Half A Year Til' Zero Hour

At this point I don't think a day passes that I don't think about the Appalachian Trail. I read books about it. I read other people's blogs about it. I watch YouTube clips about it. I am a part of the official 2014 Thru-hiker's Facebook page and a fan of the A.T. Guide's Facebook page. It is easy for me to get excited while reading stories from the Trail or watching endless videos of thru-hikers' gear or of the scenery. My wife and I have also watched the National Geographic video on the Appalachian Trail. A lot of these stories and video may not be very interesting to most people, but for all thru-hikers-to-be they are fascinating! Some days I spend hours perusing blogs and videos. I noticed some bloggers have included a countdown meter on a sidebar which, I can imagine, must be very exciting to see as the numbers dwindle away. My wife and I have decided to leave in March, preferably earlier rather than later, but not the 1st or a weekend so things won't be TOO crowded. Since thousands attempt a thru-hike, and most are hiking from Georgia to Maine, the Trail is extremely crowded at the beginning. Everyone has a small window of time to begin hiking in order to make it in time before Baxter State Park, where the northern terminus of the AT is, closes. Most hikers begin in March or April. We don't have a date set in stone yet though, so we can't have a fancy countdown!

Anyway, in case you've thought I've become too philosophical and serious with my recent posts, I'm posting a video made by a young couple who thru-hiked in 2012. The video is very inspirational and my wife and I have watched it at least twice together. It really excites us for our time on the Trail! Enjoy!

Are You Not Entertained?

A few days ago I told a coworker about my thru-hking plans and he replied in disgust. He said he had a friend who hiked the Trail and after one week the friend had an alright time, but after two weeks he was completely bored. Still, he hiked the entire Trail. I have read about this boredom from other thru-hikers before. After all, each day consists of the same thing: walking from sun-up to sun-down. The natural scenes around thru-hikers might seem wonderful and exciting to see at first, but as it seems to go with all humans, a lot of anything can make us complacent and long for anything at all that appears new. Maybe this isn't natural. Maybe we are taught to easily lose interest with the now because we are taught to want the new toy for Christmas, we want to hear the new music, and see the new television shows and movies.

This brings me to our entertainment culture. We don't have any excuse to be bored in our lives. We have so much we can fill our time with. If we aren't working, eating, or spending time with friends, there are plenty of options for entertainment all around us. In reality, for a lot of us entertainment is a big, if not the biggest sphere of our lives. Perhaps we can see this in the television watching habits of some American families. Recently, a few friends admitted that it seems strange to eat dinner at a table because when they were kids, the entire family would gather around the television set for dinner every night. Perhaps the growing number of young men and women who still play video games well into their thirties is also an indication.    

I do think entertainment has value. First of all, entertainment can be art. I don't think all entertainment can be classified as art however. A lot may have some kind of aesthetic quality, but a lot of producers of entertainment are simply trying to make money and entertainment is more easily consumed than art. Therefore, humans are more apt to consume television, film, music etc. that is more purely entertaining than artistic. However, if people are willing to put some work into what they view, read, listen to, etc, a lot can be gleaned. Properly engaging art requires work, otherwise a lot that art can give is lost. Surely people can enjoy art viscerally and it well should be. However, in my experience, when I have taken the time to go deeper in engagement with a particular piece, I enjoy it considerably more. Sometimes all it takes is a closer look at the painting, a second look at the film scene, a rereading of the paragraph in the novel a few times. This can trigger the mind to go places it wouldn't at first exposure. Sometimes it takes a little more work. Sometimes it requires asking yourself questions that seem meaningless or easy to answer at first to get somewhere. A good place to start is with your own visceral reactions. Perhaps after watching a scene in a movie you feel sad or angry or happy. Ask yourself why you feel this way? How did the creator of the work make you feel that way? These can lead to greater question and more understanding. Art is, after all, supposed to be saying something. It is revealing a particular point of view about life, love, a certain culture, etc. I have missed a lot if I walk away having only been entertained. But this happens to me often! I want to be lazy and just enjoy it. I want to be entertained. I don't want to work. Sometimes I make myself feel better by throwing on an "artistic" film, and yet do not engage it all in my mind. But this might not be any better than watching a popcorn flick full of the same-old car chases and shoot-outs or the complication in the relationship that ends up working out in the end for the two main characters as they kiss passionately until the credits roll. I think it is pretty easy to steer away from the big-budget, pure-entertainment blockbusters, pop music, and fake reality television shows. It just takes good judgment and the willingness to find ones that have artistic value. After that, it only takes some thoughtful analysis to truly allow the art to have a voice. The hardest part to overcome is the desire to take the easy way out, to be lazy and just be entertained.

That being said, I also think there is a time and place to allow yourself a complete rest. This is time when it is quite right to enjoy entertainment for nothing else, but to be entertained. I just think that people, in general, go to extremes. Some really indulge in entertainment too much. They just consume it and allow themselves to become passive receptors to all the latest movies and television shows. I think I fall into this extreme because I am a lover of film and literature in particular. But I also watch a lot of silly television shows. There can be a lot of psychological reasons why someone would be inclined to allow themselves to sink into entertainment too much. On the other extreme, there are a lot of people who let work consume them. Our culture can put a lot of pressure on people to work a lot and to work hard for the kind of salary that will provide a nice car, a nice house, and all the safety nets available for their families. I know some people who just have a drive to let their work run their lives, even when it is something they don't REALLY enjoy doing. The general desire for or appearance of SUCCESS can be haunting. I see some of these people work themselves so hard that when they do rest, they look like zombies. They may not immerse themselves in entertainment regularly, but when they do, they go deep. I think this is also unhealthy.

Ideally, I think people need to find a nice medium where work is enjoyable, but doesn't consume too much of our lives. Then we can rest in pure entertainment for a tiny bit. Mostly though, we should find ways to rest that are actually beneficial such as a proper engagement with art. Or a walk in nature for silence and solitude. The most important thing that I think entertainment has destroyed is the space and time we need to be with ourselves with no distractions so we can listen to that still, small voice inside us that is trying to tell us the hows and whys of life. How can I live meaningfully? How can I forgive? How can I be truly humble?

We quiet it by turning the knob of our television sets. We become little gods when we sit on our couches with a tub of popcorn. We are immortal as that flickering light dances before us. We do not fear during that time. We do not want. We are not haunted. We have no past and no future. We don't hear a voice asking more of us. We are complete and satisfied.

So I welcome the boredom! I long for it! We run from ourselves too much! We must come back. Come back and discover who we truly are.