Note: This little essay also appeared in today’s Why This is Interesting, which I highly recommend subscribing to for daily links and insightful musings.
One to Consider
I’m all for the Dutch tradition of “Dropping” where pre-teen children are left in the woods at night and tasked with finding their way home. And while I would have also pitched this story to the New York Times, I probably wouldn’t have called it “peculiar”. Dropping reminds me a lot of my “Solo” on Outward Bound, which was a defining moment of my teenage years. Like a dropping, I was left on a remote piece of the Maine wilderness to survive and just be for three days.
The Solo has been a capstone piece of the Outward Bound experience since it was founded by Kurt Hahn some 75 years ago. He believed that regular intervals of solitary silence were key for growth in learning. The Solo is also a bit of a tradition in my family. My mother went on Outward Bound and did her Solo on Hurricane Island, where she ate snails for sustenance (I opted for the optional food ration on mine; a peanut butter and jelly bagel and some trail mix).
Before my Solo, I doubt I’d ever spent a night alone. Maybe I was left alone at the house for one, but the fridge was stocked and a phone nearby. On the Solo, you’re by yourself. You don’t have a phone or any technology. It’s just a sleeping bag, a tarp, some water, and a small food ration if you like. I realize today what a privilege this experience was. How rare is it to actually get to spend multiple days by yourself alone in nature?
When I was dropped at my site it began pouring. I didn’t have a tent, but I quickly strung a tarp up between some trees and tucked into some rocks underneath it. The rain came down hard and there was thunder and lightning for hours. I felt exposed, but also secure because I was dry and warm. If you’ve ever been in a dry tent during a deluge you know the feeling. I was so exhausted from weeks of hiking the Appalachian trail, I fell asleep right in the middle of the storm and woke up the next day by myself in the woods. I learned that night I could pretty much sleep through anything.
During the following days, I wandered the area, read a little, and spent hours with my thoughts. It was at times meditative, relaxing and boring. In the end, when my instructor came to tell me I’d completed my Solo, I’d earned a new kind of self-confidence. Combined with the two weeks of hiking we’d done before the Solo, I was in the best physical and mental health of my life and puffed up like I’d never been before.
There’s a term—Snowplow Parenting—that’s gained a lot of popularity recently. It’s like super-charged Helicopter Parenting. We protect our children so much—clearing a path for them their entire lives—that we never teach them to fend for themselves. We’re refusing to let go, which is exactly what the Solo and Dropping force parents to do. My feeling is that these experiences, where we let kids unplug from technology and have a moment to grow some self-confidence in nature, are more valuable now than ever. They’re also probably a harder sell than ever.
I still think about my Solo frequently and how it helped me grow. How many experiences can you look back on from your early teenage years and credit with making you a stronger human? I know that as a father, thinking of my son alone in the woods on his Solo will offer an entirely new set of emotions, and I hope I get to experience them. Of course if I do, I’m sure I won’t be sleeping as well as I did during that thunderstorm in Maine.
Four to Read
No robot can gut a fish. Scenes from the Fulton Fish Market (The New Yorker)
High on mescaline he got from Jerry Garcia: “I asked, over and over, ‘Just help me stay in tune and on time.’” Santana at Woodstock. (New York Times). See also some great unpublished photos from the monumental weekend.
Journalists on the ‘aha’ moments that changed the way they work (Columbia Journalism Review)
Jason Isbell is one of my idols. (Los Angles Times)
Listen
Classic Gladwell. Crawling into a big issue through a little-known side door, with appearances from Randy Newman, Dick Cavett and a guy named Lester Maddox.
Revisionist History: Good Old Boys
One to Make
A few of you were really into my DIY Camera strap post, so here’s a related project thats just as easy: The Bokeh Filter. In the image above you can see the result of Christmas lights shot through a Hand & Eye logo bokeh filter. They’re a little gimmicky, but super easy to make.
One to Watch
And I loved watching these crazy dudes.
That’t it!
Thanks as always for reading,
John
In Praise of the Solo
Well done!