Meditations on Appalachia

Man oh man. I can’t believe I’m doing this. My whole body hurts. I’ve been having the interesting sensation of numbness across my chest, I think I’ve been keeping my sternum strap too tight. But anyway, right now I’m sitting in a place with more heads on the wall than the risd nature lab.

Things that are awesome:
1) hiking poles
2) liner socks
3) hydration bladders

Things that are not awesome:
1) cell reception
2) iPhone battery life

It’s a lot harder to meditate out here than I thought it would be. I take so many more steps than breaths, the whole pace is faster. Half the time I’ve got the verse of some song looping in my head. I haven’t been thinking about food the way people say you do, though I have been having cravings for salted almonds and cheese. Maybe that will come later.

It’s strange being surrounded by so many men. I feel really weird around men, and have a tougher time communicating with them. I didn’t really realize how much more comfortable I am around and talking to women until now because there are very few females about.

In the eternal words of Bilbo Baggins, “it’s a dangerous business, going out one’s front door, you step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet you never know where you’ll get swept off to.”

Sustainability.

While it is yet to be decided whether or not I will be given the opportunity to study sustainable design, any honest pursuit into the field requires to time spent out doors. I’m not saying you have to spend months in a tent, but you should know how to shit in the woods. How can a conservationalist work to save something they have not lived in and built a personal relationship with? I think a lot of the modern ethical dilemas stem from the distance between humans and the where and how of the issues, be it the meat industry, the environment, or whatever.

In the words of HDT, “I went into the woods because I wished to live deliberately.” I go into the woods to experience that which I feel so compelled to protect.

When I saw that the crescent train continues through Georgia to new Orleans I thought it would be a good idea to visit my friends who live there before I headed out. Boy was it! This place is awesome! Ok, things I love about new Orleans:

1. More people have said hello to me in one day here than people did in three months in Portland.
2. The houses are all painted amazing bright colors and have huge shutters, that work!
3. Many houses also have beautiful weathered exteriors complete with brightly colored peeling paint!
4. Ornamental Ironwork.
5. There are cats everywhere.
6. It’s summer all the time.
7. You can still smoke in bars.
8. You can drink on the streets.
9. 100% bikable

In a lot of ways new Orleans is similar to Baltimore, only happier, more colorful, and there’s an overall go ahead attitude rather than a depressing one. There’s a good mix of Portland weirdos too. Good job NOLA.

Oh, and my friends have an amazing studio deal through the Colton school.
www.cano-la.org

It’s a completely different train, this crescent train. Somewhat similar to the lake shore limited. It hits all the major east coast and south east cities, so there are no longer “smoking” stops at the smaller stations like there were on the empire builder. So you don’t get as much of a sense of place from feeling and breathing the country air. While the crescent passes through the county, it maintains a distinct urban feel. People on this train are going to cities, not towns.

Well, I’m on my way! I’ve been thinking more about trail names. I wanted to go with something train related, as I’ve been taking so many trains recenty, but Gunzel (an Australian railfan) and Shunter (a short distance locomotive) just didn’t seem to fit. So I’ve been thinking about using Bender. I was think about Burning Tree too, but that would be unfair to Aimee and too generous to Portland.

Also a cool update! You can now follow my location and view photos in the sidebar by clicking the links under “Where’s Matthew?”

Control.

This is the poorest reason to embark on hiking the Appalachian trail, especially when one wants to meditate, and I am most ashamed about it.

I feel like I have no control over my life. Maybe everyone feels that way, but I feel over the last two years ( since returning from India really) I have been throwing myself against a brick wall. I’ve sent out over 100 cover letters and over 20 residency proposal and have not had anything positive come out of either endevour besides a brief internship and a temp job. I couldn’t even get a job at starbucks. So in a bizarre way I feel trapped, almost forced into hiking the trail. I don’t know what else to do, what else to try. This is also why I’m going to grad school, and I was so scared I’d be blocked out of that, too. Of course I wanted to work at an architecture or design firm for a year or two first, but no dice. I am so tired of people telling me “no”.

So I walk. Because I want to. Because I have to. And because no one can tell me I can’t.

Timing.

It takes 4 – 6 months to hike the trail, free time one usually doesn’t have. But seeing as how I’ve been haunted by unemployment, the economy is in the shitter, and I’ve got grad school in the fall, I figured now was as good a time as ever. Grad school actually makes me a bit jittery since I’ll have to finish hiking much closer to the four month end of the spectrum, and I do not want to feel rushed, or like I am missing something.

It’s also on my list of things to do before I’m 30,and hey, I’m not 30.

I’m going to try to send post cards to everyone, but I realize people won’t be able to write me back! Which is aweful. So if you ever do want to send me something, send it to my normal Natick address but write “APPALACHIAN TRAIL” on it in big letters somewhere and I’ll get it.

Fear number two no longer applies; I just found out that I got into the ASU Intermedia MFA program!

So I was talking to someone the other day about the hike and we both brought up the idea of sponsorship along the trail.  I have never heard of anyone hiking the Appalachian Trail for a fundraising cause, but don’t people have walks for all kinds of different things?  So I was wondering if anyone knew of an organization that might be interested in something like this.  I’m not sure exactly how it work work, and I’m almost out of time to organize something like this myself, but I think it would be really cool to have, say, and American Cancer Society flag on my pack and for get people to sponsor me per mile, or only on completion of the trail or something and give all the proceeds to the ACS.  Thoughts?