Your Hand in Mine

Words of Wisdom before I begin

“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.” ~Marcus Aurelius

“I felt my lungs inflate with the onrush of scenery—air, mountains, trees, people. I thought, ‘This is what it is to be happy.’” ~Sylvia Plath

"Life is wonderful. It's a gift to be alive, to see the sun and breathe the air. And there isn't really anything else." – Michael Crichton

The further that I dive into David Abram's book, the more I am becoming self-aware in different facets. It reaffirmed my belief that I need to spend more time outdoors. I try to escape the noise of the world and wander into the wilderness just to feel that overwhelming aura, for lack of a better word. Late Saturday night, as I made the journey from campus to my apartment, I saw a family of deer outside of the gym. And it made me so happy to see them, their presence is always unexpected, but much appreciated because the walk home is usually boring and filled with cars. When nature surprises me with crossing paths with a beautiful creature or finding beautiful country, it fills me with uncontrollable joy. Reading Abram, as well as Dillard, has really confirmed and cemented this feeling inside of me. Its hard in college, when we are distracted by social life and homework, to remember the importance of leaving the chains that constrain us and going out in the world and appreciated all that has been given us by Mother Earth. I really appreciate the people who are in this class appreciate the beauty of the world (I am quite aware that people who were not interested in this belief would not be in this class). But I did not know some of the people in the class before this, but I feel a connection with my peers through the bonds of nature. So few classes have I felt such a bond with the people I share them with, that I am really enjoying this rarity. So if any of yall read this, Thank You and I am excited for the rest of the journey in front of us.

Now that is out of my system , I really enjoyed what Abram said in these two chapters. He finds a way to discuss things that I would have no real interest in before hand. I never had thought about the different layers of saying the word, "Wow." Maybe on a deep sub-conscience level did I come across the idea that I am not only showing feeling of amazement but complimenting whatever that is the cause for the Wow. Abram just has a beautiful way of telling us all these different things about our nature. My eyes are more open to the world than they were previously to this book.I found it was also interesting about how living speech is through gesture. It makes sense since a lot of what we say is through our hands. I can't speak for other types of languages, but my experience with Romanic languages is that half of what is said is in the hands. So its important that when talking about languages, that he acknowledges that. Also it's important that he mentions it because when we are babies, we are not able to comprehend words so through the "living speech," we learn about food, sun, family. Our primary ideas on life come from the "living speech" that is taught to us by our family and friends. What he said about the color red was interesting. When he said it, it sounds obvious, but let's be honest, it wasn't. "It is no more true that we speak than that the things, and the animate world itself, speak within us (pg. 85)." Wow. I love this line, and up to this moment. It may be my single most favorite.

I really appreciate all the knowledge that the Leave no Trace site provided us. I try to keep a lot of this stuff in mind when I go out into the wilderness. While a lot of them were obvious tips, not all of them are ones you think so having this really awesome site helped further them into my conscientious stream. I definitely got more advice though that I plan to keep with me on future journeys into nature. I think these tips will be of great help for the trips.

On Saturday, I had my interview for the paper with a photographer/photo editor/media specialist named Maggie Soladay. I not exactly sure how I stumbled upon her portfolio, probably through this organization she is partnered with and I would love to get involved with called Salaam Garage. Anyways, she is an awesome person. Normally I am uncomfortable talking on the phone, which when I heard Sam's advice it resonated with me, but she and I talked for practically an hour and I could this flame of excitement burning and getting bigger and bigger inside of me. She told me about her journey to where she is now, and some important lessons along the way. She gave me a new name for what my dream job would be, humanitarian media.

Baraka

As we sat by the "big tree," discussing David Abram's book and the connection between an ant, and a human and everything in between, all I thought of a film that I recently got in my possession, Baraka. The title is translated to mean "the thread that weaves life together." The film goes from pan-shots of natural landscapes, to an airfield, to members of the Maasi tribe to animals. There is not a single word spoken, minus some chanting. The point of this film is to show that the world is all connected, no matter where, or who or what we are. I feel like that Abram's would find the film as a spiritual companion of his book, at least up to the point that we have gotten up to.

Abram's stories are written in similar fashion that Dillard's are, and because of such, I felt the same moment of WOW. He has had some crazy life experiences and has a way of words to share them. One of my peers though expressed some discomfort with Abrams though in that he is looking at the world with a universialist view and they felt that it was unfair. They were not happy about the handling of the ants and Abrams experienced it in a less than respectful manner (I am probably not representing this conversation well, but I tried my best). I personally know nothing in depth about religions in that region of the world, so I am not going to comment on it. But I do see the argument that this person present as a valid one.

I have enjoyed the connection that Abrams feels with his surroundings. He seems to understanding of the spirits. His experience of the cave, it would take a special mindset and openness of the surroundings to feel that. On page 22, I thought it was interesting on how he said that we have to escape the way we see things in our modern technological lifestyle and go out and isolate ourselves to see the world for what it is. We will also find ourselves in these moments too. Jack Kerouac wrote once that

“No man should go through life without once experiencing healthy, even bored solitude in the wilderness, finding himself depending solely on himself and thereby learning his true and hidden strength.”

This is in complete agreement with when Abrams when he talks about shutting ourselves off to other voices but our own, and the best place to make this separation is in nature, in solitude. I was glad to see some redemption in that he respected the voices of the animals even if he (or we) can not necessarily hear them. We should not rule out the voices that we are not able to hear. It is too ignorant say that they have no voice. We used not to be able to understand outer space, but in 1969 we put a man on the moon. So we should accept there are things we don't understand but still exists.

On page 33, when he talks about the life and the world's life being intertwined, I could not agree more. Our perception on everything comes from us first. Everything we do affects the way we see, read, deal etc. We are the only one who can really understand the world that we experience. No one can truly say that they see the world I do, unless they have experienced everything I have. There might be some overlap but we are all unique. This is expressed later when Abram talks about the life-world and how different cultures = different life-worlds.

It was really interesting to hear Sam and Fabio talk about their journey's post Guilford, especially in comparison to Andrew Breuing (Bru) and the other recent alum (I am blanking on his name). Fabio was able to start with what he wanted to do right out of the gate, even getting a head start while at Guilford. There was a major contrast between what happened with Fabio and Bru. So I thought that was pretty interesting. I have to agree with a good number of my peers on some of the frustration that was expressed from the Sam and Fabio talked. I definitely felt angst even as I have started the job application process only a few weeks ago. It reiterated a lot of what people who I have talked to about jobs have said. When Sam and Fabio talked about the importance of networking, I thought to myself "friend speaks my mind." I have been trying to network like crazy. I am trying to find a job before graduation, so I have a destination of where to go. Where my parents are, I have a distanced relationship with. I have grown up with a messed up version of what home is to me. I frequently don't know where home is for me. So I am hoping that where I find a job after Guilford becomes my home.

I thought what Fabio said about living below your means was really interesting and good advice especially in this economy. This is not the time to be flashy in our lifestyles. I don't want to generalize but I do thinking that being at Guilford does help us understand that message better than possibly at other schools. Our core values promote this message. For as much as people did not take Sam's advice, I thought and appreciate that his definition of success was heavily focused on his individual happiness. I think that this is important and apply it to my own life. A lot of Guilford would probably agree this. I also love his baseball analogy. I am a lover of baseball and that the idea of hitting .400 (4 out of 10) is almost guaranteed to get you in the hall of fame is deeply applicable to life. Success is always come with some failures, because without the fails in life, we never get true perspective.