[at-l] Watches on the Trail? And Nimblewill Nomad's Question

[sloetoe at yahoo.com (Sloetoe)]

Date: Tue, 09 Aug 2005 17:21:09 -0400
From: Rafe Bustin <rafeb@speakeasy.net>

I was chatting with a co-worker a few minutes
ago, about this whole cell phone thing.  He
pointed at his wrist and asked, "Do you wear
a watch when you're hiking?"
...
Certainly though if one were looking for
"disconnectedness," why not leave the watch
at home?  I can't think of any hard reasons
to have a watch in the backcountry.
...
### And Nimblewill Nomad prominantly sets the stage for the
Appalachian Impressions dvd with posing the question "Why do
[we] hike?" with "I have no idea."

We hike to get in touch with reality. As one method, hiking
allows us to focus by allowing us to simplify our living
requirements. (And hence minimizing the distractions.) We must
make these deliberate efforts to focus because much of our
"civilization" involves a deluge of interests and demands all
clamoring (simultaneously) for our attention.

These interests and demands -- ALL of them -- are constructs we
put in place to deal with one another, to live in close
proximity, to greet and grade one another in our modern day
castes, to enjoy a liquid-currency economy, to have instant
gratification in leau of a more leisurely paced leisure our
increased work hours may not allow. But all these constructs are
(*ARE*) "constructs" -- and are not reality.

We hike for reality.
We wear a watch for organization.
"Throughhiking is a stage race with entropy." So the more
organized you are/remain, the better your hike will be, allowing
you to hike farther, stop more, see more micro or macro --
whatever your want. But you must start -- and must *remain* --
organized, or you endanger your hike.

Hikers must install enthalpy (organization, an opposite of
entropy) in town, with repack, laundry, food drop,
repair/replace, boot waxing (ahhhhh, the days of olddddd). On
the trail, the organized hiker must forestall problems with
enthalpic attention to hygiene, hypo/hyperthermia,
precipitation, dehydration, nutrition. (Oddly enough, this has
always come out {for me} as "Stay fed, dry, clean, and
organized.") This is a pretty simple life, and one that a watch
assists, not detracts, by allowing us to use our time resource
most efficiently, both through the day hour-by-hour, and in the
longer sense. 

Put another way, going watchless worked for Sidharttha Gutamma
because his agenda was simple: "I sit, I fast, I wait." We, as
peripatetics, walk our talk, and must deal with issues on
supplying our own food, uncertain water supplies, and
night-vision -- cares that the Buddha just didn't have. So we
minimize our time resource allocation issues, and therefore the
distractions from reality, by wearing a watch, minding the
miles, and letting the smiles mind themselves.

groktoe

Spatior! Nitor! Nitor! Tempero!
   Pro Pondera Et Meliora.