August 24, 2013

August 24, 2013

Somewhere on the divide to Grand Lake, CO

~31 miles

With the early bedtime last night due to the storm, I awoke at 5am, a half hour before my alarm. I decided I might as well get things going and went through my usual routine getting on trail at 6:15. 

The hiking today was pretty straightforward nothing particularly exciting to speak of, but it did give me the opportunity to finish listening to The Icarus Deception. The basis of the book is that our Westernized industrial culture has indoctrinated us to be careful not to fly too close to the sun, lest the wax holding our wings to our backs fall off. The result being we as a society have gone to the opposite extreme and are flying far too low, so low that we may crash into the ocean. What this means in terms of today's world is that we have been taught to fit in, try not to stand out, and don't draw attention to yourself. Just do your job, produce more widgets, and receive that steady paycheck. In contrast, the author Seth Godin, wants us to shun this culture of complacency and dare to be different. Stand out and be heard, even if you don't change the world on your first attempt. The key is to keep at "it" (it being variable depending on your field of interest) and make a difference to your audience, but don't try to please everyone because it's not possible without sacrificing your particular art/gift/talent that only you can bring to the world. Don't be afraid to fail! Just make sure you try again and again until it works. 

It certainly has me thinking about my own past and future and how I can apply the knowledge to my life. There are plenty of things that I have in my mind that I want to do at some point in my life, for example write and publish a book. I don't know what the topic will be yet, but just putting something of myself out into the world, exposing a portion of me to total strangers not knowing whether people will respond to it. Don't know if you don't try!

Grand lake is a cool little resort type town with one main avenue (Grand Ave) with restaurants, shops, and motels. It was a busy place this evening as I got into town being Saturday and all. I was a me to find a room and take care of all my town chores so I can get back to hiking tomorrow morning.