“I believe in God, only I spell it Nature.”
-Frank Lloyd Wright
I've been looking for inspiration and found it in films about mountaineering and climbing. I’ve been making my way through every one I can find (14 Peaks, The Alpinist, Meru, Free Solo, which lead to The Rescue (caving, wow), to Dawn Wall, to Alex Honnold's book 'Alone on the Wall'.) I don’t desire the same challenges as these trail blazers, but I’m inspired by the skill, the struggle, and the focus that's required for them to expand the limits. It’s thrilling to watch someone set a huge, impossible goal, and then work, plan, and (usually) fail (a lot) to make the impossible possible.
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In terms of personal and existential philosophy, I respect the line that climbers and mountaineers walk- the way that they are in near constant contact with the presence of death and, consequently, are intimately connected to the immediacy of life. Aren’t we all. YesBut the distractions of modern life can mask the reality of our mortality.
As I get older I’m drawn to a life that has more contact with nature, that steps farther away from my ideas about life and closer to observations of the living world in front of me. I feel at home there. It is not something apart from me, it is where I originated. That world is simple. It’s not usually comfortable. I always learn something. Nature provides me with endless profound metaphors. It reminds me of cycles, of change, of growth, and, most importantly, how small I am. The mountains always put things in perspective. On the timeline of the natural world, I’ll only be here, in this way, for a blink of the eye. So I started wondering, how do you spend the time you have? How do you live? What are the big, impossible things I want to do?
The next few pieces are reflections and processing of the documentaries I’ve watched. Some required more than others.