During my first experience with Outward Bound, between rowing sets on a gear raft in Utah’s Cataract Canyon, Course Director Paul Duba told me the OB recipe: “Select ten strangers,” he said, “remove social dependencies, include unusual and stressful circumstances, add skills and learning opportunities, sprinkle in some natural grandeur, a soupcon of skilled instructors, and carefully let simmer; skim off the fat and deep-freeze until needed.”

I know this recipe, but I know it to be more complex. Success requires months of preparation to establish and refine course itineraries, manage external relationships, develop emergency response plans, maintain trip budgets, secure user-day permits, and create evaluation feedback systems. Success, furthermore, requires leadership in empowering field staff with the skills and tools to do their jobs well.

In normal life, can we look to a simplistic recipe, or are we better off acknowledging the real complexity?

A Walden Pond ethic for world travel....

"The journey for the sake of saving our own lives is little by little to cease to live in any sense that really matters, even to ourselves, because it is only by journeying for the world's sake - even when the world bores and sickens and scares you half to death - that little by little we start to come alive." Fredrick Buechner (quote thanks to Camille and Ian Howells)

Consumer spending, Jefferson, Thoreau and Opportunity

Greeting friends. As many of you know I am a big NPR news fan and also a big fan of a radio show called the Jefferson Hour www.jeffersonhour.org. On the show a humanities professor and expert on Thomas Jefferson and his time answers questions as if he were Jefferson. I've learned a lot about history and philosophy through this show. Yesterday, they discussed Thoreau and his philosophy - the search for the essential life. Today, NPR reported increased drops in consumer spending. They noted that for individual families cutting back is smart, but also hurts our economy on a macro-level. They noted that even food prices are going down due to less demand. This indicates that there is less waste, more thought about what we are eating. While the news is all doom and gloom, I see this as an OPPORTUNITY. It's an opportunity for us to live deliberately, to put less emphasis on material goods and money and more on mind, body and spirit. It is an opportunity for us to get out and take a walk instead of watching a movie or going to the mall. It is an opportunity to get to know our neighbors, to participate in government (to solve these myriad problems) to mentor kids. Most of all, it is an opportunity for us to be less wasteful, more watchful and better stewards of our earth. Necessity is the mother of invention and I see creative responses all around me. I'm hopeful. So Jefferson would say: go learn something new, plant a garden, reach out to a friend, collaborate with the community to build a public resource. Thoreau would say: don't just say these things, DO them. Rachel would say: if each of us lives essentially, authentically in our own lives in our own moments we can really change the world! That's what I'm thinking about... I'll be reading Walden this summer.
with love,
Rachel

Build a School for China's Earthquake Victims

On May 12th, 2008 an earthquake measuring 8.0 struck a remote and highly populated region of Western Sichuan Province, in China.

The human and physical devastation the earthquake caused is unlike anything the world has seen. Hundreds of thousands of people are permanently displaced and must re-build their lives from scratch, after having lost family and friends. Many of the devastated areas are in remote mountain areas that rescuers and rescue equipment were unable to access. Landslides obliterated hundreds of miles of roads, and bridges collapsed, and dams cracked.

Now comes the long and difficult process of rebuilding.

Please watch our video: http://www.adventure-video.com/quake-rough

Join our campaign to build a seismically-strong school that will provide a space for recovery and reconstruction.

Kenya, Africa on EDGE

There has been wide-spread violence in parts of Kenya, including in areas of greater Nairobi since the December 30 announcement that President Kibaki won re-election. Since December 30, isolated areas of Nairobi have experienced rioting, looting, and burning. There has been violence in other cities including Eldoret, Kisumu and Mombasa.

New Year Letter

December 31, 2007

Dear Family and Friends:

Jambo! Guten Tag! Shalom! Namaste! Hola! Ciao! Chao!
Salam! Bonjour! Dia Duit! Ni Hao! Konichiwa! Jullay! Hello!

Hailing from a dozen countries this year, the Wrights of Denver are excited to offer our warmest international “hello” and belated best wishes for your New Year. Yes, it’s the 31st of December again, and as all of your wonderful Holiday letters come streaming in the door, we hope you will accept our “11th hour” update for what has been a wonderful year of growth, transition, and inspiration. Outside there are deep snow drifts remnant of a beautiful Christmas morning, and as we take turns clacking away at this computer contraption between games of Ping-Pong, chess, and watching the BBC series “Planet Earth” (a sweet Christmas gift), our thoughts are with you all… You have captured our imagination!

If a holiday letter came with a theme, “Family Togetherness” might convey the message we have received from you all, and would also be our message in return. In this time, perhaps more than any in the past, togetherness with support and kindness transforms common hours into meaningful and memorable moments. While the state of our world today compared to a few years ago gives pause, hope builds in our hearts for peace in 2008, and we have much to be grateful for... We are healthy and here, and the five of us are grateful to be together this Christmas season and fortunate to have made stories and memories together throughout Kenya’s wild terrain and in San Francisco over Thanksgiving. We were also grateful to be with some of you this year in these journeys and returns.

In summary of the year: Helen Wright’s notable 80th birthday and retirement from 40 years as an organist at First Presbyterian Church in Coshocton where she was canonized as “Saint Helen” (not like the mountain); Pat and Bob are currently keeping their humor while enjoying Hawaii after volunteering in China and enduring some ups and downs in their health; Elizabeth (still affectionately known as “Bit” or “Bitty”) has graduated from Littleton High School and matriculated with the University of Colorado at Boulder; Perry or “Coach” is now the Head Women’s Tennis Coach at Colorado College after returning from a tour through Japan, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, India, Kenya, and England; Elliott also gathered some global stories this year and is engaged to Rachel Lindenberg and living in California where Rachel is a doctoral student at Stanford and Elliott works with Sempervirens Fund to preserve Redwood Forests and plant trees; Steve has been giving a variety of medical talks around the country this year amidst several threats that he will be publishing his book someday; and Annie, after tackling two-thousand-and-seven tasks in 2007, has officially accomplished the impossible task of turning our garden into something beautiful. (See the stories at our family site: http://www.wrightings.blogspot.com/)

Family Highlights & 20/20 Hindsights for the year:
1. “Composting,” according to Steve, is “the pinnacle of western civilization.”
2. “Honeycrisp Apples,” according to Annie, “are by far the best varietal in the whole world.”
3. The three most important words in a relationship are: “Maybe you’re right.”
4. Most worthy book of the year: “Three Cups of Tea,” by Greg Mortenson.
5. Best song of the year: “Dance Tonight,” by Paul McCartney.
6. Check out http://www.youtube.com/ and type-in “Residential Skiing on Christmas.” Good stuff.
7. How ‘bout them Colorado Rockies? Rocktober was the best month of the year.
8. The Wrights remain mystified by Joe Bidden’s lack of popularity
9. Go to the REI garage sales…on second thought, don’t. We’ll take care of it.
10. There is no greater joy than to dance, sing, and shout with Kenyan kiddos.

In conclusion, Perry offered the following insightful and wise comments:
“What can I say, it was a good year; and we’re looking forward to another good year…Goodbye.”

Much love, peace, and welcoming best wishes to all,

The Wrights (Annie, Steve, Elliott, Perry and Elizabeth)

More from Meteor Crater...

"Ourselves" by John Daniel

Ourselves

When the throaty calls of sandhill cranesecho across the valley, when the rimrock flares incandescent red, and the junipers are flames of green on the shortgrass hills, in that moment of last clear light when the world seems ready to speak its name, meet me in the field alongside the pond...

Without careers for once, without things to do, without dreams or anger or the rattle of fears, we’ll ask how it can be that we walk this ground and know that we walk, alive in a world
that didn’t have to be beautiful, alive in a world that doesn’t have to be...

With no answers, just ourselves and silence, we’ll listen for the song that waits to be learned,
the song that moves through the passing light...

Hiking with Dad

Longs Peak

Isaac and I had a great time climbing this last summer on Long Peak. Afterwards had time to hang out with the Peruvian crew at St. Malo: Ricardo, Jose, and others. A total of 7000 feet of vertical GDP we were quick with the out, and quick with the back. Hats off to Isaac for getting me up early enough to make it happen.