[at-l] Topics of discussion

[redhead at hack.net (redhead@xxxxxxxx)]

Quoting "L. Clayton Parker" <lparker@cacaphony.net>:
<snip>
The journey becomes the reason, or for those who don't go
> through this transformation, they either quit, or the journey becomes
> hell on earth. Either way, the journal recedes to the background.
> 
> You are much more likely to get a good journal by picking up shelter
> logs than by reading what is posted online.
> <snip>

I'd have to say that there are many excellent exceptions. Datto's journal, for 
instance. Hot Air from Dragons Breath. Then The Hail Came. Chomp. Yogi. There 
are actually a number of excellent journals out there, you just have to weed 
thru a lot of the ones like you described to find them. I've found that the 
ones I've enjoyed the most are the journals that describe the mental 
transformations, the types of things they think about, the ones that don't 
gloss over the hard times. The ones that are truly written as a journal, for 
the hiker alone, not edited for the audience that reads them, and express pain, 
disappointment, doubt, joy and amazement in equal measures. The ones written 
with honesty, even when the honesty might not put the writer in the best of 
light. Not everyone who has an incredible journey quits writing. For some, with 
the discoveries they make along the way, about themselves, about the Trail, 
about the world, are practically bursting with the need to write it down. 

Those journals are reason enough to slog through the mundane ones for me.

Red