Chip off the old block? I don’t think so. Who is this adventurer? Latest reports have it that he has traveled 400 miles on the Appalachian Trail wending his way among planetary anomalies and existential vectors. Three or four hundred more miles await his vision quest. At least he does not have to kill a lion before coming back to the village.
For those few of you who do not know who Chip is, Exhibit A is in the photograph. He was born March 18, 1985 to parents ensconced in a chicken coop in Alexandria, NH. Somewhere along the way he evolved into this hiking phenomenon that carries from 30 to 50 pounds on his back with items that pass for his room and board.
Once Gini is outside range of her own home or room service then the rest of us are focusing on her creature comforts. Oh alright, I am focusing on other things too but can you blame me?
Maybe I could be talked into a week of tenting in the White Mountains at one time but this guy does it clean and sober and with fervor. Where did he get all this?
Now this is when he looks like a product of Gini and myself:
Cruisin’ around Rome, diggin’ the scene.
But somewhere he cut the feeder tube and made a decision to not be flotsam and jetsam. He declared himself an artist! The very idea!
This was not your here today, I’ll be a doctor tomorrow, announcement. There was this explosion of artifacts that made it very difficult to casually ignore. The charcoal supply seriously dipped within a ten mile radius of Keene, NH for about two years. Angst, self discovery and creativity proclaimed itself:
So what is it in this universe of ours that fosters this development?
One could write various guesses on pieces of paper and pull them from a hat:
family
love
stubborn refusal to quit
maybe he was switched at birth
desire
serendipitous confluence of synaptic chaos
a ripple in the force
being alert during the talent distribution phase of gestation
Well, as a parent I can only say I am proud of this young man. Long may he run…er walk…uh, fast…with poles…
Hi Ho Chip.
Your children are not your children.
ReplyDeleteThey are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts.
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as he loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.
Kahlil Gibran "The Prophet"
Chip looks great! The greatest lesson our children teach us is that they are not us. This is usually a great awakening because we often forget that in those early years when they need us so much and we make most of the decisions of what they will eat, see, hear, wear, do that we think we're completely in charge forever. Letting go -- roots and wings -- what a trip.
ReplyDeleteAmen
ReplyDeleteI've said it before and I'll say it again: You raised a fine young man! Chip never ceases to amaze and impress me. I love you all so much!!
ReplyDelete