[at-l] Re: Staying on Topic

[buchanan@gtcinternet.com (Susan Buchanan)]

----- Original Message -----
From: <Snodrog5@aol.com>
>
> I never bothered to subscribe to TA-L.
> The basic premise was tainted in that you had to buy into the
> falsehood that "the at-l doesn't care about the Trail."

That's the reason that I also didn't subscribe.  I don't talk a whole lot on
this list, but I appreciate the community and support it provides.  It has
helped me reconnect in an active way with a long time love of mine (after
spending too many years married to a man who never understood it and could
never seem to make time for it - and me too unable to do it anyway without
him, for whatever reason that I can't understand now that I'm so much more
independent minded <g>).   It has been 30 years since my first backpack trip
(across the Grand Canyon - and I'm only 44 yrs old now), and 25 years since
my first week-long LNT based wilderness experience (in the 3 Sisters
Wilderness in Oregon).  [OK, so I *do* carry TP with me now (wasn't allowed
to for that week) but I also pack it out with me.]  My Dad, who got his PhD
in Environmental Education, instilled certain things into me that will never
leave me about this earth and our responsibility as stewards of it.  I still
do try to live and hike by those principles.  I do care.

But I've also learned in life that the best way to lead others is, first by
example, second by encouragement of what they *are* doing that is right, but
not by beating them over the head about what you perceive as a lack in them.
I felt like any time one of the "trail advocacy" topics came up, there were
those who were just waiting to beat over the head anyone who didn't totally
do/say/think the exact way they did about it.  No sense of encouragement for
steps taken in the right direction.  No cheering for positive things.  Left
too many of us unwilling to even get into the conversation at all because we
just knew we'd get wumped-up-the-side-of-the-head as soon as we did.  Too
much like the ol' hellfire-and-damnation type of preaching.  No thanks.
[hmmm - maybe that's why so many people quit going to church?  not that they
didn't believe, but that they were tired of being wumped on?  errr - sorry,
just a mental sideline there]  Anyway, with the trail advocacy stuff, it
wasn't really a problem with the topic, but rather with how people were
treated when the topic came up.  And when you're just being preached *at* -
there's not much room for conversation anyway, is there?

suz