Why have things been so quiet since my last post where I was looking to do a little more writing?

In “My Name is Nobody,” the protagonist, Nobody (brilliantly played by Terrance Hill), tells a Fable:

There was this little baby bird that fell from it’s tree in the cold of snow.    It starts peeping, “Pa peep! Pa peep!” as it was damn near freezing.

Along comes this cow.  She looks down at the little bird and feels sorry for it.   She raises her tail and… “splah!”

…She drops a steaming hot cow pie right on top of it.

The little bird starts again… “Pa peep! Pa peep!”  Because it’s hungry.

Along comes a mean ole Coyote…  It reachs down easy into the cow pie and picks the little bird up.   He raises the little bird higher and brushes the dirt off him real nice.

And then… “Gulp!” Swallows the little bird down all in one bite!

My grandfather says there is a moral to the story, but you have to figure it out for yourself…

At the movie’s end, the aging gunfighter, legend Jack Beauregard (played by Henry Fonda) figures out the moral to the story:

Folks that throw dirt on you aren’t always trying to hurt you, and folks that pull you out of a jam aren’t always trying to help you. But the main point is: when you’re up to your nose in shit, keep your mouth shut.

More later.  For now, I am going to keep my mouth shut.

Sadly, my good friend Kyle builds this utterly amazing site and it sits just waiting for someone to fill it with tales of adventure and excitement.  Yet, it remains dormant due mainly to my neglect, except for a couple of posts about not posting.  It is true, I have a new job and it is very demanding of my time at this point, however, where there is a will there is a way.  

I will be posting towards the end of this weekend.  Bet your ass on it.

Or my ass–which is kinda skinny and small, so I guess I’m not losing much in terms of quantity if I don’t post, but since I only have one ass, I should probably keep to this promise. 

For the good of the order: in the next few days, I’ll cross posting a bunch of adventure stories I wrote on Ten Fingers 6 Strings, so if they look a little familiar, it is because they are.   Then, there will be a slew of new Everest/Tibet material to follow.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.-Albert Einstein

This world, after all our science and sciences, is still a miracle; wonderful, inscrutable, magical and more, to whosoever will think of it.

-Thomas Carlyle

“The world will never starve for want of wonders, but for want of wonder.”

-Gilbert Chesterton

Firstly, for the good of the order, I think Kyle deserves major props for his work on this site. These digs are looking absolutely money and I am thrilled that this is going to be our new home.

This site is the collective expression which was birthed out of many long chats over bourbon with Kyle. In fact, I think the idea of adventure and exploration found a place with the both of us way back in March of 2000 snowshoeing in Rocky Mountain National Park. That would be the trip where none of us had a pair of gloves, yet we still found it compelling to climb a small mountain in two feet of snow. After a few hours, with some frozen hands and a few mishaps–one of which ended up with Kyle in a tree–we were standing on the top overlooking all of Rocky Mountain National Park; Long’s Peak loomed in the background amidst the cobalt sky. I’ve had quite a few adventures since then, but that day is still one of the best days I’ve ever had in the outdoors.

When I was overwhelmed and staring down Mount Everest this spring, my Nepalese Sherpa, Chandra, would say “burti, burti, burti.” Slowly, slowly, slowly–one step at a time. That’s going to be my approach here. Slowly, slowly, slowly–one post, one picture, one video at a time. Enjoy our new site and our new concept, Continuous Wonder.

Hours slide by like minutes. The accumulated clutter of day-to-day existence — the lapses of conscience, the unpaid bills, the bungled opportunities, the dust under the couch, the inescapable prison of your genes — all of it is temporarily forgotten, crowded from your thoughts by an overpowering clarity of purpose by the seriousness of the task at hand.

-Jon Krakauer

So maybe a blog on a website isn’t as serious a task as the one Krakauer is referring to in the above quote, but the principle behind his words is something worth writing about. Doug and I are looking forward to a great run; this post being the first step.