Look What I Found in the Library

Preparing for a thirty three hundred mile walk involves quite a bit of time out on the trail, but that's not the only consideration.  Today, I took some time in the local library to access some of the experience of the people who have gone before me in this same sort of endeavor.

I really like to read, but compared to some I'm a bit of a piker.  Jim Stavridis is an avid reader, and he's suggested that there are thirty five hundred years of history so there really is no excuse to make the same mistakes as folks who have come before us. That dovetails nicely with my "philosophy" of always trying to make new mistakes. To that end, in preparation for the pilgrimage I find myself in the nearest branch of the county library.

Look What I Found at the County Library - Annapolis, MD

This has been a busy travel month for me, and tomorrow, I believe I'm going to find myself looking at a vista similar to this one.

Airborne - Miami, FL

In addition to providing new and exciting places to get out on the trail for training, travel provides some dedicated time to read, and I'll be exploring the Appalachian Trail with some of the great thru-hikers on this next trip.

The path to the pilgrimage has been an interesting trek so far, and I'm looking forward to seeing what's revealed around the next bend in the trail.

Whirlwind to Gentle Breeze

Today ended up being one of the more productive days that I've had since recovering from my foot injury.  Things started off well with a sunrise walk of just a little over four miles this morning.  The first meeting of the day wasn't until 0900 so I took advantage of the opportunity to usher in the day with the sun peaking up over the horizon.

Sunrise over the Salt Marsh - Little Creek, VA

I intended to head down to the beach to catch the sun peaking up over the horizon of the Chesapeake Bay, but when I stumbled across this pond in the salt marsh area short of the beach I stayed put to take advantage of the calm water. I admit, that the final result supported that decision.

Ducks headed into the Sunrise - Little Creek, VA

When I walked up on the pond, I flushed a blue heron and was not quick enough to catch the graceful glide out across the water. I did get to share the event with a pair of mallards and a fisherman (not pictured). The air had just a hint of chill that will soon be a fond memory as the late spring and summer unfold and the heat and humidity sit on the earth like a foggy elephant. For today, calm winds and cool temperatures collaborated to make this a perfect start to the morning.

Not to be outdone by nature's art, some enterprising soul decorated the fence at the swimming pool and waterpark in the area.

Chainlink Zoology - Little Creek, VA

These murals are exceptionally well done, and the very concept of different colored squares to be added to a chain link fence raise some interesting possibilities in my mind. This is the first time I've ever seen anything quite like this, and it's probably because I'm sheltered. After a little searching with Google, I concluded that these designs are a derivative of Put-In-Cups or something very much like them.  This is the only product of this kind that I found in the first couple of pages of search results, and one of the alligators on the site bears a striking resemblance to the one in the collage above.

Putting southern Virginia in my rearview mirror, I motored on back up to Washington, DC.  Another quick pedestrian jaunt found me eleven books lighter after dropping off my Christopher Moore collection (plus two additional books) at Riverby Books. I am growing increasingly comfortable with leaving behind monuments to the past and lightening my material burden going forward. I've also noticed that the practice has changed my reading habits (to a small degree), and I consider purchases more carefully than I have in the past. I believe that I've gone a week without purchasing anything but consumable items, and I even buy consumables with a much more deliberate approach.  It's still early in the experiment, but I value how my thought processes seem to have changed in a relatively short time. These guys hinted at how the simple act of shrinking my overabundant inventory of material possessions would change the way I experienced the world, but I never would have guessed that the impacts would start manifesting themselves so quickly. The journey feels good so far, and I'm looking forward to experience continuing change.

USS Barry - Towing Bridle (the chain on the starboard side of the ship) is now Rigged

Finally, I ambled past my old friend the USS Barry, and got a chance to speak to the supervisor in charge of preparing her departure in her final days at the Washington Navy Yard. The towing bridle was rigged today, and he told me that the masts were going to be removed to allow her to pass underneath the Woodrow Wilson Bridge over the Potomac. There are a number of elements to the story he told that may be of interest in a future post. Apparently, the departure of the ship is raising a great deal of interest involving a number of admirals, local authorities, a series of "interesting" planning assumptions, support vessel trades and changes, money, good deals, chains, tugs, sediment, and henchmen. I'm going to keep all that to myself for now and see how things shake out. Like all towing and salvage stories, there's always something more than meets they eye.

After over seven miles of walking, two hundred miles of driving, a briefing and included forty people, offloading eleven books, and talking about towing one, sixty four year old ship, I've probably droned on enough for today. As the day wraps up, I'm forced to consider the possibility of new adventures and how they might spring from the shadows of the waxing darkness tomorrow morning.  Until they do.,,

A Rare Day of Rest

After a brief stint at work this morning, a coworker asked what I had planned for the rest of the day and suggested that, if I wanted, I could spend some time kicking around with him and his family. I thought about it for a minute, and I told him that I, though grateful for the offer, I thought I might take a nap instead. He said, "A nap, man, that sounds like a pretty good idea." With that little piece of encouragement, I laid down for about three hours and slept soundly.

I would be fibbing a little if I didn't admit that the idea of turning on the television, "for just a few minutes," didn't tempt me a little, but, in the end, I fought off the idea. Waking up after a good rest, I'm glad that I resisted the devil in the flatscreen. My energy restored, I headed south to Fairhope, AL to get in a walk and catch the sunset.

On the way down to Fairhope, I thought about stopping off at a store and getting a book, but the reminder of this minimalism way of life convinced me that I really didn't need a book. I remembered I'd seen the first Little Free Library, the index case of my LFL infection so to speak, in Fairhope and decided I'd see what was on offer.

Little Free Library - Fairhope, AL

Unfortunate, nothing really caught my attention so I moved on. Making my way to the second LFL in the area, I fell in behind a small woman walking a very big dog. I snapped a picture because the sight of this unlikely pair taking a stroll through a true American downtown area is something that catches the eye. It' probably not as rare as I perceive it to be, but also not a sight that's easy to ignore.

Small woman with Large Dog - Fairhope, AL

Happily, luck favored me at the second Little Free Library, and I borrowed The Lobster Chronicles by Linda Greenlaw. The dust jacket advertises that it's a book about a swordfish boat Captain who returns to her small hometown in Maine for a change of pace and the book chronicles her adventures and insights along the way. Linda Greenlaw was prominently featured in  Sebastian Junger's, The Perfect Storm, and I'm looking forward to her observations about another small town in America.

Little Free Library #2 - Fairhope, AL

After getting in the better part of my walk, I relaxed a bit near the Fairhope Pier to take in the sunset. Disappointment was not part of the program, and the universe treated me to a rendering of the horizon rich in color and subtlety.

Sunset - Fairhope, AL

I spent the final moments of the day with the Fairhope Seahorse by Bruce Larsen on the bluff overlooking the municipal pier. 

Fairhope Seahorse 

Rest and recuperation were the order of the day, but it turned into a day of beauty, serenity, and adventure as well. Tomorrow I head out into the Gulf of Mexico if things go as planned, and I'm looking forward to another day or two of new sights and adventures on the rolling ocean.

Growing Into Change

Today started off just right with dawn sunrise over the Washington Navy Yard.

Dawn Breaking over the Washington Navy Yard

The workday progressed as these things often do with too many meetings and far too much unnecessary drama, but there were lighthearted moments and quiet times of reflection. We hosted a baby shower for two soon-to-be fathers of daughters (as long as the sonograms are to be believed anyway). I took the well placed critique of the sense of entitlement displayed by many of her co-workers during previous events and stuck around to clean up the food and wash and dry a few dishes. That felt pretty good, and represented one of the more productive things I accomplished in the 10 hours I spent in the office.

After work, I drove to one of the many book donation boxes that I scoped out last Sunday. When I arrived, I executed the seventh day of my initial minimalism experiment.

Robert Heinlein Rainbow - Seven Books Moving on to a New Home (ONe is a Michael Crichton, but who's counting?)

Six weeks ago, I would not have even considered the possibility of divesting myself of the remaining books in the Robert Heinlein section of my library. All of these books, even the Michael Crichton  represent material things that I've kept because they define who I have become over the years. The words these men wrote have shaped the way I view the world, and I suppose it was comforting to have the physical books to remind me of both my past and how I've gotten to this place in time and space.

Today, one week into this minimalism experiment, my reaction to moving on from these relics of an earlier time and place felt completely different. As I placed them into the donation bin, I felt like a small weight had been lifted. Their words, or the ones that have shaped my thinking anyway, are still with me. Though the memories will likely fade over time, the overall rudder that they've given my life will remain as a course correction that pushed me to where I am today. The books are gone, and it's opened up space in my life and on the shelf for a new experience that will shape who I'll become in the future. A week of practice can make a great deal of difference, and today I felt I was growing into change. I'm left to wonder if the lack of momentum I felt several days ago was merely a shifting of course. On a sailboat, a shift of course invariably leads to a loss of momentum, but sometimes, you just have to tack to follow the course to a destination over the horizon.

The day ended with a sunset over College Creek.

Evening Twilight Settles Over College Creek

With the rise and fall of the sun as the bookends to a productive day peppered with progress, I eagerly anticipate what the passage of Sol across the bend of the earth tomorrow will reveal.

Holding Pattern

Every now and then, life develops in such a way that the events seem like I'm in some sort of holding pattern. The last several weeks feel like that sort of cycle. Nothing moves, and the general feel is that tension is slowly building to some new path or direction. The way things are working out is not bad or good, but I want something to break free and identify a particular path forward.

I'm still making progress. Today, I divested myself of five books at a newly opened book store on East Capitol Street between Fifth and Fourth. I passed this place the other day, and they indicated that they purchased books. The lovely young lady manning the register when I came in this afternoon indicated that she wasn't the person who could price books for purchase by the store. I was out for my afternoon walk, so not wanting to carry the books back to my car I left the books with the clerk. She also took my name and my phone number, so I departed the store, relieved of the weight of the five books and my contact information.

Minimalism Donation of Five Books

It turns out that I'm probably not smart enough to work at Google, but it does feel good to create a hole in my bookshelf. This early experiment in minimalism appears to have resulted in gaining a much greater sense of clarity on why I've held onto material things for much longer than they appear to have any use. Two reasons seem to dominate my thinking. The first thing that pops into my head when contemplating what to give up next is that I should hold onto the thing "just in case" I might need it at some imagined time in the future. The prevalence of this thinking surprises me a little. The strength of the argument is not objectively high, but it's a powerful motivator. I believe this says something about the power of imagination for a yet to be experienced future. Thankfully, I've learned to recognize this argument for the balderdash it represents and have developed some level of discipline to counter it.

My ego devises a second, more subtle argument. I've experienced this argument with both books and clothing, so far, but it comes to the forefront with books more strongly. I look at a book, and I remember reading it, experiencing it, and understand how it has impacted my life. The book has become a part of how I define myself, and I find it quite difficult to part with the physical manifestation of how my ego defines who I am in the present and how I became that person. This internal check on my stated desire to simplify creates a higher level of anxiety. On the upside I've found that if I can get past the initial emotional reaction and actually give up that physical manifestation of self, I find a clearer path to thinking about the opportunities that exist going forward. The holes in my bookshelf have cleared my mind to be able to think more deliberately about what should now fill that space. I think the answer is not much, but the great thing about it is that the space is now clear and the opportunities are easier to see.

I wrapped up my walk by visiting my old friend on the Anacostia.

Anacostia Afternoon with USS Barry

If my schedule develops according to plan, I'll sadly miss the last day that the USS Barry spends at her pier in the Anacostia River. The 6th of May should mark the last day when she slips her moorings and begins the long(ish) journey to be recycled. That day, whenever it may actually occur, will mark the end of a three decade era that the ship served as a visible reminder to the residents and visitors to Washington, DC of the history of the Navy in the shaping of the United States. She's become such a part of my walking routine, that her departure will create one of those holes like the ones developing in my bookshelf. I believe I'll be sad to see her go, but sometimes looking forward requires one to remove monuments to the past. 

We'll see what happens tomorrow on my journey of clearing the past to make way for the future. As always, I hope and believe I'll be surprised.