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In a broader context, all rounds of golf are of no consequence, whether score is kept or not. But you are the center of your own universe. You are free to create meaning for yourself.
When you attempt to capture the highlights without burdening yourself with the tedium, the highlights lose the foundation that elevates them to the status of “highlight.” Analogies abound because a focused attitude defines the quality of all that we do. In playing a game, dieting, or hiking the AT, you benefit most when you commit yourself to it, embrace it.
I spook four deer, a buck and three does. This makes me consider putting in a request for reincarnation as a deer. But I’d probably get shot so they could mount my antlers on a bunny skull at some steakhouse.
I go to the trash can to unload my pocket full of wrappers and find that my own wrapper is not there. It must have been dislodged when I was stuffing the other trash into my pocket.
We talk of motivations for thru-hiking. “I’ve always wanted to thru-hike,” AA says. “My dad and I hiked some when I was little.” Answering that you want to do a thing because you have always wanted to do it seems somewhat circular, but it is as common as any other explanation.
In that moment I make the mistake of despairing over the difficulty of the task at hand, rather than just doing it.
Thoughts are the most effective weapon in the human arsenal. On the upside, it is powerful to realize that goals are reached primarily by establishing the proper state of mind. But if allowed the perspective that our endeavors are propped upon nothing but a notion, we falter.
I will not see the tortoise again after that because I will never catch up to him.
On this trek, his temperament is more of an asset than conditioning or know-how.
Anything that we consider to be an accomplishment takes effort to achieve. If it were easy, it would not be nearly as gratifying. What is hardship at the moment will add to our sense of achievement in the end.
Wisdom is knowing when perseverance will be rewarded.
People living normal lives are ruffled by folks like Doc and Llama. Nonconformity is an affront to those in the mainstream. Our impulse is to dismiss this lifestyle, create reasons why it can’t work, why it doesn’t even warrant consideration. Why not? Living outdoors is cheap and can be afforded by a half year of marginal employment. They can’t buy things that most of us have, but what they lose in possessions, they gain in freedom.
Doing it in retirement would be sensible; doing it at this time in my life is abnormal, and therein lay the appeal. I want to make my life less ordinary.
I have nothing to do, so I stay up late doing it.
