[pct-l] Cell phones

[stormygirlie@xxxxxxxxxxx (Christy Andrews)]

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"cell phones are one of the things that I look forward to getting away
from when I hike".
When I talk about hiking the PCT, invariably one of the first or second
questions I get asked is whether I'm taking a cell phone. This surprises me, but
has helped more than ever to realize the degree to which the mobile phone
signifies connection to others. It's fascinating how being "cut off"
stimulates such deep anxiety. "But what if something happens?", is the second
most frequently asked question I get, after my, "No way!" response. A cell
phone on the trail is a tether I can't wait to sever....so that instead I can
concentrate on thoughts like this:

"Shall I not have intelligence with the earth? Am I not partly leaves and
vegetable mould myself?" - Thoreau

Or this:

"It was very queer, especially in dark nights, when your thoughts had wandered
to vast and cosmogonal themes in other spheres, to feel this faint jerk, which
came to interrupt your dreams and link you to Nature again." - Thoreau

The fear of being disconnected is soothed by the realization you are not
separate. I'll never forget an experience I once had while watching ants, of
suddenly feeling so comforted by their presence and so grateful for the
reminder that I wasn't alone. Sounds funny, but it was sublime at the time. I
like realizing my smallness, I like thinking about geologic time and knowing I
am a fleeting mammal walking the earth.... I've had to coach myself through some
gripping fears, feeling vulnerable out in the wild lands can be really scary .
But I want to wrestle with the fear, because insulating  myself from it
doesn't help me grow. Anyways, wouldn't it suck if you had a cell phone, but
it had no signal, and it just mocked you blankly with it's worthless weight?

-Christy

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