American Woman

The Beatles Lied

All the pop songs and romantic comedy movies say that "the more love you give, the more love you get". But in my experience, the more love you give, the more hurt you get.

All Apologies

Since I've Been Loving You

This is probably my favorite song

Whipping Post

Out on the Weekend

What Difference Does it Make?

If you keep your eyes open, you can find truth in many places, and Christian truth even in places and from people who didn't intend it. Remember the people to whom Jesus, in his parable, says "enter into my rest" but who didn't even know they were Christians? 

This one is expressing unconditional love in the face of being treated poorly and coldly.

Stage Two--Big Cypress, the Everglades

Stage Two will be the infamous Big Cypress section of the Everglades. Supposedly, water levels will be lower at this time of year, and the mosquitoes not as bad. But mostly, the heat should be less oppressive--roughly like summer here in Virginia, and hopefully a little cooler. But I'm looking forward to it, and especially I think I'll be more than ready to leave behind roadwalks, paid campgrounds, and stealth camping.

From the Florida Trail site:

"One of the wildest places for a backpacking trip east of the Mississippi, the Florida Trail through Big Cypress National Preserve is not your typical hiking destination. It weaves through the heart of the rain-fed Big Cypress Swamp, a vast shallow river also known as the Western Everglades. Within the Big Cypress Swamp, hikers experience broad, open sawgrass prairies, underlain by slippery marl mud and periphyton (the primary biomass of the Everglades forest floor) a goopy glop that is a complex mix of algae, bacteria, and fungi. There are linear cypress strands – rivers within a river – with deeper water flowing northeast to southwest through corridors flanked by cypress trees, some tiny and wizened, others tall and stately, most decked out in bromeliads and orchids. And then there are the dry spots, the islands of slash pine that rise just a little above the river’s flow, just enough to offer a tiny speck of relief from the swamp.
Crossing the Big Cypress is both a physical and mental challenge. It is a hike best done with a group. Expect to average 1 MPH when wading through the swamp. It can be tough to scout blazes ahead of you when you are alone, and there are ankle-turning holes in the limestone bedrock and hidden logs beneath the swamp’s waters. It’s smart to use a hiking stick – a wooden one, not your extendable poles, which could snap and break in this environment – to feel the placement of your feet as you wade, since there are many underwater obstructions. Your feet will be wet for several days. Water may be as deep as waist-deep in places. Your tent will not dry out. Despite the water – where alligators look for the deep spots – this is the home of the Florida panther, the Florida black bear, and the Florida bobcat. Cottonmouths are common and should be treated with the utmost respect. Python and anaconda sightings are possible, but more rare – dumped into the Everglades over the past two decades by irresponsible pet owners, these invasive snakes have exploded in population."

We Are Go!

Machine arrived in working order, and I have made my reservations. Apologies to all who came here to read about my trip and have been subjected to whatever random thoughts I happened to be entertaining while I waited impatiently to get started...but then again, the name of the blog should have warned you. :)  I didn't realize what a state I've been in with impatience and frustration until just now, when I bought my tickets and it suddenly all went away.

So, Here again is the plan for the first stage of my little walk, plus, as a bonus to reward your patience, the next entry will give a glimpse of stage two.







The labeled dots represent my tentative plan for stopping each night--mostly public campgrounds, state parks, and motels, since this part is through populated areas. But I'll probably try Stealth Camping once I've got the feel of the place, both to save money and to give myself more freedom and flexibility. And after all, since most of my gear is Army surplus in woodland camouflage, I should be able to pull off the 'stealth' part rather nicely.

Once I get to Everglades International Hostel, I'll be picking up the swamp gear (waders and such: I don't want to ruin my boots, as they've got a long way to carry me) that I'm mailing ahead and the Hostel kindly agrees to hold for me (a regular service of theirs for hikers and other expiditioneers). That will, of course, mean extra weight to carry, as will the fact that there is no resupply for the couple of days it takes to get to Big Cypress or for the five to seven it takes to cross it, so I've got to carry enough food for a week or more. But I should be getting into the swing of things by then, getting trail-hardened and fit.

Don't Think Twice, It's Alright

Why Tyler Durden is Like Jesus

"For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." -- Jesus, Matt. 16:25

"Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." -- Jesus, Luke 9:23

"It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything." -- Tyler Durden, Fight Club

I've always found a ringing truth in Tyler's philosophy about hitting bottom.

Remember, this is only a literary metaphor and not intended to be theology, so don't take it too far: after all, Tyler is asking The Narrator to follow him, not Christ. 'In Tyler We Trust'. Tyler is a "Christ-figure" in the literary sense, and taken in that context, does his job well: he guides the hero through the death of the self and into the new life beyond, asks him to abandon himself, the world, and all his possessions, status, and everything he knows, and shows him the way to truth. And as the hero faces ever more shocking levels of filth, shame, and degradation, Tyler is right there standing beside him--a resounding metaphor to my own experience of Jesus; for as the work of His Spirit continues to reveal the appalling depths of my own sin, I always find Christ standing there waiting, as if to say "Yes, I already knew that about you. Ready to move on now?"

WARNING: STRONG LANGUAGE AND MILD BLASPHEMY

6 Degrees of...Cold

6 degrees at my house this morning...and that was at 10 AM. It must have been colder earlier. Think I'll stay indoors today; I already got a mild case of hypothermia driving to Staunton in my heater-less truck last Friday when it was 13. I keep meaning to get the stupid thing fixed, but it always seems like such a waste, when I hardly ever use it. Next winter for sure.

Got to hear my favorite violinist play this live on the aforementioned Friday...but you'll have to settle for Mutter.

(ed. Ack! Posted the wrong video...youtube through blogger is weird sometimes. Here's the right one.)

Good News on my Trip...Tentatively

Just talked to someone about my CPAP machine, and they said they're shipping a new one today. I'm not going to book tickets or anything until I've got it in-hand and tested but, God willing, it looks like I'll be able to get going within a couple of weeks.

Something

There is something in the living presence of a woman; a beauty that cannot be shown in pictures or beheld with the eye, and which those men who are enamoured with the kind of beauty that can be captured by a camera do not and cannot comprehend. And though you cannot touch her or even talk to her, simply being in the same room will give to your heart a pleasure like the sensation when a beloved one runs her fingers along your neck, half a tickle and half a caress. There is nothing in the world that is half so lovely.

Tupelo Honey

"There is a wholeness about a woman, of shape, and sound, and colour, and taste, and smell, a quietness that is her, that you will want to hold tightly to you, all, every little bit, without words, in peace, with jealousy for the things that escape the clumsiness of your arms. So you feel, when you love.

-- Richard Llewellyn

And yet more...

There is tedious, it is, to be quoting this old book all the time, I know. But I've never read anything whose protagonist is closer to my own soul. And moreover, Llewellyn seems to have perfectly captured the moment in history when everything that was good and beautiful in life was giving way to everything that is modern, and ugly, and greedy, and utilitarian, and soulless. Not only the loss of "the quiet of the world, when there was less noise and more green," (for what is the slag heap, but Mordor?) but of family, of community, and of identity. For no one I've ever read has so beautifully and perfectly portrayed what we lost when we lost femininity and womanness, and so also lost our manhood.

I'm almost done with the book, I promise.

"Something is strange in the faces of people, who live all their lives in a town. For their lives are full of the clock and their eyes are blind with seeing so many wonders, and they have no pleasure of expectation or prettiness of wish. Good things are heaped in the windows all round them, but their pockets are empty, and thus they suffer in their minds, for where they would own, now they must wish, and wishes denied soon turn to a lust that shows itself in the face. Too much to see, day after day, and too much noise for peace, and too little time in a round of the clock to sit by themselves, and think."

"O, there is lovely to feel a book, a good book, firm in the hand, for its fatness holds rich promise, and you are hot inside to think of good hours to come." 

-- Richard Llewellyn 

"A horrible feeling, it is, to know you are a burden in body and spirit to somebody dear to you. "

-- Richard Llewellyn

"Sometimes a light will go from your life, Huw, and your life becomes a prayer, until you are strong enough to stand under the weight of your own thought again. "

-- Richard Llewellyn