[at-l] perspective / reality checks

[David Addleton]

i don't want to minimize, nor do I wish to overstate, the
accomplishment of walking the appalachian trail, esp as I haven't done
it, yet.

i just want to suggest some perspective . . . .

the himalaya are only 1,500 miles long . . . but the himalaya span so
many nations, peoples, languages, religions, cultures, societies such
that I doubt it will ever have a trail, nor anyone to walk it, end to
end: tho' the idea of it just dawned on me just this evening (at least
I experience again something familiar) . . . . the trail need not
include neither the 14 highest earth-peaks nor the lesser ones, to
still remain impressive

i don't know how long the andes may be . . . but right now spanish
would get you through . . . .

the CDT get's you through some, but not all, of the rockies . . . .
does anyone [who writes about it here] know what's beyond the
Candyaddienne border?

how about them Alps?

and then the metaphors:

the projects to supreme court?!  ** we have too many catholics there
already - how about some hindus or buddhists?! **

mulatto to president?!

how about dropping out of the sky or swimming from a boat into an
alien culture and language and [insert terror such as i have never
known here] walking hundreds of miles to get home, beyond and through
tropical jungle and peoples who want to kill you?

before the last century, if you wanted to visit any place in the
world, you had to walk there, or ride a donkey, horse, camel, or
elephant; or catch a sail boat and then walk or ride some poor animal
. . .

personally, I suspect the challenges of brain, mind, and physical
injury, malady, or illness present more of a challenge than any of the
above -- yet NONE OF THE ABOVE, except tangently, are the subject or
purpose of the AT-L . . .

unless that's changed since the last time I checked in?

my desire to hike the AT has waned in the last two or three years

just noticing . . .