A Man Comes into a Canyon

A man comes into a canyon and makes it his own. With the cunning of his mind and the courage of his heart he makes it his own. With one leg of bone and one leg of wood he kills the mighty buffalo and he has what he needs for food and clothing and shelter. He keeps the canyon his own when he kills the evil one that would despoil it, the blood-drinking one of the mountains. It is his and he has made it so. But he has not done this alone.

… In his hand is a knife that was made far away by another man, a knife that was given to him by an old one, a great one. In his mind is the knowledge to make fire and weapons and clothing and to find food and to provide shelter, knowledge given to him by those who taught him when he was a boy and those who showed him by their own doing when he lived among them.

By himself he is nothing. Only the courage is his alone. All of those others are with him, even in his canyon, and he cannot ever be free of them, for what they have given is with him and is part of him, and without them he could not have made the canyon his own.

Jack Schaefer
The Canyon © 1953

I am self-driven, motivated by personnel excellence. I seek to learn, and do so. I work harder, longer, and sometimes smarter. And in its own way, my life is the American dream.

But in this dream,

(while I bring an essential ingredient to its progression)

a string of people and circumstances,

personal and abstract,

trivial and divine,

have allowed, helped, and lead me to where I am.

Focusing on my immediate vicinity, I see my elevated accomplishments. But in moments of rare consciousness (as when reading the above), I am reminded that the knife in my hand was made far away by others, that the knowledge I have was given to me, that I am surrounded by those who showed me how to live through their own lives.

If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a business—you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen.

President Barak Obama
Roanoke, Virginia
July 13, 2012

Our President is a bit obtuse in making these declarations, reinforced through multiple speeches throughout his recent campaign. In one very real context, his statements were dangerous and forbidding, reminiscent of the most powerful speeches of a century past, speeches that led over half of the world’s land masses down a dark path of humanistic socialized self-annihilation. I doubt, however, he intended to portray said images. Likely, he recognizes, like me, that even the best of us are surrounded by a great cloud of encouragers, supporters, enablers. There are very few islands among us.

My knife is sharp, solid, and ready to work. As I go about my life, succeeding when I can, I will rely on those before and aside me, and commit to prove reliable to those aside and behind me.  

A Compatriot's Experience

The experience of a fellow eMi volunteer. I'm grateful he took more photos than I.

We Would Do Well

We would do well to recognize that it’s coming, life, bringing with it the good, bad, and all that is in between. Tragedy and failure arrive on the coattails of our own botches, from our proximity with others’, and from the seemingly random acts beyond our comprehension.

We would do well to prepare ourselves, body mind soul, for the imperfections of our life and the lives around us.

We would do well to wrestle with God over these issues and the questions that arise when we face them. Or in reality, the one question: why? He can handle it, the wrestling. We are not His first opponent. As our Creator, He is familiar with our struggles, knows where we came from, where we are, and where we will be.

When we walk through this life, ignoring our impending losses, suppressing previous pain and disappointment, lulled to sleep by the pretense of the good life, we are propagating shallow roots, like velvety-soft moss, easily lifted by outside forces.

Why, Lord, WHY!?! Dare God to prove His mettle in the days of darkness. Plead for His understanding, coming to grips with our past experiences of loss while preparing for life upcoming.

Our God, the God of good tidings and blessings, is too small. Search and find (be found by) the God of all time, place, and elements of life, the One who understands failure, tragedy, and death, who can bring peace to us amidst the full measure of life, who can deepen our roots.

We would do well to prepare ourselves in the days of plenty for the meagre moments, the times of tragedy, seeking answers to difficult questions before we desperately need them.