Summer Anonymity

Summer...

It's Monday.  It's January.  It's cold.  Kind of.  But most importantly it is just one of those days.  Normally I have three classes on Monday, two of which are taught by the same teacher, but today two of those are canceled.  I found that dragging myself out of bed for 1 class, just one, at 9 AM was painstaking to say the least.  It doesn't help that I stayed up until 3 AM discussing backpacking trips for the summer and looking through the Colorado Trail guidebook, but can you blame me?

If you are from Colorado and are part of the outdoors community you know about the Colorado Trail.  If you aren't, well you most likely still know about it.  It is 486 miles of trail that takes the adventurer from Denver to Durango without the need of roads, vehicles, or for that matter civilization in general.  It can be a dangerous trail, but what if life without a little bit of danger?

We live in a dangerous world.  A world where being available 24/7 is the norm.  We live in a world where facebook, tumblr, blogs, google, wikipedia and twitter have allowed us the comfort of knowing everything that everyone is doing at any given moment, and the notoriety of everyone else knowing everything that we say, think, do, or believe in.  To some people this is their definition of comfort.  You are never alone.  To those extroverts out there, i know who you are, don't worry I am one too, this is perfect.  Spending time alone is scary, boring, and ultimately down right terrifying to some people.  It used to be for me.  Yet something has clicked in the last few months, and more and more I find that I can spend time by myself, and you know what?  The world goes on.  The earth continues it's rotation, the sun rises and falls behind our Rocky Mountains, and everything is alright.  Thank God right?

Banksy, I'm sure you know who he is, created a piece of art recently that is the embodiment of my philosophy for this summer.  It is simple.  A T.V. with a blank screen.  On the screen the words: "In the future everyone will be anonymous for 15 minutes".  Simple right?  And certainly much different from Andy Warhol's original statement: "In the future everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes".

Alright, you got me.  It is the future, to some extent, and not everyone has had their fifteen minutes of fame.  It is certainly easy to argue that we have all had our 15 minutes in the spotlight.  No doubt about that.  "Hello facebook, I just broke up with my girlfriend.  Let the comments begin.  It's my birthday tomorrow.  How many people will write Happy Birthday on my wall.  Gee. I hope its over 200."  That spotlight sure can be bright.  Am I right?

So back to the original subject.  This summer.  The Colorado Trail, and of course day dreaming.  I am going to do a couple solo trips this summer.  Yes, I know it is dangerous.  No, I don't care that you think it is dangerous.  Yes, I will leave plans and an itinery with someone.  None of that is the point.  The point is that in the future everyone will experience 15 minutes of anonymity.  What if I don't want that though.  What if I want more than that.

Well, I do want more than that.  Last semester I found myself on the verge of a mental breakdown.  Seriously, I mean that.  I realized there were about a billion contributing factors (yes I know, exaggerating like that is unbecoming of an English Major).  Ok, at least it felt like a billion.  Part of the problem was my constant interaction with so many people in so many mediums.  Part of it was always being worried I was missing out on one thing or another (Let's be honest, there isn't much going on at 3 AM on a Monday morning), and part of it, which possibly gives merit to the whole situation, was some serious stuff going on in my life and the lives of friends around me.  So I removed myself, backed off, and found myself returning to the simple things in life.

All of this is to say two things.  One.  I am going to go backpacking alone this summer.  15 minutes of anonymity will never satisfy my thirst.  Two.  Consider experiencing some sort of anonymity for yourself.  Even if it is for a mere 15 minutes.  You won't regret it.  In fact you may even find that you are enjoying yourself.  Create an adventure out of it.  After all.  Who can say no to a good adventure right?

Signed,
     Anonymous

The Tempest

Or, do i dare say it, are we something more?

     In the event that mankind suddenly realizes we have been sleeping through a storm, which at it's best is a call to arms, and at it's worst a means to an end which leaves the heavens void of human souls; we will all place our feet on the cold barren ground, bow our heads as if to avert our eyes, and walk in the direction of what we can only hope is the path of least resistance. I believe that in our first moments of waking our question will not be: What is this storm which has me in it's grasp?  Merely understanding that we are in danger will suffice. Our first question will in all honesty, if honesty remains among a generation bred to deceive, be: In which direction must I travel in order to escape?  We are, after all, creatures of habit and our tendency is to search for escape.  Escape comes easily in most cases, and in this storm it will be our "best" option.  If for a moment we consider the possibility of responding to this call to arms, and in turn march forward, we may find that the battle is the kind that arouses an awareness within ourselves; an awareness that we have never wanted to accept as real or true.  If that moment were to truly exist, it would be swiftly denied as a flight of fancy, a dream, a mere delusion of the possibility of heroism, and we would find ourselves once more in flight.  After all, we are not brought up to believe in hero's.  We are a generation of anti-hero's, meant for nothing more than apathy.
     Or, do i dare say it, are we something more?

   
    

A Simple LIfe

1st Timothy 4:12

"Don't let anyone think less of you because you are young.  Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity."

     This was, and I suppose, still is my Confirmation verse.  It was given to me as a verse to live my life by when i was in 8th grade.  To the members of my church, the pastor, and my mentor this was a meaningful and important thing, but as I remember it, the verse was just another thing I had to memorize so that I could get through Confirmation class and get this crap over with.  Let's be honest. I was naive, maybe even ignorant then, and if we are going to be even more honest I am just as naive and ignorant as the day that i stood before my congregation and recited that verse word for word; not caring what it meant for them, or more importantly what it meant for me.

     Fast forward nearly ten years, and I am sitting here in front of my computer on a cold January night.  Boredom has forced me to think about my life more than I have in quite some time.  These nights can be disastrous for me, but tonight I think I have realized something new.  These past couple of weeks a spirit of adventure has been instilled upon my heart.  Lately I find myself thirsting for the unexpected, the different and the exciting; and I have gotten a taste of all of these things in the past two weeks.  Monday morning i woke up and made a split second decision to head to the mountains with my two roommates.  As they set to work for the day I loaded my backpack with a couple Peanut Butter and Nutella sandwiches and headed off into the woods on my own.

     I headed up a winding mountain road for a quarter of a mile before arriving at the Longs Peak trail head, there I began my journey towards the Estes Cone to get some good shots of Longs.  The forest reveals a strikingly different picture of self in these Winter months.  Trees are covered in the white fluffy stuff, the trail is slick and snowpacked, and every step takes twice as much effort as you might expect, and it is breathtaking.  The silence is overwhelming, and the beauty leaves you in awe.  As I walked I watched chipmunks scurry across snow, I heard birds chirping, creeks running frantically under layers of ice, and I listened closely for the sound of trees shaking snow from their branches and bristling at the cold mountain air. It was then and there that I knew I was completely and wonderfully free.

     After about two miles I came upon a small meadow, in the summer months sure to be teaming with activity, but now windblown and shrouded in snow.  I turned and looked to the South only to see the very top of the Diamond, looming, reaching into the sky cast in the warm orange glow of the early morning sun.  It was at this moment that i realized something terrible.  I had forgotten what it feels like to be truly, awesomely, and fully alive.

"Be an example to all believers...in the way you live"

     At this moment it hit me.  I have been an example in the way I live.  But, I have been an incredibly poor example in the way that I live.  So this moment right here.  This moment of beauty, captured only by my eyes (I was too lazy to pull my camera out of my backpack) is the moment that i resolved to live right, to live well, and to live by standards that i set for myself long ago.  It is my hope that I can live a simple life.  Not a simple minded life, but a simple life.  And I hope to live it well.

Until next time,
                  Joe