[at-l] Various thoughts re the last digest I hiked thru

[icw at esisnet.com (Clark Wright)]

1)  Re Bryson's Book - sometimes us 2-legged, kinda ugly things take 
ourselves way too seriously; the book was a scream to read and, despite 
my vain side's belief that I am above such things, and that it 
trivialized the Trail, and that it missed the deeper meaning . . . 
despite all those kewl, self-aggrandizing things I like to say to puff 
my skinny chest out a bit . . . the truth is, I had such fun reading 
that book in late 2000, that when I finished, I literally walked into my 
senior partner's office and announced that I had to have six months off 
to do some long distance walking . . . and the rest is part of my own 
personal history of a changed life . . . now, don't get me wrong, the 
Bryson book didn't do the changing directly, and certainly did not 
account for the impact the AT and all the awesome people wandering on it 
had on me, but it sure as hell made me laugh and helped jump-start my 
long-dormant ambition to get out there and do it! :)  I also think his 
book re Australia is really fun - kinda makes me want to spend 6 months 
down under - in my spare time, that is! :)

2)  Hitchiker's Guide was a lot of fun, too - good to know someone other 
than Bryson can make me laugh and not be too serious, and yet touch on 
some serious things at the same time! :)

3)  Great posts about determination - I really liked the ABC's one

4)  The Lord God Bird is just an awesome thing to think about - heard 
something on NPR where the origins of that unusual nickname were said to 
lie in the fact that when some of "us sutherners" saw and heard it, we 
were known to say things like "Lord, God, What a Bird!"  Wouldn't it be 
awesome to see one?  . . .  of course, that kinda brings me full circle 
to all the posts about "oh, no - not a movie to publicize the AT and 
ruin it by having too many people come . . ."  ain't that the dilemma of 
lots of environmental issues?  loving things to death from our own 
selfish perspective??  kinda reminds me of a cynical definition of an 
"environmentalist" - the last person to close on their lot in the 
sensitive area! :)  ho-ho . . . in the end, we either figure out how to 
work together to arrive at consensus solutions to things we all want, or 
we just go around fighting and demonizing each other - easy choice if ya 
take a few steps back and do a bit of musing . . . or even Bryson 
amusing! :)

Have a good one,

Thru-Thinker




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