Wilderness Longing
It’s been a while since my last real vacation. I find myself dreaming about being outside. I’ve thought a lot about why I like hiking and camping. Most of my co-workers and peers turn up their nose at the thought of spending any time in the woods. Some might go to a State Park and camp within a few feet of their car, but that’s the extent of it.
So what’s the attraction to being outside — hiking or camping?
The experience is 100% unmediated. There are corporate sponsors standing between me and reality. It’s not televised, sanitized, homogenized, and no professionals are warning me not to try it at home. It’s completely real. It’s not real like reality TV, where only beautiful kids compete, hookup and generally act a lot like the worst parts of high school.
When I am out hiking everything I need is in my pack. In normal daily life I require untold thousands of pounds of possesions to see me through the day. The weight of all my stuff burdens me. Each thing I own needs to be stowed, maintained, and used. I can’t manage that on my best days. But when I am hiking I manage to use nearly everything in my pack, except some of the more exotic items in my first aid kit, thank goodness. I know what is in my pack. I could make a list of it all in my head, I know where it all goes. Each item gets used. It’s a very satisfying way to operate.
Hiking in the wilderness makes me feel connected to the larger world. In my job I look at a PC screen. It’s a mediated interface between me and layers upon layers of computer interfaces. On my best day, all I have done is written magenetic particles somewhere on a disk. When I am out hiking, I can see the scenery change. I look at my map and the scene and walk towards a lake or hill, then before I know it it’s behind me. I touch the rocks, trees, and earth. I engage with reality that I can smell, see, touch, hear and sometimes taste.
I feel connected with history. In U.S. history there are lots of wanderers and explorers I’ve read about. When I am out in the woods I think about what it must have been like trying to eek out a living in a difficult land, without sophisticated maps, just a few people and a canoe, so far from home. They don’t seem to far away to me, since I am sharing the experience with them. Looking at the same scenes.I may be an adult but I can still play Lewis and Clark.
When in the wilderness I feel connected with a higher power. Everyone has different views on this one, but as for me when I round a corner and see a stunning view I can’t help but be thankful for whoever arranged the view like that. While I could conclude that random interaction of the elements caused it, I don’t.
I have read several writers who describe being in the wilderness as an experience of “healing.” While that sounds over wrought, I have had experieces in the wilderness that have such a positive effect on my psyche, I have to describe it as healing or cleansing.
So I am ready for the north woods.
