Really Really long: [at-l] This 'n that....

[kahley7@ptd.net (kahley)]

At 06:45 PM 12/21/01 -0500, Steve Adams wrote:
>I'm not a very religious person, not in terms of organized religion, but I 
>pray I never end up, at the end of a long day hiking, sharing a shelter 
>for the night with Baltimore Jack and Jim Owen.

Hmmm...can't go there.  Maybe if you actually knew
either of these guys you might change your mind.
I've known Jim for a couple years and I am getting
to know Jack.  Number one, they are both passionate
people, which is a thumbs up in my book.  And they
have about a million miles <b> of trail stories and
experiences as well.

JIm has hiked all three of the long trails and has a need
to hike that is hard for me to grasp but fascinating none
the less.  He wants to be hiking across Canada or to
Alaska.   Have you read The Thruhiking Papers?
I swear Jim has probably forgot more about hiking than
I'll ever know.

Jack spends almost every season on the Trail and a LOT
of his time off season, helping people prepare for their thru.
He has been on scene for many of the best AT-tales that
most of us only hear about.

To spend a night in a shelter with these two hikers is
something I'd hike very very hard and long (fighting allllll
distractions <g>) to enjoy.

This dust up was started with the mis-interpretation of
the initials BJ.  The incidents that Jim referred to actually
happened and were relevant to the discussion.  It was a
misundersanding that scratched old conflicts.

I bet money it would not have happened if we were at a
real campfire rather than a cyber one.  For sure, that
last exchange could have gone private mail, but it didn't.
The newbees got a look at the other side of the family
reunion.  Cause that's what this is, a family.  And families
aren't perfect in my experience.  They squabble and
sometimes are nasty to each other but that doesn't mean
anything more here than it does at any other gathering.
Nether of these guys deserves anyone wagging a finger
in their face in public.  I have learned  that when things get hot,
a private note will dampen the fire.  Public notes seem to
just pour on the fuel.  I mean it's human reaction to want to
defend yourself in the same forum if you feel you have been
wronged.  It may not be pretty to watch but, it is human.

In that vie, somebody please explain to me why, if it
disturbs someone to read the peripheral issues, why do it?
I mean all posts have a subject line which, if we label them
right, gives a good indication to the subject.  Or even if we
don't, after a sentence or two, people should be able to
guage what's going on.  If it's something that is going to
upset you, if it's a subject more serious than you came
hear to read, may I suggest that you move on to another
subject?

Personally, I'm not into team sports so I don't enjoy the
play off time posts about same.  I'm not into the LOTR
movie so I don't read them.  It pretty easy for me to ignore
them.  I guess I could write a post that says how much I
don't want to read them but I'm not sure why I would do that.
My friends are multi-dimensional and if they want to
occasionally share their passion for something other than
the AT, as long as it doesn't preclude me from my AT fix,
it's no skin off my nose.

Like a campfire, if where I'm sitting is suddenly engulfed in
smoke, I just move to the other side where the air is clearer.

If we are not free to share our whole selves with each other.....
our love of horses and dogs, of Auburn or GATech, of our kid's
weddings and our parents illnesses....if we are to be restricted
to only the good things in a pretty terrible time, we become
a phony machine.  We'd be some sort of cyber automaton,
dispensing gear advice, and trail stories on demand.  How long would that 
last.  Machines don't meet you on the trail
with watermelon in July or drive a hundred miles to get you
to an airport.

As it is now and has been for years, we share our love and
our selves with our friends.  We embrace new people as
friends because we have learned that they may well become
our friends.  We try to accept each other, warts and all because
we want, enjoy, need the company of "kin"....of hikers.

There is another issue that I'd like to toss out here.  We welcome
newbees all the time.  To one extent or another, we seek to serve
their need for info, encouragement and advice.  We bond.
Sometimes the bond holds and people return after their thru.

Sometimes it doesn't and sometimes that hurts.  As i said, we
are real people, not a machine, not an AT info search engine.
I miss JPJ and still wonder about Erehwon and Erehwyna.
There are holes in my heart where missing friends used to be.

Year after year we make friends and loose friends....sorta sad
actually.  Personally speaking, the only thing that keeps me here
is the friends that remain.  I need their strength to keep me sane
in a world that doesn't understand why I want to walk away from it.

In exchange for their strength and wisdom and willingness to
share, I accept that my friends are real people with real opinions
and passions that extend beyond the Trail, (but often secure the Trail) .
Most of us try as stay reasoned and avoid the rhetoric.  We try
and keep it nice but....hey....sh*t happens...we're not perfect

The human side of AT-L, the thing that keeps it vibrant and
alive rather than a machine that responds to most questions with
"check the FAQ" or "read the archives"....instead, willing to usually
answer newbee questions with the same enthusiasm this time as
we did the previous dozen times it was asked.

OK..so Jim and Jack had a nasty dust up.  It's like an accident on
the freeway.  Don't gawk if you don't want to remember the gore.
You know it's not gonna be pretty before you get close enough to see
the details so just don't look.  It is not the first time and probably not
the last time that there is a problem when we multi dimensional
people try to communicate in this one dimensional cyber environment.

OK.this is way to much for a Saturday morning.  The sun is shining
and i have to work this afternoon.as usual...YUCK!  Outta here...