It was this last day that brought a lot of things into perspective for me. I kept thinking about my family, and how I could not wait to play with my girls and see my wife. I was thinking about the evidence that nature’s destructive forces can work for good .Wildfires have renewed and revitalized thousands of acres of the park. Heck, even the glaciers themselves thousands of years ago were bulldozing mountains that now have created some of the most breathtaking vistas in the world.
Similarly, The night the tornado came was the most intense time of fear, uncertainty, and awe I have ever experienced. The power of the storm was terrible, the confusion was heart shaking, and the miracle of the human spirit was un-broken. I know that the tornado destroyed Joplin and that we are going to build it back better, but how? It was not until I stepped onto the shuttle that the reason I love backpacking became very clear. I was reminded of the Native American quote…
“We started noticing-your clothes fit like cages-your houses looked like cages-everything was a cage. You turned the land into cages-little squares. After that, you made a government to protect the cages-all your laws were about what you could NOT do. The only freedom you had was inside your own cage. Then, you wondered why you didn’t feel free. We Indians never thought that way. Everyone was free. We didn’t make cages of laws or land.”- Lakota Elder
We work in a cage, we sleep in fancy cages, we travel in cages, and even our kids literally play in cages. Backpacking is freedom from that society. Taking a week off work to act like a pack animal is crazy to most people. When I got on that shuttle I saw kids who were playing Gameboys, people sleeping, and not a single person on the bus looked like they even knew where they were. They were trapped in a moving cage. Nature has a supernatural power that allows your mind to decompress. You might not notice it at first, but slowly and surely the layers of useless information placed in your head by constant access to the World Wide Web, smart phones, and the insane pace of our day to day lives will start to un-fold. Being in awe of the earth’s rotation through the stars can do more healing than thousands of dollars spent on self-help books.
Identifying why I love backpacking made me realize that there are more important connections in our life than our connection to material goods. Material possessions are nothing, losing old keepsakes just means that you now get the chance to make new memories. It made me realize that society is nuts and that even though I am going to go back to my old job it does not mean that I am entrapped by it. Getting lost in the wild frees me to go back to work, and work harder. I can come home to love my wife with more intensity, and play with my kids with even more joy. My family and I don’t have to sell everything we have and move to a commune to be free from society. We can work, watch TV, and eat out just like everyone else. It is a mindset that you have to be free. Every morning that I wake up I have the choice to let my surroundings control me or let deeper, older things influence the decisions I make. Backpacking cannot set you free. However, sometimes when you make a clean break for a while, you see how far you have been sucked in. Then when you come home, you can be a more alive version of you, appreciate the beauty all around you, maybe fix a hurting relationship, or even begin to pick up the pieces of your destroyed town.