While not straying too far off the beaten track for this blog, I just had to post a great quote.
It’s from Smoke Blanchard, mountaineer, hiker, traveller, guide, climber, trekker, truck driver, and about a thousand other things in between … and appropriately enough, it’s about life and career choices.
Most choices at the crossroads of life are made under weak starlight with a feeble lantern that illuminates poorly the farther stretches of trail.
I’ve just finished his 1984 memoir, Walking Up and Down in the World: Memories of a Mountain Rambler, and had to mention it here because it rings so true.
[tags] career, books, quote, smoke blanchard, john koetsier [/tags]
Yes, walking is very important for one’s health, maybe even more important than running, however i am not so sure about walking in the dark, sounds a bit scary and dangerous, for example if there is animal poop on the road , you could end up stepping on it.
err yeah Cling. Totally.
Great post. I send to my lil sis as she packs her backpack and flies across the Atlantic to trek across Europe.
~ Jeremy
I AM Jeremy’s sister who faithfully followed the link my brother sent me. 🙂 Oddly enough, this resonates so powerfully with my struggle to decide on which college I want to transfer to instead of my europe trip. My decisions are generally founded on intricate planning and logic, but they are not much help with deciding the unknown, hypothetical future life of what life would be like if i stayed home where i’m completely happy or if i went to ucla – place of great academic potential, but lest favorite city. I love that phrase “feeble lantern”… I’m straining for insight and light, but it only can shine a few feet. not that this helps with the decision at hand, but I’ll be thinking about his quote. being put as a natural thing, it makes me feel more calm and even instills a sense of adventure. two things I wish I’ve throughout the whole process of debate. Wow that was too long. but i know i love to read comments, so hopefully you do too. thank you for the quote. hail to the bloggers.
[…] hiker, moutain climber, trucker, guide, naturalist, photographer, author, and much, much more. (See this post of mine on a different blog for an interesting quote from the […]
[…] was going through some old posts today, and saw this one which I wrote after reading his book, Walking Up and Down in the World. I’d already posted it, but it’s so good I just had to repost […]