[at-l] On topic if you carry a cell on the trail... OT if you dont... Imp...

[jbullar1 at twcny.rr.com (Jim Bullard)]

At 04:01 PM 7/29/2005 -0400, Jim and/or Ginny Owen wrote:
>When you go home from your 5 or 10 days on the Trail, you likely have 
>little trouble getting back into the ?routine? (or ?rut? as I call 
>it).  Most thruhikers go through a lot longer readjustment process ? 
>commonly as much as 6 months ? and sometimes a lifetime.  The deeper the 
>level of ?disconnection? the longer the readjustment time.  Ask me someday 
>about the CDT.  <g>
>
>You know what the ?disconnection? is, don?t you?  It?s the "right now, 
>right here, present moment experience" that Chainsaw and I were talking 
>about.  It is, as Chainsaw said:

Yeahbut, why does 'quality' of a thru-hike = "disconnection". I go to the 
woods to get connected, to *feel* the universe and my place in it. Having a 
cell phone doesn't affect that one way or another. You sound like those 
Hindu seekers who go to a cave in the mountains and don't even want to see 
the people who bring them food because seeing others will disturb their 
experience (leave the food and water outside the cave. I'll get it after 
you go). And what about all those road crossings and town stops on your 
long hikes? What about calling family/friends from towns on land lines or 
going to the library to catch up on email and post your journal entries? 
I'd think they are bigger reminders of the world outside your hike than a 
cell phone buried in your pack.

One of my teachers said that it was no trick to achieve enlightenment in a 
cave in the mountains. The trick is to do it in the midst of civilization. 
I've felt it (a connection to all that is) sitting, in the woods, running 
and on a bicycle. I haven't yet mastered doing it in the mall and it's 
still easiest in the woods.

So apparently my 'quality' hike is different from your 'quality' hike. Are 
you saying that coming back from a hike feeling "disconnected" from the 
rest of the world is better than coming back feeling at home in my life, 
including the rest of the world?

It sounds to me like you just have a hang up about cell phones. Get over 
it. It's just wires and electronic stuff wrapped in plastic. No one's 
telling you to carry one if you don't want to but when you tell others that 
their hiking experience is as good as yours because they carry a cell phone 
in their pack you are giving power to an inanimate object that it does not 
have. It's all in your head, not in the phone.

Saunterer, walking however the mood strikes him.