[at-l] Developing mental toughness for LD hiking

[carol1944 at brmemc.net (Carol Donaldson)]

Shane said: When I'm in the wilderness is the only time that I feel like everything is going to be OK. It's the only place I feel safe.  Darkness and loneliness 
are my dearest friends.  My danger isn't going home early, my danger is 
never going home...because I am home...and the house is just some kind of abomination.
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I would be curious to learn the genealogy of Thru Hikers -- what part of the world did their forebears come from?  What major "trait" do Thru Hikers or other Long Distance Hikers have?  Is there a genetic link?  Can a line be drawn from the past to the present?

Since my fifth great Uncle was Daniel Boone, and I have a gg or gggrandmother who was Native American and 'passed for white' -- I know where my genetic trait comes from.  I have one cousin who also has this trait.  And I have a houseful of cousins who do not have it.   My son has it, my daughter doesn't.  The only reason I think my mother has it is because of a remark she made to me a few years ago.  She repressed any wild ideas she may have had after she married.   My Dad definitely doesn't have it.   I can't say if my grandparents had the trait.  Both sets lived until I was an adult.   And I never thought to ask when they were alive.  But, maybe my Mom's Mother had the trait.  One day I asked her if she was happy.  She said "I am content."  She never told me if she was happy.  Don't know if contentment is a byproduct of the trait or not, but I'm guessing it is.  A person learns to adjust to life each day without making excuses or explaining why she's made a Paradigm Shift.  Sounds like 'life on a long distance hike' to me.
~~~~Coosa~~~
http://auntiecoosa.blogspot.com
"(I)f the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in very fact an American and nothing but an American . . . .
There can be no divided allegiances here. Any man who says he is an American but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag . . . . 
(W)e have room for but one language here, and that is the English language . . . and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."  - Teddy Roosevelt, 1907