Endurance Philosophy

We're going through phases. Every time I hear someone with a fancy job title who is "important" enough to be on national television speak of Phase 1, or what's going to happen in Phase 2, I almost laugh. Not quite, but almost. If there were ever an example of bullshit artists being employed to calm the masses, this is it. If we lived in a less autonomous society, like Germany or Japan, I probably wouldn't be skeptical. If Obama were president, I probably wouldn't be so skeptical. There are many situations in many parallel universes where I'm not skeptical. But in this one, I am. We love titles here in America. We love official things. The official truck of NASCAR. The official beer of the NFL. The official nail clipper of the Hoboken All-City Under-45 Pickle ball Team. We yearn for gimmicks on television to retain viewers that create an illusion that they are watching something special and novel, something that they shouldn't miss. Part of this is a ...

As the snow melts, and the cold winter turns to cold spring, and then warm spring, there's one thing on my mind. Camping. As the weather gets "nicer" (read: it's no longer possible to go nordic skiing) I yearn to pack a bag, toss it in a canoe, or simply on my back, and walk off into the sunset with my adventure (and life) partner, Lindsay Bear. This year, the dreams have been coming. They're coming on hot and heavy. Some days it's all I think about. That's a lie. Some days it's the only other thing I think about besides coffee. There, that's better. The problem is, I don't know if you've heard, but there is a global pandemic. Which means all the plans are thrown out the window. The good news for the intrepid explorers out there is this: adventure travel is likely going to be one of the first types of travel to resume  when we emerge on the other side of this pandemic. The bad news is, the same adventurous spirit that drives us to answe...

This is the second post of thoughts related to COVID-19. Most of it isn't mine; because while I was a character in the real-life story you're about to read, I was not the hero. The following italicized paragraph's were written by my partner, after we got back from taking a walk from our home. We live on the outskirts of a city of over 65,000 people, so we walk through several neighborhoods. With that pretext, I'll let you read the rest. --- Once upon a time (for real though), 2 teachers, Matt Beattie & myself went for a walk, leaving behind our phones... but bringing our face masks (because that's the world we live in).  Little did we know we wished we had at least one phone with us.  We decided to walk the "big loop", getting off the main road and into a cute neighbourhood - as we came around the corner, we saw a woman(mid-40's) struggling to get up the stairs - shaking, unsteady, and then fell backwards from the 3rd or 4th step.  SMACK - her b...

A few months ago, back when we could go outside without wondering whether we'd remembered to grab our face covers, I was standing in a snowy field with way more than 50 people, most of whom were sliding around with long, skinny planks clipped to their feet. Next to me was one of my athletes. We were at the state championship meet, and we had lots of down time. The skis had been waxed, the course had been previewed, and we had nothing to but wait. We were people watching. If you go to a nordic ski race, this is an activity I highly recommend. (Second to, of course, actually skiing.) The results will be enlightening. Let me start by saying that several people that I have met through the nordic skiing community in New England are on the list of Best People That I Know. At least one person that I met not through the nordic skiing community ended up being a part of the nordic skiing community, and is at the top of the list. (And I'm not just saying that because we're qua...

The I in the title is not me, but a numeral. As in: These are the first of my thoughts about this pandemic. Let me be absolutely clear: I am not a trained medical anything. These thoughts are just a snapshot, from the perspective of the humanities, as I am human, and that is all I can provide. I think at this point in time we're all thinking back to a couple of months ago, or at least, I know I'm thinking back to a couple months ago and remembering how nice things were. Little did we know that life as we knew it was about to change, very drastically, and very rapidly. I had four living grandparents two months ago; I now have only three. Two of my grandparent's actually contracted the disease; one of them lived, and one of them did not. That was the first moment that I realized things were serious. Let me back up a couple of steps; I knew things were serious. I work as a teacher, and we had already begun remote learning at the time that my grandfather past away. We had a...