Author Archives: dorworth

ON INTEGRITY: Personal, National, Environmental

Posted on by
1

in•teg•ri•ty
inˈteɡrədē/
noun
1. noun: the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness.
“he is known to be a man of integrity”

2. the state of being whole and undivided.
“upholding territorial integrity and national sovereignty”

“We forget that if defending the integrity of our native soil is a question of national honor, then it must also be a question of national honor to grant this soil its full value, and thus forestall the need of having to defend its integrity.”
Perito Moreno

“A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.”
Aldo Leopold

Yes, integrity of native soil is a matter and question (?) of national honor, and the integrity of each individual, national honor and the state of the biotic community are not separate entities. Integrity is wholeness—within a person, a nation, a biotic community, the earth itself. Honor is esteem and the human recognition of the privilege of life which require humility of the individual as a part of the whole in a never-ending, organic process much like that granting the native soil its full value.
Knowledge of the value (and cost) of personal integrity is not gained without effort and experimentation and, more often than not, some failure. In a long life (82 years) of knowing a lot of people across a wide range of cultures and persuasions, I’ve yet to meet an innocent person of impeccable integrity. Have you? I like to think about many things, including integrity, in terms of the Lotus Flower. In Buddhism the Lotus is a symbol of purity of the physical, mental and spiritual actions of a person, its beautiful flowers nurtured by and rooted in the mud and muddy waters of attachment and desire. Confucius said: “I have a love for the Lotus, while growing in mud it still remains unstained.” Integrity is a process, not a certificate, a beautiful flower rooted in muddy, nourishing soil rather than a pretty blossom with cut stems in a sterile vase. Confusing integrity with adhering to a particular set of beliefs, code of conduct or standard of achievement does not honor either. Instead, it encourages the sort of fundamentalism in thought and action personified by people like Cliven Bundy who recognizes neither national honor nor any value to native soil that does not serve the self-interests of, in his case, Cliven Bundy, at the expense of the larger human and biotic communities. Integrity is organic, encompassing both the personal and the larger community and does not grow from the barrel of a gun, adherence to dogma or crisp salute to the power of authority which to Bundy (and others, alas, too numerous and well known to list here) is himself.
We live on a planet experiencing the on-going extinction of 53 complete species, the deforestation of more than 60,000 acres and the desertification of 30,000 acres of its soil every day, day after day after day and compounding. That is: 12,000 species a year are becoming extinct; almost 22 million acres deforested each year, and 11 million acres turned to desert every year, year after year after year and compounding. However one thinks about the reality of these statistics, their causes, consequences and possible actions of healing, those thoughts are more likely to include words like ‘corruption,’ ‘crisis,’ and ‘collapse’ than ‘integrity.’ A portion of those extinctions, deforestations and desertification are occurring in the United States, and as Moreno indicates it is “…a question of national honor to grant this soil its full value, and thus forestall the need of having to defend its integrity.”
Extinction is forever. Integrity is wholeness. There is no ‘other’ in integrity.
Every national quality, including honor and integrity, begins (and, one could argue, ends) with the individual citizen. That is you, esteemed reader, and me individually and, one hopes, together or at least contiguously represent the honor and integrity of our national soil. Not them, us. You and me. Questions arise: What can the lone individual do to contribute to the national quality of granting the soil we all live upon and from its full value and forestall (eliminate?) the need of having to eventually defend its integrity? What influence has one person among the more than 320 million Americans and nearly eight billion human earthlings on the real and practical spheres of economic, military, imperial and political power driving the disintegration of the world’s biotic and other communities under the umbrella term ‘progress’? Does it matter that we as individuals speak truth to and place our bodies and thoughts and actions in the way of those powers, risking, (inviting) alienation and much more? Other questions arise and there are nearly 8 billion reasons for the individual to feel inconsequential, as if standing alone in the center of 11 million acres of freshly desertificated soil lacking the nutrients and water to grow a weed, much less a lotus flower. But the better question is, if not you, who? It is the better question because there is no one more qualified to answer.
You are both the question and the answer. Think of that.
Thomas Berry, a Catholic priest and one of the great environmental thinkers and writers, wrote: “We must also develop a way of thinking about ‘progress’ that would include the entire earth community. If there is to be real and sustainable progress, it must be a continuing enhancement of life for the entire planetary community…True progress must sustain the purity and life-giving qualities of both the air and the water. The integrity of these life systems must be normative for any progress worthy of the name… If the industrial economy (which has well nigh done us in) in its full effects has been such a massive revolutionary experience for the earth and the entire living community, then the terminations of this industrial devastation and the inauguration of a more sustainable lifestyle must be of a proportional order of magnitude….we have before us the task of structuring a human mode of life within the complex of the biological communities of the earth. The task is now on the scale of ‘reinventing the human,’ since none of the prior cultures or concepts of the human can deal with these issues on the scale required.”
The process of personal, national and environmental integrity demands reinventing the human in much the same way, at least metaphorically, the lotus flower grows from mud at the bottom of a pond. It will be the most challenging expedition into the unexplored territory of human adventure since, perhaps, Homo erectus reinvented itself as Homo sapiens. Let us start the journey, or, rather, take the next step.

ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

Posted on by
Reply

The following is a newspaper column published in 2006 and reprinted here as a reminder

This is not an apocryphal story. A couple of years ago a police car pulled into the driveway of the construction site of one of Sun Valley’s multi-million dollar second (or, perhaps, third) homes being built for people who will live in it and be peripherally part of the local community two to six weeks a year. The car was on an unknown mission, only using the driveway to turn around, but before that maneuver was completed half the construction crew had fled into the nearby hills. They were illegal immigrants, also known as illegal aliens, for whom a police encounter means a major disruption in their lives and a long trip back to their native country, often Mexico.
‘Immigrant’ and ‘alien’ in this context are functionally interchangeable, but which is used says more about the writer or speaker than about the person described. I prefer immigrant. We are all immigrants or the descendants of immigrants (including Native Americans). Immigrants are human beings looking for a job, a better life and human dignity, and America’s have always been a ‘problem.’ There was a time when the large number of Italian and Irish immigrants was a feared and reviled ‘problem’ for those who got here a year or a generation earlier. Eventually those problems were assimilated into the mainstream of American society, as will the current problem of Mexican and other Latino illegal immigrants.
Some estimates place the number of illegal immigrants at more than 20 million. It’s probably less, but there are a lot of immigrants breaking the law of the land. Of course, they’re not the only ones breaking the law. Immigrants do not risk life and health to illegally cross the American border in the night for the fun, adventure and warm welcome they receive, or the fine working conditions or life style they will find. People do not leave communities, families and friends unless they have to. They leave because they need jobs. The people who hire them are breaking the law as well. There are far fewer employers than workers, though the former have far more political power.
Anyone who has given much thought to the legal (morality, practicality and compassion are entirely other matters) aspects of illegal immigration, including the headless head of our government, the spineless body of our Congress and the armed vigilante yahoos guarding the Mexican/U.S. border with lawn chairs, rifles and the blessing of Arnold Schwarzenegger, know that it is a great deal easier and more practical and honest to enforce the law by arresting, fining and jailing the employers of illegal immigrants than the millions of immigrants themselves. If employers were fined, say, $10,000 for every illegal immigrant hired, the practice of hiring people outside the law would end, as would, in theory, the ‘problem’ of illegal immigrants. That is not going to happen. All the current political posing, pompous palaver and pretend policemanship reported in the media will not end or even slow down the flow of people illegally entering America to do the low paying, back-breaking jobs that very few people reading this want to do.
For a very good reason.
Obeying the law would bring California’s agriculture industry to a standstill, shut down hotels and restaurants in every mountain town in western America and slow down and raise the cost of construction projects everywhere, to mention only three of many affected economic engines. Despite the posing, palaver and threatened policemanship by politicos with an eye on the next election, the real politics of America is not going to let that happen. Whether it should or not is a separate question. In 1994 while she was flogging NAFTA for its American corporate sponsors, then Attorney General Janet Reno predicted that NAFTA would reduce illegal immigration by two-thirds by the end of the century and would raise living standards and wages in Mexico. The NAFTA spin was that trade not aid would boost the quality of life for Mexico and Mexicans. “NAFTA is our best hope for reducing illegal migration in the long haul,” she said. “If it fails, effective immigration control will become impossible.”
She got the last part right.
NAFTA has successfully raised the profits of companies on both sides of the border, but it has utterly failed the Mexican people and, consequently, the American people as well. Standard of living and wages have fallen in Mexico and the numbers of jobs per capita for working age Mexicans are fewer now than when NAFTA arrived. Cheap labor never benefits the laborer’s standard of living or community, whether in Mexico, India, France, the United States, the Philippines or China. Despite their nifty acronyms, NAFTA, GATT and the like are not designed for the benefit of working people. NAFTA was intended to and does benefit the large multi-national corporations and the people who own them and who, as a result, can hire illegal immigrants to build multi-million dollar second homes in places like Sun Valley to live in a couple of weeks a year.
Yes, illegal immigrants are a problem. They are a mirror and America doesn’t like looking into it.

COVID KINHIN IN THE CEMETARY OF A CHANGING WORLD

Posted on by
1

When asked by a student to describe Buddha’s teaching ‘in a nutshell’ Suzuki Roshi responded “Everything changes.”

Everything changes. Impermanence in action. The reality of daily Buddhist practice.
Covid 19 is part of that never ending change, though its practical, emotional and psychological challenges and consequences are of a magnitude most of us in developed countries are not used to facing. Adapting to change with compassion is Buddhism in action, no matter the enormity of compassion required to meet those challenges. The long term consequences of Covid 19 are impossible to know and painful to consider, but how each person and every sangha deals with it matters. Whether one believes the scientists or the skeptics, follows the advice of the medical profession or the coronavirus deniers, wears a protective mask or a shirt saying “Covid 19 Is a Hoax,” practices social distancing or spends evenings in a favorite crowded bar, how one responds to it is, literally a life and death matter. At this writing over 7,000,000 Americans have been stricken with Covid 19 and more than 206,000 have died, which are significantly more casualties than any other nation……and growing.
For several years I have been a member of the Bozeman Zen Group, taught by Karen DeCotis, which is part of the Bozeman, Montana Dharma Center. In order to fulfill its compassionate practice of reducing suffering in the world and not contributing to Covid 19’s statistics, the Bozeman Dharma Center closed indefinitely on March 14. It is not likely to open any time soon. All Dharma Center’s different sangha and group meetings, including workshops, retreats, classes and visiting teachers have virtually continued through Zoom. Some members of the Dharma Center, including me, are not zoomers and have continued our practice at home, alone. I have missed the deeply cherished twice weekly Zen Group and weekday noon open sits at the Dharma Center.
In June the Zen Group initiated a middle path between the Dharma Center closure and non-zoomers—-a once a week half hour morning kinhin through Sunset Hills Cemetery in Lindley Park in downtown Bozeman. Participants meet, form a circle with at least 10 feet distancing (masks are optional), receive instructions and choose a leader for the day and perform kinhin along whatever path that day’s leader chooses through the cemetery. Kinhin is a traditional form of Zen which applies the core concept of mindful sitting meditation to the movement of walking. Between periods of sitting (usually 30 to 60 minutes) in Zen Centers 10 minutes of kinhin is always welcome to get the blood flowing back into the legs and the rest of the body. The physical/mental/emotional health benefits of simply walking need no reiteration here, but kinhin makes us more conscious of the movement of our body and what we are doing with it. This helps us avoid unconscious movements. As walking is a physical and mental expansion from sitting in a chair kinhin is an expansion from sitting on a zafu. And the expansion continuously changes and never ends. Usually, between 3 and 10 sangha members attend kinhin in the cemetery, and in August a once a week on a different day half hour evening kinhin was added to the agenda. The practice and its locale are wonderful tools for the sangha to maintain its personal, face to face bonds as a community while following the advice of scientists and the medical profession regarding Covid 19.
There are more than 16,000 graves in 56 acres of the 73 acre Sunset Hills Cemetery, the first occupied since 1867 by Mary Blackmore. The City of Bozeman immaculately maintains the area with its lush lawns and towering pine, spruce, maple and other trees providing shade and shelter to both residents and visitors. I cannot speak for others’ unwavering focus on each well placed step of kinhin or conscious breath that propels it, but I notice that my eyes sometime take my mind to the gravestones and the names and dates upon them and to thoughts of the lives they may have lived and, of course, the change that will eventually allow me to join them.
Covid kinhin in the cemetery is a worthy part of the path for Zen students practicing compassionate Buddhism in a changing world.

BROTHER LOU AND CHANGE

Posted on by
Reply

My brother Lou is an amazing human being and one of my heroes. He recently took an on line course from Harvard University and was required to write a term paper about what he had learned. Here is his term paper, presented as a speech:

EMBRACE CHANGE. MAKE A CHANGE.
By
Louis Dorworth

To my fellow citizens, I humbly come before you today, not as an antagonist to your beliefs, nor as a man embittered in ideology, but as a common fellow with a premonitory to a very dark future for our country. If we avoid acting now, we may lose all that is sacred and precious – the promise of America – the vision of our founders. Today, I invite you to open your minds and hearts and hear what I have to say.
Our country is at the edge of a precipice. Once again, we stand on the rim of history where American citizens need magnify the current condition of our republic and boldly establish what it is that we want our nation to be, forever after. We need closely look at our history with eyes wide open and be willing to reach in and pull out the spiny splinters of division and shimmering shards of hate that embroil our society to this very day.
Our country has a short history. A sad, but often glorified history. A history fraught with ignorant and racist behaviors that contradict the promises set forth by our forefathers in 1776 – in the very Declaration of Independence that we so proudly celebrate every July four – a vision that “all men are created equal… with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” This esteemed idea is ingrained in the minds of all Americans, yet not practiced by all. We must ask ourselves are we really living up to this ideal?
Do all Americans really feel equal?
Are there symbols within our society that subvert equality?
Are we all happy?
If the answer is no, then we must change!
Our Constitution assures us that “We the people of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity…”
Justice. Justice for who, the well to do? Is there equal justice in our great nation? Let us ask those who are not so well to do. What do they have to say about justice?
Tranquility. Is there calm in our homes or on our streets? Are we at peace with our fellow man?
Defense. Do we have defense from a pandemic? Do we have defense from tear gas, rubber bullets, and brutality when we peacefully assemble in the streets to make our voices heard?
General welfare. Do we all have jobs that pay a living wage? Housing, food, medical care?
Liberty. Are women free of oppressive restrictions to their health care in all 50 states?
For posterity – for your children – for their children – for generations to come. For posterity.
If we are not keeping these promises, then we must seek change!
To change, we Americans must recognize those things we do that hold us back from forming a “more perfect Union.”
Do we speak in terms of “us versus them?” Do our leaders?
Do we blame an illusory “them” for poor socioeconomic conditions that we ourselves create?
Do these divisions pit one American against another?
Are we unhappy with the status quo?
If so, then we must change!
The articles of the U.S. Constitution outline how our Government works – responsibilities bestowed on Legislative, Executive, and Judicial branches – each being equal to the others – no one branch more powerful than another – delicate checks and balances – a system fair and equal.
Is this working for America?
Does one branch claim immunity from oversight?
Do our representatives hear the voices of the people, or do they only hear the shameless songs of sleazy lobbyists selling corporate special interests to subsidize their campaigns?
Is it getting harder to vote?
If so, then we must make change!
Can we be trusted in our treaties and trade agreements?
Is America strong when it stands alone on the world stage and shuns our long-kept allies?
Do we even have any allies anymore?
Are we viewed as the moral authority for civil and human rights?
If not, then we must change!
I raise the alarm now and urge all Americans to take notice. Our shinning city on the hill is mud-sliding closer and closer to the edge of obscurity in a downpour of dark forces that have long been eroding the foundation of our fragile constitution. Yes, the Constitution is fragile – it is the cornerstone of our foundation and it is fragile. If we remove all the brick and mortar that supports it, the foundation will crumble and be swept away in a flood of ignorance and lassitude.
“We the people” need now prop-up the foundation of our republic. Restore democracy. Replace the bricks of our damaged character and wash away the graffiti of our past with the disinfectant soap of hope and prosperity.
We must stand up the truth and fly it high with our flag on the tallest pole that we can conjure. No longer shall we let the bindings of deception and trickery steer us towards the edge and away from a better country in which equality and justice lead the way.
For all Americans. For our children. For all citizens of the world. For posterity. We must not fear change. For it is the engine that propels us forward to a better future – to be better citizens of this land – a land we so hold close and dear.
Embrace change. Make a change. It will do us good.

CLIMBING DHARMA (From a book that will be published in a week titled “What Are You Doing and other Buddha’s Dharma Dances”

Posted on by
1

Human spiritualism and the enduring physical presence of mountains have been conjoined since the first Homo sapiens first asked “Who am I?” and made the first move towards an answer. That connection is acknowledged in the surviving literature and tradition of all major spiritual paths, including but by no means limited to Christianity, Hinduism, Bon, Native American, Jain, Buddhism, Transcendentalism and Lemurianism. As a long-time climber and practitioner of Soto Zen Buddhism the relationship between the two has been part of my experience of each. Eihei Dogen Zengi (1200-1253), founder of the Soto school of Zen, wrote: “Because mountains are high and broad, the way of riding the clouds is always reached in the mountains; the inconceivable power of soaring in the wind comes freely from the mountains.”
Petrarch, Italian Poet, on the summit of Mt. Ventoux in 1335, said “I looked back at the summit of the mountain, which seemed but a cubit high in comparison with the height of human contemplation, were it not too often merged in the corruptions of the earth.”
American literature is filled with depictions of the spiritual dimensions of mountains by Emerson, Muir, Snyder, Whalen and others, including this by Thoreau, “You are not in the mountains, the mountains are in you.” For many years before I began climbing or practicing Zen I was an avid student of that literature, and as a life-long skier mountains were integral to my life. I was an adult before acquiring the awareness and skills to articulate that mountains were also Cathedral of a growing spiritualism. My college advisor as an English major taught a course titled “The Bible as Literature” which I passed over, despite my high regard for the advisor as teacher, scholar and person, because of my cynical (immature?) prejudices of the time against any church or ‘organized’ religion. I had been raised with no religious training except for six weeks when I was sent to a Christian Brothers boarding school in a strange city 100 miles from home in the mountains at the age of 12. My parents were not concerned with spirituality but, rather, determined I needed more social discipline which a Catholic friend assured them the Brothers would provide. Fortunately, my young spirit asked, “Who am I?” and I ran away from the Christian Brothers, creating a family crisis when I refused to return, a move I consider the first step towards the answer to my question and one of the best I ever made. Father was an atheist, Mother, perhaps, an agnostic, though a friend sold her a spiritual insurance policy by convincing her to be baptized a Catholic on her death bed. I definitely was not a Christian Brother. Still, one cannot read fine literature without encountering religion, church, spirituality and the question “Who am I”, and I embarked on a personal study of the matter while attending college by buying Huston Smith’s “The World’s Religions,” the first book I knew of that covered them all.
Studying all the major religions as literature was intellectually and spiritually nutritious, and the one that most resonated with me was Buddhism. A few years earlier, a high school student in Reno, Nevada, I was drinking beer with a couple of friends in nearby Virginia City. While strolling along the main street of that historic mining center turned tourist town, a foot high ceramic head of Buddha caught my eye from one of the second-hand store windows. On a teen-age inebriated impulse I bought the Buddha head, spray painted it gold (no idea why) and set it on my bedroom dresser where it remained as long as I lived in that house.
More than 30 years later, much of them spent climbing up and skiing down the mountains of the world with a gold painted head of Buddha lodged in my memory and subconscious, in 1990 I began the practice of Soto Zen Buddhism at Sonoma Mountain Zen Center with Jakusho Kwong Roshi. During the eight years I was associated with Sonoma Mountain I participated in many sesshins and five 30 day ango retreats (not the more traditional 90 day ango) and received the precepts and lay ordination through Jukai. I was shuso at the last ango in 1998 and am grateful to Kwong Roshi and the Sonoma Mountain Sangha for the fine foundation of a life practice they gave me, including my first true lesson in climbing dharma from Dave Haselwood, one of my favorite people there. Dave, who first practiced Zen with Suzuki Roshi in San Francisco in 1963, had been a leading publisher of Beat generation poets, including Michael McClure, Philip Whalen, William Burroughs, Lew Welsh and Diane DiPrima. He left Sonoma Mountain in 2000, a couple of years after I did and became a revered teacher at Stone Creek Zen Center and leader of the Empty Bowl Sangha before his death in 2014. During my first ango I was dealing with a recent personal and professional betrayal by an old friend, and I was having a difficult time letting go of my anger, sadness, confusion and disappointment. I sat on my zafu in a half lotus with a straight back, relaxed posture, hands in Dhyana mudra, following my breath as well as possible, but inside I was far from peaceful, unattached or forgiving. I was pissed and it must have showed.
During one of the breaks Dave, who was shuso, came over to me and said with a smile, “It looks like you’re climbing some really hard mountains in the zendo.”
A moment of insight (enlightenment?) lit up my mind, the first awareness of climbing dharma, eloquently expressed by Sir Edmund Hillary: “It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.” Yes, on the mountain and the zafu and with each breath of daily life, and you can’t take another breath until you exhale the last one, nor make another move until the last one is completed. Thanks, Dave.
That awareness of climbing dharma served me well since then as I continued practice on my own, with a couple of different sitting groups, a few sesshins at different Zen Centers and some retreats with different schools of Buddhism. For the past several years I have practiced with the Bozemen Zen Group, taught by Karen DeCotis at the Bozeman (Montana) Dharma Center. Another member of the Bozeman Sangha, Michelle Palmer, is a climber, and a couple of years ago she came up with the idea and proposed that she and I give a talk to the Sangha on “The dharma of climbing.” We did and it was well received and led to a subsequent talk open to the entire Dharma Center and the general public.
Climbing dharma continues. Insight (enlightenment?) grows. Last year after the first dharma talk I wrote an article published in Climbing Magazine (check here: https://www.climbing.com/people/the-last-lead-aging-out-of-climbing/) about the process of reaching the decision (at the age of almost 78) to retire from leading as a climber. It was not written with dharma or Buddhism in mind, though it clearly reflects the spirit of this from Gary Snyder:
WE SHALL SEE
WHO KNOWS
HOW TO BE
It was written for climbers, each of whom will confront the inevitable decline of physical skills that accompany the aging process. Nelson Foster, teacher at Ring of Bone Zendo on San Juan Ridge in California and Dharma heir of Robert Aitken Roshi, read “The Last Lead”, and wrote me that he had “….passed it along to a group considering, in the context of precept study, the issues that arise out of old age, sickness, and death – which echoes the legend of Gautama’s turn to the Way, of course. You address in a beautifully direct and thoughtful way one of the problems of aging that has impressed itself on me in recent years: knowing when it’s time to give up activities we’ve engaged in for many years. We don’t want to give up prematurely, but even worse is to give up too late. So, we included issues that arise out of old age, sickness and death in the next talk on Climbing Dharma. We discussed some ways in which the body, the mind and the emotions in climbing are practicing the dharma, which means “protection.” In climbing, as in sitting, as in daily life, the manner in which the body is positioned affects what in Zen is referred to as “the right state of mind,” staying focused on the present moment and not letting the mind wander. The necessity of a climber being focused in the present moment is obvious to even non-climbers. Simplistically, climbers use feet more than hands, as a human can walk all day but the strongest cannot do pull-ups all day. The climbing mind that wanders is heading for a fall, as the sitting mind that wanders is climbing some really hard mountains. The every-day mind that wanders is prone to delusion. And in climbing as in all aspects of daily life fear must be addressed. I like how Thich Nhat Hahn describes it: “The only way to ease our fear and be truly happy is to acknowledge our fear and look deeply at its source. Instead of trying to escape from our fear, we can invite it up to our awareness and look at it clearly and deeply.” In climbing, on the zafu, in the home and on the street it is crucial to be aware of fear of sickness, old age and death and look at them clearly and deeply. During the 2nd talk a middle-aged woman in the audience (who told me later she was a mother of three who had recently completed a 600 mile solo hike in mostly desert country) asked the appropriate question: “Are we able to practice the dharma in other aspects of life in the same way as climbing dharma…..parenting, business, teaching school, fighting fires?” “Yes, of course,” I replied. “It is the same dharma, and compared to parenting climbing is a piece of cake.” That quip inspired a good laugh and an engaged discussion among the group concerning how body, mind and emotions are practicing the dharma (or not) in every moment of every endeavor in life. The evening expanded my personal appreciation of the dharma at work that began all those years ago when Dave Haselwood noted that I seemed to be climbing some really hard mountains in the zendo.

BIRTHRIGHT

Posted on by
Reply

The City of Bozeman, Montana and its surrounding mountains have an easily accessed, extensive system (more than 80 miles) of the very best hiking/mountain bike trails I know. The trails are built and maintained by the nonprofit Gallatin Valley Land Trust (GVLT). Its mission “…connects people, communities, and open lands through conservation of working farms and ranches, healthy rivers, and wildlife habitat, and the creation of trails in the Montana headwaters of the Missouri and Upper Yellowstone Rivers.” One of the ways GVLT raises money is through its DONATE A BENCH, LEAVE A LEGACY program described on its website:

“Have you ever taken a moment to stop and sit on one of the many benches on our trail system? These memorial benches are a place for us to reflect, in solitude, or with good company, about the amazing place where we live. They let us take in the sunset, listen to birds chirping, hear laughing children, and catch our breaths. They are a unique trail amenity and they’re all donated by people just like you, people who love the outdoors and want to recognize someone special.
“GVLT is looking for community members who want to honor a loved one or remember a family member with the donation of a trail bench. We have available bench locations at both Bozeman Pond Park and Bogert Park.
“Benches can be purchased for a $2,000 donation and the donor can select the text that will go on the bench’s engraved plaque. The donation covers not only the bench, but trail improvements in the area as well.”

In daylight I have observed people drinking beer and wine, couples making out, other couples changing baby diapers and often enough down and out appearing folks sleeping on those $2000 benches. It can be safely assumed that darkness diminishes traffic but that some sort of bench action perseveres.
My personal favorite GVLT bench is on the popular Peets Hill/Burke Park trail in downtown Bozeman because of its engraved plaque which reads:

Birthright by MW Whitt
“Who has the gift of mountains
To live with day by day,
Has found an endless treasure
That cannot fade away.”

My interest was piqued by what was obviously a stanza from a complete poem titled “Birthright” which like all good poems leaves its own legacy, and I went Googling for the title and MW Whitt and could find nothing. After a couple of weeks of frustrating Google sleuthing, the obvious light of common sense made its way into the dark recesses of my old brain and turned it to the archives of the local newspaper where I discovered Millicent Ward Whitt. She was born in 1911 in Honolulu and died in Bozeman in 1996. She was a cum laude graduate of Smith College in writing and literature in 1932 and had her first poem published in Harper’s “Best College Verse” in 1931. More than 25 years later she earned a Masters degree from Montana State University (MSU). From 1953 to 1968 she was an assistant professor of English at MSU and later taught a graduate course in children’s literature at Syracuse University in New York. Her husband, Sidney, was an engineering professor. They had a long, happy life together, raising two sons and enjoying hunting, fishing and hiking in the mountains. When Sidney retired in 1976 they returned to Bozeman for the rest of their lives. Six months before she died her only book of poetry, “Say to the Moment” was published. The title comes from this line of Virginia Wolfe’s: “Say to the moment, this very moment, stay, you are so fair. For what a pity it should all be lost.”
I quickly found a rare copy of Millicent’s book on good old Amazon. It is a book that deserves re-publishing and distribution to a larger audience. It is part of her legacy and really good. On page 33 is this:

BIRTHRIGHT

Who has the gift of mountains
To live with day by day
Has found an endless treasure
That cannot fade away.

And should he travel later
To where the prairies lie,
Still that imprinted pattern
Reflects against the sky.

As eyes that turn from gazing
Into a blazing light
Still see its splendor shining
Upon the aftersight,

So those with mountain dazzled eyes
Shall nevermore see empty skies.

THE COVID19 BLUES

Posted on by
1

May 1, 2020
Bozeman, Montana

It is said that the opposite of blue is orange, an interesting and symbolic premise in this time of the Covid-19 blues guiding the thoughts and actions of Americans, some of whom see more value in living the blues than dying with orange. Not that the blues guarantees living or the orange dying. There are no guarantees except that life includes death. I mean, the Covid-19 blues is only one expression in the infinite repertoire of the blues which are, after all, as emblematic of America as the racism, slavery and slaves from which they grew in the 19th century as an inspired means to survive unacceptable living conditions by finding value in just living, meaning in song, truth in words, soul in singing and survival in each breath. And orange is as emblematic of today’s America as the racism, sexism, dishonesty, greed and cruel stupidity of its soulless, orange headed, moronic, malevolent president, Donald Trump, who a friend has nicknamed “Agent Orange.” Every American should remember Agent Orange from Operation Ranch Hand in Viet Nam, Laos and Cambodia between 1962 and 1971 when the U.S. Air Force sprayed more than 20 million gallons of the poisonous Agent Orange over five million acres of forest and half a million acres of farmland to deprive fellow human beings of food and forest cover. “Only you can prevent a forest” was the motto of the Agent Orange ‘Ranch Handers.’ Millions of Vietnamese, Cambodians, Laotians and American servicemen and women and their descendants were killed and maimed, crippled and tortured and continue to suffer today as a consequence of the long term toxicity of Agent Orange.

May 10, 2020
Bozeman, Montana

That our nation has both the Covid-19 blues and President Agent Orange to deal with at the same time is a quirk of fate that makes the blues of B.B. King no more mournful than an improvisational standup comedy routine of Robin Williams. I write these blues words in full awareness that my personal circumstances of self quarantine clean hands lock down dealing with the Covid-19 blues are far, far better than those of most of humanity. I have lived the authenticity of my own experience, but the blues has many shades. I have never known anything close to the daily lives of the slaves and slavery that inspired them in the 19th century and which, despite the flaky veneer of American law, have never left and are a shameful reality of our country. Just ask anyone on the dark side of our country’s racism or anyone of any shade of any color trying to support a family working for minimum wage. If you ask Agent Orange about such matters you are more likely to be sprayed with poisonous nonsense or Ranch Handed (handled?) by Agent Orange’s sycophantic lackeys than to receive an answer rooted in reality. I live in a comfortable house by a large pond in an upscale neighborhood abutting the Gallatin Mountains and Bozeman has some of the lowest Covid-19 statistics in the nation, with only one death in Gallatin County. My lovely partner does most of the grocery shopping in order to further insulate my 81 year old body from unnecessary exposure to the Big C, and I have close and easy access to fine hiking trails in the mountains. When my partner is gone on work or adventure trips, even in self quarantine I am surrounded by deer in the yard, coyotes in the night, every so often a bear on the trails or in the street or rambling along the bank on the far side of the pond (I encountered the first one of the year in a neighbor’s yard this afternoon while on a walk), geese and ducks and even once a loon in the pond, and the ospreys/eagles/robins/magpies/bluebirds/blackbirds/crows/sparrows and other airborne creatures cruising above, in and around the trees with the grace and freedom of winged herds (flocks?) dancing the ecstatic boogie-woogie in a ballroom of infinite space. I am reminded of the beautiful blues song sung by many, though Billie Holliday sang it best for me:

“Back In Your Own Backyard”

“The bird with feathers of blue
Is waiting for you
Back in your own backyard
You’ll see your castles in Spain
Through your window pane
Back in your own backyard
Oh you can go to the East
Go to the West
But someday you’ll come
Weary at heart
Back where you started from
You’ll find your happiness lies
Right under your eyes
Back in your own backyard”

The primary change to start the daily routine in my own backyard during the Covid19 blues is that most mornings I do not set a morning alarm. Self quarantine creates more time that my body relishes for the relaxation it needs after all those years (decades) of going east, going west, going up, down and around and around and around (yes, including Spain). Covid19 has stranded me in my own backyard where, as Billie sang so well, happiness lies. My body and the rest of me (I’m still working on trying to understand who/what ‘me’ is) do not miss suddenly awakening from deep or shallow sleep and dark or illuminated dreams to a shrill mechanical shriek. The inherent wisdom of the organic is a better friend to the independent individual body, mind and soul than the schedule of the clock and the convenience of the motorized, linear regimen that defines America’s materialistic/gridlock traffic/smog/ climate change/flooding/vanishing glaciers/drought/forest fires culture of never ending growth, aptly described by Ed Abbey as “Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.” Thanks Ed. Schedule. Clock. Convenience. Motorized. Linear. Regimen. Cancer.

May 25, 2020 (Memorial Day)
Bozeman, Montana

Covid19 is a disaster that at this writing has killed almost 100,000 Americans, the highest fatality number of any nation. There will be many, many more. I will do what I can to keep my body from increasing those numbers because I selfishly wish to keep living. It is also the right action with the right intention for the world that each individual, as much as possible, avoids contributing to a disaster, even if that action and intention will not avert the calamity. There is happiness in doing the right thing, peacefully fighting the good battle even if it can’t be won. Don’t you think?
Less than three months into the process of self quarantine (which will be a one to two year event) I already better appreciate, embrace and am more alert than I was just a few months ago to the connectivity of all things organic and the disconnect between different sides of all things linear and the exclusion of those that don’t move to the regimen. (Gertrude Stein correctly observed. “There is no straight line in nature.”) Organic encompasses everything, including the linear, the regimented and Agent Orange. Since the organic is neither constrained nor regimented by the clock it may take awhile for it to return to working order, but it will. Early signs of the organic in action during the early stages of the Covid19 Blues include clear sky over major cities throughout the world for the first time in decades, bears walking around and coyotes napping in the middle of the road of a closed Yosemite National Park as if their natural home for thousands of years were something other than a stage for modern homo sapiens to proclaim control of and connection to the very environment they continue to decimate. Early indications of the endurance of disconnection in the chemistry of Agent Orange include that it is still poisonously alive in the flora, fauna, food chain, soil, and water of Vietnam and in the bodies of today’s Vietnamese, Cambodians, Laotians and Americans and their descendants after 50 years. It’s still too early to take a reading on the lasting endurance of the damage to the world of Agent Orange’s pestilential presidency, but as Taj Mahal says and we can hope, “Particularly with the blues, it’s not just about bad times. It’s about the healing spirit.”

June 14, 2020 (Agent Orange’s 74th birthday)
Bozeman, Montana

The healing spirit of the Covid19 Blues is everywhere, as is Covid19. On a hike I often make up one of the steepest trails around Bozeman I recently came across a situation I perceive as imbued with healing spirit. A burly Montana dude in his mid-20s wearing a MAGA hat was standing aside at a turn in the trail. An attractive Native American woman about the same age appeared to be giving him a back rub. My first thought was that it was an anomaly for a Montana MAGA dude to be with a Native American. As I passed I commented that he was a lucky man to be getting a back rub. The woman giggled anxiously and there were tears in her eyes and she said, “No, no, since I was a little girl I’ve always been terrified of heights. I’m not rubbing his back. I’m hanging on to him. He convinced me to come up here to help me get over my fear, but I’m soooo frightened.” They started down the trail, one slow step at a time, she hanging on to a patient and seemingly caring Montana MAGA dude. In complete awareness that the dude may have had ulterior, less healing motives than calming the woman’s fears, choosing to attribute his actions and intentions to the healing spirit is in and of itself healing. For sure it is for those who choose the healing spirit and, since all things and people are connected, to some extent it heals the MAGA dude with (maybe) ulterior motives to his exterior moves and relieves some of the woman’s fears from childhood.
Agent Orange, MAGA and Covid19 dominate American life at this writing, neither of them describable as compassionate, healing, and beneficial to humanity or contributing to the well being of planet Earth. They can easily turn the individual away from his and her better self to embrace the dark side that exists in everyone, the side that wounds instead of heals, conquers instead of shares and hates instead of loves. Whenever the darkness arises I try to remember the words of America’s finest poet of my generation, Bob Dylan:

“So don’t fear if you hear
A foreign sound to your ear
It’s alright, Ma, I’m only sighing

As some warn victory, some downfall
Private reasons great or small
Can be seen in the eyes of those that call
To make all that should be killed to crawl
While others say don’t hate nothing at all
Except hatred

Disillusioned words like bullets bark
As human gods aim for their mark
Make everything from toy guns that spark
To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark
It’s easy to see without looking too far
That not much is really sacred”

‘Don’t hate nothing at all except hatred’ are words I keep in mind whenever Agent Orange appears in my thoughts, which is much more often than I would like. But I also consciously focus on these words of my own: “I am deeply ashamed of and sorry for every person who supports Donald Trump,” as shame and pity can be tools of healing. On those occasions when I am asked to express my thoughts on Agent Orange (usually but not always by a Trumper), I use the same words, and, honestly, in the spirit of healing a very fucked up world I like saying them to another person more than just thinking them by myself.

DO YOU CARE IF OUR GRANDCHILDREN SKI?

Posted on by
1

“Perhaps you notice how the denial is so often the preface to the justification.”
Christopher Hitchens, author

“The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.”
Donald Trump, President of the United States

“I have been described as the grandfather of climate change. In fact, I am just a grandfather and I do not want my grandchildren to say that grandpa understood what was happening but didn’t make it clear.”
James Hansen, leading climate scientist and author of “Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last chance to Save Humanity

“Skiers did not create climate change, but we are among a few populations who will be hit by it hardest. It’s time to stand up and save our snow. Forget about fear. Get serious about advocacy and put candidates into office who will do the right thing and lead us into a cold, snowy future.”
Porter Fox, author

If you, esteemed reader, are among those who share Donald Trump’s values and purposeful (and, perhaps, real) ignorance in denying human caused global climate change, please read no further. Turn on your TV to Fox news or your radio to Rush Limbaugh, relax and enjoy the show. My intention here is not to insult or offend those who have been politely and clearly alerted to read no further, but, rather, to encourage everyone (including skiers) to, among other things personal, civic and environmental, get serious about advocacy. There is no time for relaxation in the face of our last chance. The show is getting less and less enjoyable and by the time our grandchildren reach our ages it will be a shit show for skiers/mountaineers and a worse one for those less privileged.
In the spirit of James Hansen, to be clear, the current and coming climate catastrophe is caused entirely by humans and can only be averted or even softened by them; but while Porter Fox is mostly correct skiers did and do contribute to climate change. We, fellow skiers, are complicit and the only way to start saving humanity (as well as the rest of Earth’s biota) is by getting serious about advocacy and putting candidates into office who will do the right thing and lead us into a cold, snowy future. Don’t let your grandkids have to say that grandpa and grandma understood what was happening but didn’t care enough to make it clear and did nothing about it. Lao Tzu said it best: “From caring comes courage,” and many years later Mahatma Gandhi said, “A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave.”
Skiing has always seemed to me a metaphor for larger aspects of life, including cowardice and bravery, courage and love, care and greed; and the industry of skiing, as well as many of its citizen practitioners, have been reluctant advocates of seriously and effectively addressing climate change. Every life-long skier old enough to be a parent has noted decreased snowfall and shorter winters since their own childhood. Everywhere in American ski country winters are shorter and warmer than they were 50 years ago, and every skier old enough to be a grandparent has changed skiing habits and patterns because of it. Every skier my age (81) or more (and several years less) realizes that skiing isn’t quite the disaster it is going to become without action, but it is certainly more and more an artificial snow show. When I was a boy I had the good fortune to live at Lake Tahoe, including the winter of 1951-52, (which recorded the second highest Sierra snowfall since records have been kept) when more than 65 feet of snow fell on nearby Donner Summit. Since then the amount of precipitation falling on the Sierra and elsewhere has dropped about 1.2% a year and more and more of that precipitation is falling as rain rather than snow. Porter Fox points out that “By 2050, snowpack in the Sierra Nevada is projected to decrease 40 to 70 percent. If we do not slow or stop burning fossil fuels, we will be looking at brown mountain ranges all winter long as soon as 80 years from now.” The artificiality of man-made snow is in some ways in the short view good for the business and practice of lift-serviced skiing: among other things, so long as it continues to be cold enough it is controlled by man without relying on nature, is more manageable and can be groomed into surfaces smooth enough that an 81 year old experienced skier as well as first year skiers can more easily be enticed to buy a lift ticket and slide upon it. But artificial snow is part of the problem of global warming, sort of like putting an infected band aid on a self-inflicted open wound and then again stabbing the wound through the infected band aid with a dirty knife. Over the last 200 years mankind has slowly crippled nature’s natural processes by releasing CO2 and other air pollutants and greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and creating the Greenhouse Effect. The process of making artificial snow contributes to the Greenhouse Effect and adds to global warming, as, of course, does all the automobile and airplane miles each of us travels to our favorite mountain and its retreating snowpack. In many places, before too long it will not be cold enough to consistently rely on even artificial snow.
Every skier is part of the problem and, if there proves to be one, part of the solution. Since the United States has only 4.6% of the world population and is 2nd highest (next to China with a population 4 times that of America’s 3.11 million citizens) contributor of greenhouse gases which cause global warming, each individual American has a larger responsibility (and burden) than citizens of other countries to be an advocate for a cold, snowy future for all the Earth’s inhabitants including our skiing (or not skiing) grandchildren. Any solution starts with the individual but it does not end there. Each of us can alleviate the ongoing destruction of Earth’s atmosphere and environment in many ways, starting with becoming educated. If one is uneducated or confused about the matter, a good place to start is Union of Concerned Scientists at https://www.ucsusa.org/global-warming#.W6PW-vZMFPY where it is made clear (by the finest scientific minds) that global warming is real, that it is entirely caused by mankind and was not created by or for China, though that country is the leading contributor to greenhouse gases.
The individual effort matters, but as skier citizens of America—the only nation on earth to reject the Paris Agreement on climate change, which Trump falsely and treacherously described as “…an agreement that disadvantages the United States to the exclusive benefit of other countries.”—we need to become advocates for making America a good citizen of the nations of the world instead of the moronic, soulless, ethically challenged MAGA pro-fossil leadership/oil/gas/coal corporate directed imperialist mercenary the U.S. government has officially declared itself to be and which the rest of the world has duly noted. The individual matters, but unless the ideology, policies and practices of the U.S. government changes drastically the individual will not matter enough. As individual skiers we can begin with the world of skiing and we need to vote, march, protect, protest, read science and push on corporate leadership to ensure THOSE entities are pushing on government. Porter Fox published an article in Powder 3 years ago about the many ski industry leaders who give money to climate change deniers in the U.S. government. They include Vail Resorts, Deer Valley Resort Company, Solitude Mountain Resort, Alta Ski Area, Snowbird, Brighton Ski Resort, Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, Mammoth Mountain, KSL Capital Partners (which owns Squaw Valley, Loon Mountain, Sunday River and Sugarloaf) as well as the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA). NSAA issues an annual report on ‘Sustainable Slopes’ subtitled “Keep Winter Cool” and its charter states, “In order to continue to offer quality recreational experiences that complement the natural and aesthetic qualities that draw these visitors to the mountains, the National Ski Area Association (NSAA) and its member resorts have committed to improving environmental performance in ski area operations and management.” A worthy commitment but, since several of the member resorts are those donating money to climate change deniers in the U.S. government, it calls into question their definition of the word ‘commitment’ among other obvious questions. Last year KSL teamed up with Henry Crown and Company (HCC), which owns Aspen Skiing Company, to acquire Intrawest Resorts Holdings and Mammoth Resorts. This company is called Squaw Valley Ski Holdings (SVSH) which consists of 12 ski resorts with, according to KSL’s website, “… approximately six million skier visits, 20,000 skiable acres and significant land available for real estate development, as well as Canadian Mountain Holidays, the world’s leading heli-ski operator, plus comprehensive aviation and real estate businesses.” The Aspen Skiing Company, still owned by HCC but not part of SVHS, is a minority bright light in the U.S. ski industry by intentionally and effectively being serious about doing the right thing and leading us into a cold, snowy future. Check here: https://www.aspensnowmass.com/we-are-different/take-action
Some backcountry skiers and riders do not use ski resort facilities and perhaps do not think of the ski industry as representing them or their values and interests. Whatever the merits of this mindset, in reality the ski industry is the public face of skiing in the halls and offices and bars and restaurants and, most important, lobbying donations given to members of Congress who are deniers of human caused global warming. James Inhofe, Oklahoma Senator and Chair of the Senate Committee on environment and Public Works, has a slightly different perspective than Donald Trump on the ‘hoax’ of a global warming conspiracy theory, saying, “Because ‘God’s still up there’, the ‘arrogance of people to think that we, human beings, would be able to change what He is doing in the climate is to me outrageous.’” Giving money to climate change deniers in the U.S. government who share Trump and Inhofe’s denials of reality (for whatever stated reasons—God ‘up there’ or China ‘over there’ or head up ‘somewhere’) is supporting killing the very snow that we, fellow skiers, depend on as our foundation, revere and make the tracks of life upon.
Bob Dylan, as he so often has, said it best:
“While money doesn’t talk, it swears
“Obscenity, who really cares
“Propaganda, all is phony”
To state the obvious, no obscenity adequately describes giving the money that skiers pay in order to ski to people who call any reality that interferes with the short-term bottom line a hoax, people whose actions indicate they do not care a snowflake in hell whether our grandchildren ski or, even, survive.
Personally, I care.
Do you?
If so, forget about fear, embrace the prerogative of the brave and learn to love getting serious about advocacy. The fate of life on Earth and the skiing possibilities of our grandchildren, depend on it. It’s that simple, human caused global warming is real and the money the ski industry gives to climate change deniers in the U.S. government is your and my public face, fellow skiers. Is that the face you want the government and the world to see, skier friends? If not, then take whatever steps are necessary to stop the ski industry from giving money to climate change deniers in the government and, even more important, vote and work to get out the vote and elect who will recognize the coming (and already evident) climate disaster and not avoid the real work by calling it a ‘hoax.’
While the loss of the incredible if not always acknowledged luxury and privilege of being able to ski one or one hundred days a year is minuscule in the larger scope of the coming climate catastrophe, it is our way of life and what we know and love. Snow is the foundation of that life, knowledge and love. In all things, when the foundation collapses everything it supports quickly follows. It must be acknowledged that it might already be too late, that humanity has not cared enough soon enough to avoid the catastrophe we have brought upon Earth and all its inhabitants, but fighting the good fight to do the right thing in what might be a losing battle has many advantages over resignation, despair and surrender. Auden Schendler is the driving force and Vice President of Sustainability for the Aspen Skiing Company’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, avert the coming climate catastrophe and allow our grandchildren to ski. In a NY Times op-ed Schendler wrote, “Historically, we’ve tackled the biggest challenge — that of meaning, and the question of how to live a life — through the concept of “practice,” in the form of religion, cultural tradition or disciplines like yoga or martial arts. Given the stark facts, this approach might be the most useful. Practice has value independent of outcome; it’s a way of life, not a job with a clear payoff. A joyful habit. The right way to live.
“…I.F. Stone…said…’The only kinds of fights worth fighting are those you are going to lose because somebody has to fight them and lose and lose and lose until someday, somebody who believes as you do wins. You mustn’t feel like a martyr. You’ve got to enjoy it.’… “…To save civilization, most of us would need to supplement our standard daily practices — eating, caring for family and community, faith —with a steady push on the big forces that are restraining progress, the most prominent being the fossil fuel industry’s co-option of government, education, science and media…Our actions must be to scale, so while we undertake individual steps in our lives, like retrofitting light bulbs, we must realize that real progress comes from voting, running for office, marching in protest, writing letters, and uncomfortable but respectful conversations with fathers-in-law. This work must be habitual. Every day some learning and conversation. Every week a call to Congress. Every year a donation to a nonprofit advancing the cause. In other words, a practice.
“…There should be no shortage of motivation. Solving climate change presents humanity with the opportunity to save civilization from collapse and create aspects of what the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called ‘the beloved community.’ The work would endow our lives with some of the oldest and most numinous aspirations of humankind: leading a good life; treating our neighbors well; imbuing our short existence with timeless ideas like grace, dignity, respect, tolerance and love. The climate struggle embodies the essence of what it means to be human, which is that we strive for the divine.
“Perhaps the rewards of solving climate change are so compelling, so nurturing and so natural a piece of the human soul that we can’t help but do it.”
Each individual can become an advocate in several ways, starting with reducing your personal carbon footprint: Huffington Post recommends 7 instant and uncomplicated actions….1.) Cease eating meat or eat less meat; 2.) unplug your devices; 3.) drive less; 4.) don’t buy ‘fast fashion’; 5.) plant a garden; 6.) eat local and organic; 7.) line-dry your clothes (not always possible in snow country). For individuals who wish to advocate in the larger arena, a good place to start is https//www.patagonia.com/actionworks or Protect Our Winters (POW) at protectourwinters.org
Many reading this have a practice of skiing (and other practices of moving over and through snow, but the author is a skier) that has given meaning to and helped answer the question of how to live a life. More, the rewards of skiing and other practices of moving over snow….”are so compelling, so nurturing and so natural a piece of the human soul that we can’t help but do it.” All we have to do is extend the practice to solving climate change.
What better practice of life could there be than to strive for the divine? What better gift could we leave our grandchildren than their own cold, snowy futures?

FOREWARD TO “The Spirit of Icarus: Tales of Flying Close to the Sun” by John Crews

Posted on by
Reply

“Those who know, do. Those that understand, teach.”
Aristotle

John Crews both knows and understands his own well-lived life of learning, experiencing, exploring the limits of and teaching several physical skills in the spirit of Icarus. To John, that spirit does not represent the mainstream association of Icarus with the human weakness of hubris and its inescapable destructive consequences. Instead, for Crews, the spirit of Icarus embodies the Stephen Hawking quote, “The thing about smart people is that they seem like crazy people to dumb people.” He delineates this difference in the introduction as “”…the Icarus spirit that determines whether Icarus spirits appear as ‘crazy people’ or as ‘smart people’ with a slightly different value system.”
Crews is smart and completely aware that the line that characterizes the two aspects of Icarus spirit is as thin and some would say invisible as the difference between good judgment and good luck, as evidenced in the sub-title of “The Spirit of Icarus”: Tales of Flying Close to the Sun. Chronologically, the initial autobiographical tale in this fine book is about John’s first fall down the basement stairs in his family’s Washington State home when he was 1 ½ years old. He writes, “My next clear memory is of sitting on the concrete floor at the bottom of those stairs looking back up. I was not clear about what had happened in between, except that it had been very exciting. The strange sensations all over my body I recognized as PAIN, which called for extreme vocalization until someone showed up to make it better.”
That first very exciting experience appears to have inspired in John a slightly different value system and a lifetime quest for more and more and more and, yes, there has been some pain. “The Spirit of Icarus” is a beautiful depiction in word and photo of that quest. John Crews has spent his life polishing his physical skills at the limits of moving on, in and through as well as considerable air time over water (if one accepts that snow is a form of water), and he has passed on his understanding of that life as one of the outstanding teachers of his professions. I have known, liked and admired John for many years through the world of one of his endeavors……skiing……and can attest that he is one of the finest skiers and ski instructors in America. I am neither practiced nor knowledgeable in matters of the warm weather, big wave, oceanic endeavors he pursues when winter ends each year, but his reputation allows me confidence that he is as accomplished as practitioner and teacher there as he is on skis.
And there is this: on the wall of my office is a small cloth tapestry given to me by a friend with a depiction of Buddha and a quote attributed to him. The quote reads:

Success is not the key to happiness.
Happiness is the key to success.
If you love what you are doing,
You will be successful.

John Crews is 68 years old and a happy man.

Check out the book available at your local bookstore or on Amazon