In a week's time 7 folks from our extended family will be plying the Boundary Waters for a few days of canoeing and camping. Canoe travel has always a high point in my personal pilgrimage. I do not return as the same person who embarked on the trip just a few days earlier. So I am full of anticipation about what I am going to see and learn this time. Past journals of wilderness trips are tales of transformation.
For the first time 3 generations going on a canoe trip. There are the elders, Ernie Morgan and me. There will be a middle generation in early and mid career, some raising families, all making important contributions. This year there will be two grandchildren along for the trip, Eleanor and Kennedy. It is so gratifying to introduce these youngest people to this transformation space. It is an act of hope. We are saying that this wilderness world will be around for them to give to their kids.
I noticed that the middle generation, folks deeply involved in the working world, are the most excited about the trip. Matt Wilson has been a constant source of encouragement as soon as we laid down the plan for this year's trip. Sure, the old guys know it will be a lot of fun and a real eye opener, but the middle generation has a real yearning, a passion, to get into a different place, if only for a little while. I love to hear Matt and Jason and KC dreaming about a time in the wild.
I'll be back with some reporting of the trip, even a log entry or two. For now, I am looking for the "once a year" equipment I have stashed away in the last move. Anybody have a sleeping bag? I can't find mine!
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