Re: [at-l] ?Disconnection? or ?Connection? ?

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

>At 05:54 PM 8/15/2005 -0400, Jim and/or Ginny Owen wrote:
>Recently there was some discussion on at-l about mental/emotional 
>"disconnection" with respect to hiking the Trail. And there's apparently a 
>large degree of confusion about it.  So let's see if we can throw some 
>light on the subject. ...clipped...


Interesting, thoughtful and an extent I agree, but I have some questions:
    * To what extent do you think that those thru-hikers who have a 
difficult transition back into their off-trail lives were 'disconnected' 
from their lives before the hike and chose to hike as a relief valve for 
their frustrations? In other words, how many were already psychologically 
alienated from their pre-hike life and merely going through the motions for 
the appearance of connection?

    * I have observed that many of those who have difficulty returning to 
their pre-hike lives end up moving, changing careers, leaving SOs, etc. Is 
it possible that that rather than directly creating change in the hiker, 
the hike, by virtue of providing an opportunity to step back from a less 
than fulfilling situation, allows the hiker to gain a detached perspective 
which leads to new choices within the context of what they really wanted 
from life all along but failed to see? (You know, the old can't see the 
woods because of all the trees thing)

    * Is it possible that for some, instead of changing position on the 
continuum you propose, it is rather a question of expanding their comfort 
zone?
    Perhaps this: Civilization 
----Comfort<<<<<<<<Hiker>>>>>>>>>>Comfort------ Nature
    Rather than: Civilization 
-------------------[Hiker]--------------------- Nature
    * Since we are to an extent generalizing, how does one evaluate 
another's "connection to nature"? Experience is very subjective and we all 
tend to interpret what others tell us of their experience by filtering it 
through our frame of reference. I'm thinking of times I was told how 
painful a medical procedure was by someone else only to find it 
uncomfortable but not really painful at all. So how does one 'know' that a 
another's connection to nature is here post hike:
       Dan Dayhiker
      beginning of hike   end of dayhike
Civilization -------|------|------------------------------------------- Nature

and not here:

       Dan Dayhiker
      beginning of hike                                  end of dayhike
Civilization -------|-----------------------------------|-------------- Nature

It is my experience from reading journals and talking to other hikers that 
"connection to nature" is rarely a topic of discussion and when it is, it 
is often poorly expressed. So how can we possibly evaluate it?

Inquiring minds and all that.



Jim Bullard
http://hiking.jimbullard.org
"...time is not money, it is an opportunity to live before you die." Donald 
Culross Peatty