[TR] Far & Wide - Hood Rain-Wracked & Beacon Besodden 11/29/2008

[kevbone]

for the record though, over my 5 day t-giving break, i spent all but 23 hours of them w/ my clan

 

Well....there is a first for everything.

[ivan]

for the record though, over my 5 day t-giving break, i spent all but 23 hours of them w/ my clan

 

Well....there is a first for everything.

 

maybe you should look into teaching dude? (we can alwasy use more gym teachers ) - i actually get plenty of time to hang out w/ the family during the week, given that i'm out of school at 3 and so home from the gym by 5 - 1 day of climbing on the weekend suffices usually - plus w/ 2 solid months of summer, i can take several 3-6 day long trips and still be around as much as during the work year

 

course, you gotta be cool w/ the poverty thang

[geoff]

Not quite sure what you mean by that kevbone but with over 10,000 posts to this website I bet if you spent a little less time on the net you could find some time to go out and climb.

 

[crimper]

kevbone, i think you would be a much happier person if you quit cc.com for a month.

 

you wouldn't be jealous of other dads who climb more than you, or childless climbers who climb even more. you wouldn't repeat your claim that all trip reports are spray because you wouldn't read any trip reports. you wouldn't argue passionately about climbs you have no intention of climbing. you wouldn't call ivan a "bad dad" after after TR he posts. you wouldn't get to troll joseph, though, and i guess i would miss that. then again, who could possibly take your place as cc.com whipping boy and easy target? and you may ask yourself, is this a troll, or is it not? and does it even matter when you have 10,000 posts to your name?

[kevbone]

Relax B....its all for fun. Matter of fact....instead of me taking time off....you should post more. Good times you are missing.....

[Mtguide]

Well, yeah, unfortunately, Kerouac's later life and end was pretty much as you say, but that certainly wasn't the comparison I intended; I just saw in your style and flow of writing some of that same wonderful energy from the likes of On the Road, Dharma Bums, etc., which is (especially Road) some brilliant stuff. But that youthful fire was partly fueled, and later dimmed and finally extinguished by the alchohol.

 

Kerouac actually did climb a little, worked a couple seasons at the Desolation peak fire lookout in the N. Cascades, early 50's, and much of Dharma Bums is about a climb of the Sierra's Matterhorn Peak done in the fall of '56 with Zen/Beat poet Gary Snyder ( Snyder made it to the top; Kerouac, perhaps prophetically, felt too tired and scared to go the last pitch or so.)

 

Kerouac never really had the discipline or self-restraint necessary to really bear down on his writing, was probably already an alchoholic very early on, and had a more "anything goes, nothing matters" idea of Buddhism and Zen, not what its' really all about. While strictly speaking, there's no such thing as a "failed Buddhist" (they say you should never give up on anybody) it's sure as hell necessary to put in your time on the meditation cushion if you're gonna see anything. After all, we do have to accomplish something; Suzuki Roshi in his little book Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, says that while not everyone may experience a great awakening, even in years of practice, "at least we must have SOME enlightenment experience."

 

Thoreau said once, "Did you ever know of anyone who simply persisted in what he was doing, who did not achieve at least some measure of success?" A lot of climbing, Buddhism, and life in general is just that simple. There's an old Zen koan (meditation problem) called "Go straight up the forty-nine switchback trail! What does this mean?". And the answer is to get up in front of your teacher and march rapidly, with great energy, back and forth, forty-nine times, as if you were going up a mountain trail. It means that often, when we're going up the switchbacks, it can seem as if we're going further out of our way than we need to, and we may be tempted to go off the trail and impatiently charge straight up. Doing so, we might make it, but we might burn out, too. But if we just stay on the trail and keep going, we will,eventually, most certainly reach the summit.

 

Of course, maybe the old Zen masters couldn't have foreseen the development of modern climbing--but I'm not so sure of that, either, considering how deep and powerful a meditation climbing is. And the implied meaning of that koan is, as you've shown us in your TR, that it's all about the journey, not just the summit.

 

Anyway, you can really fuckin' write, man, you have a great eye and sardonic wit, you're raising a family and managing to get some time in on the rock and ice ( and it's important to not just meditate, too--Zen Master Hakuin says "the warrior's saddle is his seat of meditation"- meaning that the path is right where you are, doing what you're doing) and making people laugh, making a lttle magic.... We can't all be Lionel Terray or Gaston Rebuffat, or Kerouac, but as I'm sure you know, what's more important is to just be who you are. On that basis, I'd tell your mom not to worry. And keep on writing.

 

[billcoe]

Anyway, you can really fuckin' write, man, you have a great eye and sardonic wit, you're raising a family and managing to get some time in on the rock and ice ( and it's important to not just meditate, too--Zen Master Hakuin says "the warrior's saddle is his seat of meditation"- meaning that the path is right where you are, doing what you're doing) and making people laugh, making a lttle magic.... We can't all be Lionel Terray or Gaston Rebuffat, or Kerouac, but as I'm sure you know, what's more important is to just be who you are. On that basis, I'd tell your mom not to worry. And keep on writing.

 

I told dude the same thing only much more poorly. On that subject:

 

Nicely written TR, Ivan-the new Kerouac has appeared. It was indeed foretold that his reincarnation would be revealed in the mountains of the Pac. NW, freely dispensing stream-of counsciousness Crazy Wisdom, Hanshan-like, swinging a mean ice tool (the 21st century Vajra-scepter), showing the youngsters how to laugh at the rain and cold, breaking the slavish bonds of attachment to comfort and warmth, shattering misguided delusions of achievement and success, further deepening North America's own tradition of rollicking, waked-up alpinist-lamas and mountain adepts who have transcended good and bad weather, sleep, and all-the-best-new-gear, to find highest perfect enlightenment on the end of a sodden rappel rope, and then kicked it in the ass and let THAT go sailing off into the void too.

 

Kinda like the old Northern Plains contraries, the Heyokas or "backwards warriors";

 

"Shivering in the white heat of summer

Sweating in the cold

rides his horse backwards

says yes but means no

when arriving, leaves

having departed,

arrives;

Having failed,

succeeds.

 

Dude, you toss a few sheep, a midget, a tricycle and 3 rodeo clowns in that mix and you'll have a saga of Homeric proportions yourself! Keep that shit flowing!

 

Good stuff:-)

 

[Lucky Larry]

where in the H do I post for partners on the site? from the grouch, the lash, and the dreamer. In need of hardmen/women to lead alpine routes for wannabe old larry ps windsurfer is great to aid in the rain; only got wet on last 8 feet of it and of course all my dry clothing that i saved in the haulbag to put on was all wet. Thanks Kenny for the b-lay all the while being pissed on.

[Lucky Larry]

sounds like little big man

Edited December 8, 2008 by oldlarry