[at-l] growth, or tales of courage Part I

[gaudet@mediaone.net (Arthur Gaudet)]

Interesting discussion that I'd like to expand a bit. In '97, '98 and 
'00, while on the trail I met women who wanted to talk with me about 
their concern. Someone, a man, was making their hike uncomfortable 
for them. No harm came to them but their trip was affected because 
they had to deal with an unexpected issue, their safety on the trail.

In each instance I listened and offered what help I could. After 
talking it out each woman decided to take charge of the situation and 
thanked me for listening. In some cases it meant that the woman was 
going to jump ahead in order to get away from the constant contact 
(or uncertainty of when she might again see him). In all cases this 
was hiker-hiker interaction.

In other cases the woman took charge in another way, and spoke to the 
hiker directly. My advice was to do it when others were around, in 
order to add safety to the situation.

It's impossible to know the nature of the threat in each case, 
without having witnessed it. In my opinion it's not terribly 
important as long as each woman found a solution and acted upon it, 
in order to get past this particular challenge, and to get on with 
her trip.

Such is the nature of growth. It occurred to me that these women were 
all breaking new territory, for themselves, in their ways of dealing 
with men. Being on their own created a structure for new experiences, 
and since men are such a large part of it, some of the lessons were 
bound to involve male-female relationships.

I'm pretty sure that the men are getting lessons also, from all the 
powerful women on the trail.

see part II
-- 
Arthur D. Gaudet         	"Is walking down called hiking, too?"
(RockDancer)  	                 -heard at the top of Mt Washington, NH