Keep Quiet

T. Boone Pickens once said that the higher a monkey climbs a tree, the more people that can see his ass.

Visibility has its drawbacks. You are a big, obvious target that others can not only sling mud at but shoot down too.

I like where I am. It's amazing to me how much power I have from the bottom. I can get a lot done without getting seen. And I don't get shot at.

The key to my mental health is to keep my head down. Survival is to say nothing and to try a little to look like I might know what I'm doing, which I do. I just keep quiet, and get things done.

All the monkeys up high spend most of their time and effort throwing mud at each other, and sometimes one of them gets killed. People can be such asses.

Not for me!

- © 2008 by Willy
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Home

Home is over the rainbow, where the skies are blue and the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true.

Home is a feeling, not a place. Home just feels right. Home is a feeling of calmness, of quiet and of rest. It can happen to coincide with a physical place, but if so then that physical place had better have the above qualities.

After two weeks, I just got home very late last night, to that feeling of calmness, since there is nobody else at home now. A couple of years ago, when returning from a trip, there was no such calmness... just tension, walking on eggshells while waiting for verbal attack, kind of like Inspector Crusoe waiting for Kato to pound on him when he got home (in the various Pink Panther movies a couple of decades ago).

Today I slept late, showered, lunched out, shopped, washed, organized and put away. Watered and fed the birds and animals. And rested... laid down in front of the TV, propped my legs up, and enjoyed the calmness while watching the birds flock to the feeders.

There no place feeling like home. Great feeling. Won't give it up ever again.

- © 2008 by Willy
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Luck

I know that luck favors the prepared, but sometimes preparation isn't enough.

Last Saturday I was baking in 104-degree desert heat in the sun, walking at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Visor, sun block and packed Camelback were not doing it, I had left Cottonwood campground and I had a couple of hours to get to Phantom Ranch. I hadn't seen a soul for a half an hour when I saw a Sahara hat atop a rock. That's freakin' luck.

Tuesday morning the group leader woke up in a bad mood because my snoring had kept him awake for several nights in our crowded shared-room sleeping arrangement. However, at our destination motel in a crowded Zion vacation/tourist destination, a vacant room existed. That's pure luck.

Who knows how many bad occurrences were averted. There were no accidents or injuries other than sore feet. That's luck too.

I've been lucky many a time. A dozen years ago we had a recession in town and layoffs but I was able to find jobs for me and my group through help from connections as well as a good work ethic reputation. After my divorce, my kids came to live with me and I had the discipline and privilege to raise them. A good young friend of mine became a priest, so we maintain a unique relationship. I've survived two traffic wrecks, storms at sea in small craft, climbing and caving accidents, a point-blank shooting, divorce, teenagers, many different kind of heartbreak and countless other physical and emotional events. This was due to preparation, work, people's kindness and asking for God's mercy... luck.

I'm a lucky man: I prepare and I pray to get lucky. And I do.

- text © 2008 by Willy

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P.S., Yes, OK... North Kaibab down to lodge in 7, next day from lodge up thru Bright Angel in 6 1/4 hrs. First down, and first out, of a dozen or so.

Canyons

The goal of every drop is to return to the ocean.

I'm winding down a week of hiking canyons in Arizona and Utah, flying home tomorrow. I've seen nature at its grandest, and it was impressive. From the challenge of rim-to-rim Grand Canyon to the fun of sloshing The Narrows at Zion, I gained a new perspective on earth's rugged beauty: I saw what a drop can do while pursuing its goal, and it gave me a lesson on persistence.

I'm glad to be done and look forward to resting my sore feet, looking at the pictures, and making a canyon. I have drops and drops to go before I sleep.

- © 2008 by Willy

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