[at-l] OT - Very Long - Delete at will - MacKay? no topic, off topic, whatever

[DaRedhead@aol.com (DaRedhead@aol.com)]

I applied the rules to this one. I thought about it for hours after I wrote 
it. It sat there on my screen begging me to either send it or delete it.  I 
decided that since I haven't posted much in forever, except maybe HATT stuff 
(speaking of which, have YOU picked out your HATT section yet?? - if not, 
quickly go to http://friends.backcountry.net/hatt and do so - 'cause if 
everyone on the list hiked a little section, the whole AT would get done that 
weekend! :) that I could get away with this.

16 emails from one person in 48 hours - there was a time when someone made a 
big deal about the frequency of emails from one person.  But geesh - a few 
days ago it was all about hiking, filtering, packs, mail drops - stuff like 
that, getting ready to hike and a very few personal funnies.  I come back, 
and I have over 400 messages, AFTER I deleted all the spam, and they are 
mostly list posts.  Well.

Can I make a few suggestions?? (by the way, RnR, I don't have remote control 
over all the listers, I don't even post that much anymore, and I don't speak 
for the list, just in case you want to use any of those things in your 
response as usual - and right now I'd look downright silly in a cheer leaders 
outfit)

More hiking.

That's my cure.  A planned weekend hiking trip didn't pan out - next weekend 
is Trail Fest, where hiking for me and Cassy will probably consist of me 
convincing her to hike up to Lovers Leap, since last time she was there we 
climbed it inadvertently. (see archives from April 2000? ;))

Anyways - I wanted to say more than anything that the few days before I 
wasn't here was refreshing.  And coming back to more of the same stuff that 
made me insane with longing to put a stop to, with no practical way, pissed 
me off.

Come ON, folks.  MacKaye? Read it. Enjoy it. Appreciate him for the part he 
played in what we all love today, the TRAIL.  But unless a few of you are 
holding something back, NONE of you hung out with him, NONE of you know 
anything ABOUT him except what he's written or what he's done or what was 
without doubt written with BIAS about him after his death.  Stop presuming to 
interpret that, okay?  I don't know about you, but it'd pretty much piss me 
off if I did something that I deemed worth doing and years after my death 
people started using me for their own agendas and interpreting what I said 
their own way with no knowledge of what I meant.  

I'm not saying that RnR is wrong in his interpretation. I'm not saying ANYONE 
is wrong.  I'm saying that to debate on this list what he meant is pointless 
and counterproductive.  (and it all comes down to interpretation - if you 
know anything about the bible, or religion, its how well humans can interpret 
something to suit their own beliefs or needs)  It's a great conversation for 
two trail friends to have someday in person - where they can laugh at each 
others lack of ability to understand their own point of view, hoist a pint or 
a coffee cup and walk away friends, knowing that while they don't share the 
same beliefs, they can respect and like each other.  It's not a great topic 
here anymore.  I say anymore because while discussion of his intentions is 
fair game, him being a public figure, whats the point?  Unlike WF or Warren, 
he's dead.  So we can't go ask him what he meant, and to presume you 
interpreted what he meant correctly is arrogant, if nothing else.  Nobody on 
this list believes that the Trail is bad. Everyone on the list is here 
because they love the Trail.  NOBODY on this list, as far as I have heard, 
has personal knowledge of his beliefs, and all they have to go by is writing, 
some by him, and a lot by other people supposing they know what he meant.  
It's all about interpretation.

I choose to interpret what he said and what he did, or helped to do, as 
helping the Trail to exist.  I choose to love that Trail. (Well, maybe I 
don't choose that, it just is, and I can't seem to help it :)).  I value him 
as much as I do all the people who concieved of and built the Trail, and put 
into play the politics that would come to support a vision of the Trail, 
whether it's his vision or not.  Whatever their vision, those early people 
who put it all in motion deserve our heart felt thanks. Whether THEY agreed 
with each other, and whether THEY agreed on that vision - whether WE agree on 
HOW to hike the Trail, or what it's purpose is - don't we all here agree that 
we love the Trail that resulted? Hell, love it?  It's more like an obsession, 
its a life choice, it's a thing that 99.9 percent of the population of the 
world doesn't get - and that's being generous with facts and figures. And 
understanding that - haven't we always put our differences in religion, 
politics, race, sex and sexual orientation aside in that love of the Trail?  
Isn't that what makes hikers different?  That we can, without thought, 
embrace everyone who loves this Trail we love, regardless of all that?  Isn't 
that why total strangers who don't hike go out of their way to help hikers?  
Because they sense that difference?

I don't know about you guys - but prolonged and undesired absence of the 
Trail has made me cranky.  Reading about and even being around the people 
that started their NOBO this year - it's two parts jealousy, and one part 
envy.  Or maybe that's backwards :)  

All I KNOW is - I love hikers.  I am a hiker.  You are a hiker (why else 
would you be here?)  You either have suffered from the desire to hike for 
years, or are just discovering this disease - this incurable disease - to 
hike.  Even those listers who have already succumbed, who aleady hiked the 
Trail NOBO or SOBO, some both - they too are still stricken with the disease 
of the Trail.  They will run out west to hike other long trails.  They will 
hike the AT repeatedly.  They will do anything, selling their houses, their 
cars, quitting their jobs, leaving their family - whatever it takes to hike.

MacKay? I'm not saying he wasn't important.  I'm saying that he accomplished 
what he did, which is more than most of us will accomplish in our lifetimes.  
Whether what he wanted is in keeping with what the Trail is today? That's one 
of those philosophical discussions, and since it's been hounded here over the 
past few months, can't we just all agree that MacKay existed and the Trail 
exists and leave it at that? Stop arguing?  What purpose will it serve for 
all of us to rise up suddenly, all 700+ of us, and proclaim that MacKay's was 
the better vision?  (uh, assuming all 700+ of us could agree on a weekend 
hiking trip, let alone that someone had the answer, all by himself?)

I'm just here to throw a dose of reality into this theoretical discussion.  
And believe it or not, even though all those MacKay opinions were not 
considered as such when you rendered them, they ARE all theoretical.  He IS 
dead.  Unless you knew him personally, you have nothing to add to this 
discussion, so please don't be tempted to tell me YOUR INTERPRETATION of what 
he meant the Trail to be.  We can all read here (a blessing no one 
appreciates unless they don't have it).

Guys! (well, and girls too, but this PC stuff is a pain sometimes)

Can we just say that a) MacKay was instrumental, along with a few other 
folks, in creating our Trail?  Can we say that whatever vision he had, we are 
only assuming from published accounts, notoriously in favor of the people 
still living when said accounts are given, are what he wanted?  Can we also 
say that we all love the Trail, and that this list, while it's a great place 
to get any advice you need on gear or the AT, isn't the anointed body to 
determine MacKays intentions?

Can we say, in short, that we are here because we choose to be?  And that a 
love of hiking brought us here? And that no matter how we feel about the 
founders of that Trail we love, we're gonna stick around?  Because we have 
to? Because we love it, and there really is no better fix for the Trail, when 
you can't hike it, than to be with people who want to be where you want to 
be, and understand why you do?

In other words - smile, folks.  You love something not too many people 
understand, and you found your way here.  Those of you who have been here - 
relax.  More people that love what we love have shown up.  And for those of 
you who think debating what the founders of the Trail thought, most now dead, 
is fun, go start an alt.deadAT.legends.group - 

We can all debate what we think dead people meant.  But only because they are 
dead, and so we state our beliefs with certainty, knowing that they won't 
come back and debate us on whether that's what they meant.  So accept that 
all you have is an opinion, not fact - and . . . well gee . . . you all get 
the point, I'm sure.

Red - who hasn't posted in awhile and probably won't for awhile - but never 
leaving this group of people that are the ONLY ones that understand why I'm 
driving hundreds of miles and stop next to the blazes, to touch them and wish 
all who pass them well.  




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