[at-l] Boredom (was Bryson's bookl)

[rafe.bustin@verizon.net (Raphael Bustin)]

--

[Rogene Beers:]

>     You took the words right out of my mouth.  Well done.
>I guess in some ways that's why I like to draw for my own enjoyment.  It
>brings the beauty into a permanent  memory.
>Pictures are fine for this but taking the time to sit and sketch soaking in
>the sounds, smells, surroundings  into your whole being and learning about
>each blade of grass brings back the sweetness and insaitable desire to learn
>of a child.
>     I've only hiked a few miles on the At but I doubt if I could ever get
>bored.


Will you still make this claim after 2160 miles of AT?  I'd be
very curious.


>I look at trees when the leaves are gone just to see the intericate
>branching out of the limbs and marvel to it's maker  <snip>


Oh, I do envy you and Ginny the ability to fill your mind(s)
with interesting material while on the trail.  Me, I need a nice
view once or twice a day, at the very least.  A tough climb
without a view is a torment.

When I'm hiking, I often find the intellectual stimulation lacking.
Or rather, I find that there are no answers to the questions
that arise, nor the time or the means to pursue the answers.
I am no closer to resolving the issues of my own life, and not
that much closer to understanding the mysteries of nature,
either.  Too much time to ponder un-answerable questions.

In 1990 when I started in Springer, I naively packed along
three small Audubon paperback guides -- one on flowers,
one on birds, one on plants, I think.  Not too heavy -- maybe
a pound or so for the set.  I had this idea that I would teach
myself about some of this stuff as I walked to Katahdin.

I rudely discovered within the first couple of days that a)
there was no time for such education on the trail, not if I
was to reach Springer that year, and b) this was excess
weight that I couldn't afford to carry.  The Audubon guides
were mailed home from Suches.

So now, years later, I can identify a Hemlock, but the
Hemlocks are dying almost everywhere, and it just saddens
me to tears.  Why couldn't it have been rhododendron?
Lord knows we have enough of that.

Silly mind games -- songs, poems, talking to oneself, making
up conversations -- oh, I'm quite familiar with that.  It does
indeed feel like at times like I'm regressing into a childlike,
infantile mind set -- but I don't generally regard that as a
good thing.

Debating rice vs. noodles for supper?  Done that, too,
but I don't see it as something terribly positive or useful,
nor is it something I'd do in the real world.  Debating PUDs
and the nature of the Trail...  now that is where it gets really
dangerous, because the next question is "Why Am I Doing
This," and the wrong answer to that (or failure to answer)
can mean the end of the hike.

I'm overstating the case, probably.  If I didn't get something
very positive from hiking and walking in the woods, I wouldn't
do it.  Even so, it's often a major challenge to keep my mind
occupied on meaningful matters.


rafe b.
aka terrapin
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