WINTER /SPRING2016
MOUNTAINLIFE
17
ChrisMansbridge:
Jay Z has 99of them,Vanilla Ice claims tobe able to solve
yourswhile his DJ revolves it, andBiggie says they increase as finances do…
Feet Banks:
Problems!
C:
Recognizing your problems is key,but letting them follow youeverywhere isn’t.
F:
I sawon the Internet thatAbe Lincoln said the same thing:
You cannot escape
the responsibilityof tomorrowby evading it today.
But it’swortha try, isn’t it?
C:
The trick is, don’t try to flee them forever, instead take amoment togo to a
placewhere you leave your problems behind and can return to look at them
from a different perspective.
F:
The difference between escaping and running away then?
C:
Exactly.A temporary shift inplace, free of confines or restraints.
F:
The best place is themountains.Nature always soothes themind, because
even though it’s full ofwild complexities, it’s also very structured.
C:
I have no idea how spawning salmon return exactly to the spot theywere
born, to spawn anddie, but I can tell youwithout a doubt that the sunwill
come up tomorrow.
F:
And that’s comforting.The harder you look at thewebof connectivity
betweenourselves and everyone and everything else, themore you realize
that any littlewater dropof our reality could fall with even the slightest shake.
And then you see amountain sunset, or a spiral seashell. It looks soperfectly
constructed that it’s brings peace, because it feels like there’s some kindof
master plan. I think that is the power of nature, tomake us feel small again.
C:
In an attempt to elude his problems, a recovered addict once described it to
me like this:
Life is like climbing amountain. It has a destination and requires
planning andwork. In the beginning, you spendmuchof the time in the forest
where it is thick andbusy andhard to knowwhere you are going.There are
difficulties.Tohelp, you can climb a tree and escape the forest.You can feel
the sun and see themountain’s peak. Everythingmakes sense, the purpose,
the direction, the plan. But unless you come back down andput things back
into action, the sunny topof the treewill always be farther away from the
mountain than the darkness at the bottom.
F:
I think that is an excellentway toput it, but it follows to reason then that
there is nomaster plan, thatwe create our problems ourselves.
C:
Just as the only plan is the onewe create ourselves.
F:
And the problems are really just reasons for us togo climb a tree.
C:
Sometimes youneed to climba lot of trees before you can climbamountain.
F:
This isThe Escape Issue.
But it’s alwaysworth it.This is ChrisMansbridge is aRegisteredAcupuncturist,
RegisteredTraditional ChineseMedicineHerbologist, aCertified Injection
Therapist andhas aClass 5driver’s license. Feet Banks has aBFA inWriting
and Film and is the editor of
Mountain Life
.
– Feet Banks
FEETFIRST
ADialogue in the SocraticMethod
EDITOR’S
MESSAGE
TheGreat Escape. Kye Petersen, atop themountain. NICTEICHROB.
