What's the Hurry?

One of my favorite quotes was found in a spiral notebook beside a water cache on the Hat Creek Rim. Rainmaker and I were hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, and it was hot and dry.

Courtesy dictates a person only takes 2 quarts of water a piece, and please, don't walk off with the jug. Trail Angels who fill these jugs will return for the empties, fill them, and put them back beside the trail. On the long dusty no-water sections, this is a great deed.

In the book someone wrote: In the end you find no one wins, and the race is only with yourself.

No author was listed. Years later, the verse : So take the path of your own choosing, and be not dismayed if no one leads or follows.

These two sayings placed together define how I look at my life journey.

So, what's the hurry. If my hobo stove, or my Pepsi can stove take a little longer than a fuel injected camp stove to cook my supper, what's the hurry?

So often we measure success by the speed in which something can be obtained. How quickly we cover a distance, how quickly we cook a meal, how quickly we read an article.

This is something to ponder, especially in the quest for survival. Sometimes the hurry can lead to our demise. Or the planet's demise.

The type of fuel determines how hot a stove will burn. The amount of oxygen given to a fire determines how quickly it will burn. But in the end, the race is only with yourself. No one will care how quickly you made Ramen noodles. It only matters that you got to eat at all.