[at-l] Re: Long Question

[rdudley@po.father.com]

Good Morning,

For some reason I cannot sleep this morning, it is 3:30, so here I am 
reading almost a hundred e-mail messages from the AT-L.  I feel that 
I should make a comment about Da Redhead's question.  First was that 
the post was posted to the list and that a number of people on the 
list have some very strong opions about the subject.  I really have 
not seen a post that I would classify as an attack, just an 
expression of opions.  I too have an opion about Da Redheads 
question, which I will express shortly.  The bottom line is that she 
had requested responses to her question, and she got them, the good, 
the bad and the ugly.  Red, the decission is yours, do want you want 
to do.  Some people will damn you, and some people will praise you.

You may now hit the delete button.  Twelve days after my marriage to 
my wife (We celebrated our 29th wedding aniversery on Monday) I was 
shipped out to Vietnam.  We managed to spend a couple of days in 
Hawaii, but for all pratical purposes I did not se her for a year.  
Several years later when I moved from the University of Georgia to 
the University of Guelph (In Canada), we were seperated for 3 months. 
 The last big seperation was when we moved back to the states and my 
son need medical attention.  The hardest seperation comes this fall 
when my daughter leaves for college.  The family is the most 
important thing in my life.  We have money problems, my son is a 
diabetic, and my wife suffers from severe depression.  My daughter 
calls us the poster family for dysfunctional families.  Yet every 
member of my family knows that they are loved and respected by every 
other member.  I feel guilty that I am taking a whole week this year 
to hike the SNP and probably taking two weeks off to hike in New 
England.  I have had to talk to the family about my plans and hear 
there imput.  I know that I will not be able to do a throught hike 
until my son enters college (2 years from now) and maybe not even 
then.

I do not have that burning desire to hike the AT in one trip.  I 
think in part because I have already had my rite of passage (Nam).  I 
do not need to do anything to make me a better person.  In many ways 
I am like Hopeful, I work at a rotten job, I come home and try to 
change the world a small piece at a time.  And to keep my sanity I 
either hit the trails or canoe a river.

Bob Dudley
Grey Owl
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