail. 
  • Vulnerability – the courage to show up when you don’t know what the outcome will be. 
  • Show Up – Be Brave

I’m going to keep showing up in life and training. I’m going to continue to take chances; and try to be vulnerable.