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Short Story

June 20, 2014June 20, 2014

Our eyes never met from across the room.
Neither did we.
The End

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One thought on “Short Story”

tjamrog says:
June 20, 2014 at 11:14 am

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lovely post.

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The objective is to gain degrees of latitude (forward progress) only by non-motorized means.

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You see that pass? That is our last time above 2000 m FOR THE REST OF THIS CONTINENT!!!! . Unless we take a seriously wrong turn. or have grossly miscalculated something. Which we do. Plenty of times it feels like this journey is built atop a heap of failures. In planning sometimes I drew route wrong, misread the satellite images. On the ground, I misinterpret directions, just plumb take a wrong turn into a hip deep bog, lead us on a "Fidgit short cut" which adds several hours and lots of cuts and bruises to a day, we get pummeled by bad weather, volley months of illness, FOMO on everything happening at home. Everything can feel like a wrong turn if you question it enough. . Yet, at the end of each day, there we are. And something comes along which says, "you are precisely where you were meant to be at exactly right about now." This could be a grasshopper, a student protest, a contribution from a friend; everything which moves within the flow encourages me to press onward and northward. . I am still terrible at answering the simple question, "why are you hiking?" Because I have a million answers! Empowering women, inspiring children, demonstrating the human potential, learning myself, creating a space of humility from which to witness others. Yet, at the core of every reason is the same as I told my granddaddy when he was trying to talk me out of it for a whole boatload of reasonable reasons. Exasperated, he asked, "but, why?" I didn't know what to say, so I shrugged, "why not?" . We exist at a a very particular point in human development. We have light and durable gear, powerful technology, an incredible international community, there are still vast expanses of wilderness to be explored, and both Neon and I were born into an echelon which afforded us the opportunity to look at the whole wide world and decide what we wanted to do on it. And we both decided to do something very simple. . To walk. . And walk and walk and walk, until we can't walk any more. Then to walk some more anyways. Because, why not? . Fidgit

Check out this humongous grasshopper! The length of my @riteintherain pen. I use the notebook to keep all my observations and the pen is for pestering bugs and poking and measuring things. This friend was not pleased by the camera nor interested in signing autographs and soon hopped away. . I was left squatting on my haunches and thinking (i.e.- I couldn't stand up, yet. My legs are tired). The other day, I had vented about frustrations and worries, to which one of my advisors said simply: . "Patience, grasshopper." . I didn't know I would literally get my very own patience grasshopper! . Fidgit . . . #nopicturesplease #tropicalinsects #bugsarethebest #herodyssey #grasshopper #patiencegrasshopper #itsabugslife #winteriscoming #insectpaparazzi #hikerthoughts #hikertrash

Somewhere a few kilometers north of here, in true Latino "there is no such thing as personal space" style I sat snugly wedged between a man and a woman, both from Santa Fe de Antioquia. We got to talking about the weather, mountain rabbits, lizards, birds, then moved into personal experiences. . I had answered the ubiquitous "why don't you have children?" With "because I choose to contribute my life to increasing the quality of people rather than the quantity." She sparked. . She was one of 8 children. She had her daughter when she was 20 and knew she did not want any more. She told the Dr.s she wanted a tubectomy. They told her she was too young to know what she wanted. She kept going back and insisting and when she was 22 found a Dr. who would respect her decision. . She explained herself to the man she loved. "I told him he could choose what to do with his life but that I had made my decision." . The man to my left asked, "what did he do?" he smiled gently, perceiving a romantic quip was coming. . "He left." She shrugged. . I empathized. "It is a difficult decision, and one which is constantly challenged and questioned, even sometimes by our own bodies." We discussed all the pressures and holding to our decisions. I explained that this was part of why I walk, that I don't have any say over what another woman does with her body I just want her to know she has a choice. . The man spoke up, "my wife and I have two children. We don't want any more. So I figure it is my turn to have a surgery." He would get a vasectomy. We discussed that feminism is not just for women, allied men are powerful agents. . . . Fidgit

We've been doing a lot of #urbanhiking recently. Slack-packing (leaving most of our kit in a secure location and walking with minimal gear) across Medellín has been especially fun with Ray Charles over here. . In the days following Neon's eye surgery her vision has been super blurry but she is still defiantly self sufficient (the exact spirit that has her out here in the first place) and insists on helping with chores like grocery shopping. Which means my standing there with the shopping cart while she paces slowly along the frozen foods section squinting at bags of shrimps, because she doesn't believe me when I say those are not waffles. #thesearenotthedroidsyouarelookingfor . Walking the city streets is an adventure. It has been like that team building game where, using only words, you guide your teammate around obstacles. In our version we lose if she gets hit by a bus or falls in an open manhole. . My personal favorite has been that when I talk to her, she turns her head to hear. So when I say, "hey, let's take an usie," she turns her head the opposite direction. . The humor of it all aside, these few days have given us a small taste of what people who have disabilities deal with every day. A sidewalk is suddenly an obstacle course. People not watching their dog leashes become a hazard. We notice handicap ramps which lead to stairs... . It is easy to take something for granted, until you have it taken away. . Fidgit . #leggomyeggo #herodyssey #medellin #medellincolombia #differentlysighted #takenotice

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