[at-l] Do hiker have more hunaity? was "women's" issues

[janl2@mindspring.com (Jan Leitschuh)]

I wish this were true. I used to believe this as well:

> I don't think it's possible for real hikers to be abusive
> people.  Once you have a certain level of contact with the
> natural world, you gain a level of real humanity that is not
> possible to achieve living in a city in our culture.
> 
I agree that city living is several "layers" away from the natural world,
and a certain erosion of respect for life occurs. 

Our vast food supply comes in neat little packages, already deboned,
sometimes even cooked - no messy hunting or scaling or neck-wringing. Crowds
of people urge one to "pull inside" and avoid eye contact, so as to preserve
a modicum of personal space. Water comes out of a sink, heat comes out of a
wall, and one flush, a good handwash with soap and business is finished.

My friend Laura who thru-hiked last year got off the Trail and traveled to
Penn station. She said everyone was on cell phones, or hurrying, or looking
away. She found herself craving eye contact, and the contrast was enormous. 
Seeing only two or three people for a day or a week or a month makes us
social creatures happy and welcoming, helpful and eager to connect.

As I said, I used to believe that hikers were "kinder, gentler" breed for
the same reasons you do. 
After all, hikers are getting out of the "little boxes" society needs us to
be in in order to feel safe, ordered  and uphold the consensus trance. Going
off to hike for six months is not typical lemming behavior. An awe of nature
and the compelling nature of reality (as opposed to ideas in the head) is
right at hand. I grew very excited when I discovered hikes and hiking.

> I don't think it's possible for real hikers to be abusive
> people. 

That said, I now have seen that hikers are just like any other group of
people, city dwellers or not. 
I have met a few saints, a few truly scary ones, and the rest fall somewhere
in between, with various shades of abuse and kindness. Same as anywhere
else. 
The higher order of respect and humanity I thought I would find in hikers is
not spread wider than found in the general population. I wish this were so,
but it is not my experience. There is just as much sniping, aggressiveness,
shoulder-clacking, ego-bumping, offense-taking, "I-me-mine" and general
defensiveness in hikers as anywhere.

In addition, hikers aside, there have been warlike cultures that lived very
close to the land, water and  "big skies." Only their technology kept them
from being more destructive and murderous than they were. The Mongol, Viking
and Apache cultures spring to mind.

I don't know what the softening and humanizing element is, it MAY BE
exposure to the grandeur of nature, but the human ego is still the
gatekeeper. 

Aye, there's the rub...

Every one has to make a choice whether to soften and let nature" in" and
give up "better than" - or to retain their separateness and the illusion of
superiority in order to feel okay about themselves. Everybody makes these
choices, moment to moment. Everybody.

So, if I raise a glass to anything, it is the rare "gatekeeper" with the
courage to relax and let nature perform its softening, respectful magic.
These are my heroes and I take inspiration from them. A few even hike.
 
-- 
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    	Jan Leitschuh Sporthorses Ltd.

	Website:  
	http://www.mindspring.com/~janl2/index.html

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