It is nice to see and feel rain again, and remember what it's like to be wet and more importantly how to stay dry.In a community sweat lodge in the early days of this week I shrieked a loud cry in readiness for this adventure. Thank you Andrew for your thoughts and prayers and hospitality once again... and to the Hyatts for bring us all together for a great sweat! Sweat lodges are a spiritual community experience, much like church. Each sweat has been a unique experience for me. It is much easier in a lodge to feel the connection we all have with the world around us. We all prayed, each our own thoughts. I do not pray often, I do not like the word, but it is silly to avoid such an age old tradition of spirituality because of a pious indifference with vocabulary.
When I worked on the Delaware Water Gap (May ish on the trail) as a teenager, I felt a strong connection with the ancestors of the area and of the earth. Separating from that spirituality during my college years has been something I often regret. I hope that I can reconnect with my own spirituality again on the trail.
In the sweat this last week I had many thoughts about the trouble our country and our world are in. I could feel the anguish and pain that the economic collapse had placed on the people close to me in the lodge, and began to wonder why we put such a large and high priority on money in our lives????
Seriously. It affects me writing about this. I want to yell at the top of each mountain Lexi and reach and tell the people to forget their troubles with money. I read a sticker on the dash of a car that read "The meaning of life is to live it". Well people... get out there and stop worrying about your silly greenbacks and start living life again.
how inconsiderate of me to be so anti-sympathetic for the deep rooted troubles in this financial system. how can the people of this world just forget about house payments, food, credit cards, and retirement?? how can i presume to be invisible from the affects of this crisis and the enslavement of debt?
I will yell from the mountain tops (and Lexi will bark) "Wake the (expletive) up people! with your fancy tv's and expensive cars, obsessions with sports and hollywood... we have neglected everything our ancestors have taught us for our fantasies of success... and at the expense of our only home, mother earth. When the effects of our disregard are felt, money and wealth and big tvs will seem sooo silly... maybe then we'll reconsider what it means to be successful and hopefully it won't be too late"
I did not want to use this blog as a pulpit for world views... my view on the world that is. But I read a report that made me very upset. This report stated that a recent poll of Americans found that the enviornmental issues such as climate change have taken a distant back seat (having already been behind gay marriage and abortion(idiotical)) to the perils of our economic crisis.
So when the sharks are gone, the whales all murdered, the green open space covered by concrete, water polluted, skies smogged, and icebergs melted; we'll be thrilled to learn that the green piece of paper in our wallets doesn't mean shit if we're all dead.
In conclusion to this rant... consider this... If it were as simple as giving up TV... never watch it again... just to save the world from these perils... would you do it?
My friends Fraser and Kelly Kersey have started a blog for conversations like this to continue. I encourage anyone who has read this far to join this conversation!
http://twodirtyolives.blogspot.com
G
Well geezz.... Thanks for the plug. We have always shared very similar views on the importance of our environment, economy and morals. I think the more people acknowledge and educate themselves on how to live a life full of sustainable happiness, then better off we will all be. Rants come from frustration with the status quo, and one should not apologize for them. My hope is blogs such as our will help open peoples minds, talk and learn. We are no saints by any means, but I think the more the message is passed along- change can occur. I don't mean the trademarked change the our administration calls for, but genuine change in our own morals and lifestyle. I salute you on your journey and hope you find what you are looking for.
ReplyDeleteWhen you run into people along your long journey, stop and talk to them. Tell them what your searching for, and what you believe in. What we are talking about can only spread viral, not pre-packaged on t.v.