Bertol Hut

The Bertol Hut is something that can only exist in Europe. Stay tuned for photos on how to get into that thing.

Buy Nothing Month – Sort Of

Well I decided that March would be “Buy Nothing Month” and I did pretty good – for the first seven days. Yesterday I decided that my 70mm climbing skins would be no good for the upcoming Haute Route trip and that I just had to upgrade to 110mm. That’s over 50 sq inches of added surface area, man I can’t pass that up. No more skidding and slipping downslope for me. Sliding down the uptrack is like a wide open valve on your energy reserves, and since I’m coming into this trip a bit undertrained I’m going to need all the help I can get.

I’m back on the wagon starting today, I’ll report back on the progress

Taking The Time

Due to back, knee, hip and shoulder injuries I’ve been spending a bit of time at the Birkum (hot) yoga studio. Positioning my mat and straightening my specially designed hot yoga towel just so has become kind of a ritual for me and it got me thinking about the Islamic call to prayer. I’m not exactly sure where the connection is, perhaps it’s the rolling out of the yoga mat and the rolling out of the prayer rug, but anyway it got me thinking.

It seems to me that Islamic religion has done two things right: one is it encourage its adherents to occasionally (five times a day I think) stop what they are doing and to “get their mind right,” and secondly it incorporates fasting into its traditional rituals.

Imagine if all those sandbox Caesars on Wall Street as well as all those underperforming overpaid auto and bank execs had stopped every few hours and took five minutes to reflect and get their mind right. I’d wager that we wouldn’t be in the mess that we’re in right now. The world moves so fast that it seems like once you’re on the wrong path it becomes increasingly difficult to get off. Worse yet, the longer you’re on the wrong path the more vehemently you defend and attempt to justify that path no matter how wrong and misguided it is. I’m sure in the end good old Bernie Madoff was doing all kinds of mental gymnastics to internally justify his actions, but imagine if, fifteen years ago, he had stopped every few hours and spent five minutes contemplating. Perhaps Madoff is a bad example, I imagine him to be rotten to the core, but for most of us I’d imagine a few minutes of contemplation every day would do us good. Isn’t prayer, for the most part, formalized contemplation?

Fasting is another good way to get your mind right. It’s hard to be empathetic on a full stomach. Before the invention of industrialized farming I would wager that every human, outside of royalty, experienced serious hunger at least once in their lifetime. “There but for the grace of God go I” was a way of understanding the world and one’s connection to it. In the absence of traditional feast and famine cycles it seems important that we occasionally step out of our comfortable world and become a little hungry. We should all strive to go through life with open eyes, but how can you truly see when your belly is perpetually full.

On Winning

Growing up I was only exposed to a single parenting style – that of my parents – but now that I’m a parent who talks to and observes other parents I’ve come to realize that there is no singular correct child-rearing philosophy. Every parent I’ve ever met essentially wants their children to be successful, but what is success? I guess at its basest level a successful adult is someone who can exist independently, in other words someone who isn’t a drain on his/her parents. But can simply existing without constantly having to ask your mom and dad for an allowance be considered success. For some yes, for others no.
Folks of my generation freely throw about the work loser: he’s a loser, she’s a loser, they’re losers. Perhaps this is an offshoot of our capitalist society; capitalism is definitely all about winning and losing. But is it really that cut and dried? Do sayings like “second place is the first loser,” or “if you don’t win you’ve lost,” speak any kind of truth? When I look back on my own life, though I’ve entered I’m sure over one hundred competitions, I’ve never won anything (I did win the cub scout pinewood derby once, but my dad built that car), does that make me a loser. Eighteen years after saying my vows I still have a happy marriage, my kids are nearly perfect, I’ve climbed an eight thousand meter peak – no oxygen – completed two Ironman races, ran five marathons, posses a graduate degree (I think that piece of paper is around here somewhere) have a loving extended family and have a circle of friends that would be the envy of any man, so I really don’t feel like a loser. But still I’ve never taken home that gold medal.
The reason that I’m pondering this is because I’m continually pondering whether or not I’m doing a passable job as a parent. Over the years my kids have been involved in a number of sports and during that time I’ve observed a number of boys and girls who are obsessed with winning. The sport/event is fun and worthwhile if and only if they can win. It would be easy to say “well look at the parents,” but that isn’t the case: some of the most laid back parents have the most driven kids – at least that’s how it appears to the outside observer. It’s a kind of chicken/egg thing: is the fastest kid in the class naturally talented and therefore pushes himself because he knows he can win, or does he possess only average talent but is willing to push harder because he hates to lose. Do these kids love winning or hate losing? Personally I think it’s less of the former and more of the later.
I’ve never entered any competition with the expectation of winning and therefore have never been all that disappointed when I didn’t stand atop the podium. This isn’t to say that I don’t try hard: in the triathlon world I’m a fifty percenter, but I still train incredibly hard and race as though I’m being chased by the devil. I know a lot of people hold the philosophy “if you can’t win don’t enter,” I also know that a lot of parents think they are doing their children a favor by demanding that they win – that they crush the opposition – it’s a dog eat dog world out there, you’d better have the sharpest teeth. That’s a tough philosophy for me to swallow. I suppose I’ll just keep going with what feels right, and I suppose I don’t regret telling my son “who cares if he won today, in ten years he’ll be selling you shoes.”

Learn to be Still

As I try to figure out how to raise my own children, I’m continually amazed by the insight and foresight of my own parents. My household had little in common with the Cleaver’s, but, like the Beav, I had a very wholesome, happy childhood. In addition to teaching me values of hard work, loyalty to family and friends, honesty and responsibility my mom and dad also demonstrated the importance of being comfortable with oneself.
Being comfortable with yourself may sound like a strange thing to teach one’s children, but now that I’ve embraced the hermit-like existence of being a writer I am so thankful for the ability to simply be alone. Don’t get me wrong, I thrive on telling stories and laughing with my friends, but I’m also able to be happy and comfortable just being by myself.
In the age of nonstop playdates, sleepovers, cell phones, video games, skype, text messaging, facebook and all sorts of other “social networking” devices I believe that it’s more important than ever to consciously teach our children to “learn to be still.” I remember a commercial with the pitch line “so you never have to be alone,” as though being alone were some kind of problem in need of a solution. If you never learn to be still, how can you ever expect to hear that still small voice – the one that tells you about life, and how to live it.

Rolling Along

Just back, and still sweating, from my first roller ski attempt. It was a rare blue sky day as I rolled along the newly repaved roads of Snoqualmie Valley. It’s been awhile since I’ve tried something new and despite two falls I very much enjoyed being on the steep end of the learning curve. Being a neophyte at a sport as coordination intensive as skate skiing can certainly be exasperating, but it can also be exhilarating. The rapid improvement experienced by the beginner can be addictive; you know that next time you can go longer, faster better.
My first exposure to skate skiing was back in the early nineties when a four friends joined my wife and I on a weekend trip to the Methow Valley. We were out loaded down for a full day tour, slogging along in heavy leather books and what were basically narrow downhill skis when a small-framed lady came skating past, she was going quadruple our speed with what appeared to be less than half the effort. She was going to do the full 20K loop and be home in time for breakfast; I was amazed.
Traveling quietly, quickly and competently through the natural world is what I enjoy most, skate skiing and roller skiing are two new arrows in the quiver.

A Bold New Plan

Despite being addicted to politics I’ve really tried to keep this blog free of Washington nonsense, but now I just can’t keep quiet. I simply can’t believe that one of Mr. Obama’s first actions, his so-called Bold New Plan, will be to borrow another $775 billion from China so that more Americans can go to Wal Mart and buy more cheap junk manufactured in China. Is it possible for me to refuse this loan? Can I tell Mr. Obama thanks but no thanks, keep my five hundred bucks, and don’t put my kids even further into debt.
The way I see it the United States of America is in crisis mode, the problems as I see them are as follows:
1. Massive consumer debt.
2. Poor overall health and almost non-existent preventative medicine.
3. Global climate change.
4. Our crushing debt to foreign governments.
5. The daily loss of manufacturing jobs.
6. Our dependence on foreign energy.
7. The nonsensical abuse of both illegal and prescription drugs.
Mr. Obama’s plan addresses none of these problems and contributes to nearly all of them. If the next President wants to do something bold might I suggest what I call the Two-Wheel Solution.
The Two-Wheel Solution is a massive restructuring of our road system to accommodate two-wheeled transportation: namely bicycles. Cars would still have a place – transporting kids, carpooling to work, taking long trips – but there is no reason why the majority of trips currently taken in cars couldn’t be taken on a bicycle, if, and this is a big if, the trip could be taken safely. As a person who pedaled over two thousand miles last year I will be the first to admit that bicycling is dangerous, the danger being automobiles.
Our roads are designed for cars; bicycles are scarcely even given a second thought. It’s no wonder that people drive cars as our world is designed for them. It’s time for that to change. Instead of building more roads and desperately drilling for less and less oil we should invest our tax dollars into creating bike lanes – either new or the conversion of existing automobile lanes. This gives drivers a choice, they can sit in gridlock or they can join the healthy happy bikers zooming past them in the bike only lane.
Increasing the use of bicycles in our daily lives reduces all seven of the problems stated above. Americans are unhappy and unhealthy, a situation many of us try to rectify by driving a fifty thousand dollar vehicle, bought on credit, to a gym where we spend hours working off the donuts we ate while sitting in traffic. Commute twenty miles a day and you can eat all the donuts you want while simultaneously eliminating that car payment and gym membership. In addition, by eliminating time spent in traffic and time at the gym I’d wager that most Americans would find a net increase in their daily free time.
The Two-Wheel Solution will reduce consumer debt, increase overall health, reduce carbon emissions, reduce our national debt, increase domestic manufacturing jobs and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. As a side benefit we will find a net decrease in drug abuse because healthy people are less likely to find happiness in a bottle, pill or pipe.
Who would oppose such an idea? Let’s start with the oil companies, then the prescription drug companies and finally the now begging on their knees automobile companies. That’s a lot of Lear Jets and tailored suits, so don’t hold your breath.