The Young
American Man parked the Tahoe on the side of the
road. He has to reassess where he was headed and this was after he had already
pulled a u-turn off the other highway. To his right was the wide open space of
the reservation; sort of a taboo area as far as the young man knew. You don’t
go there unless you have a reason. You don’t go there unless you carry. That’s
just what the young man knew.
It was a newfound freedom to drive;
An ability to go anywhere anytime that the young man had never known before. If
not for the fact that the Tahoe wasn’t his he would have already been halfway
to Texas by now. Or Mexico or Chicago or pretty much in whatever direction he
would’ve picked without giving it much thought.
That was exactly what he decided to
do.
He picked the way to nowhere.
He found it.
He went a mile north of where he was
and decided to just head west to wherever this road took him. He was still
passing through residential areas and didn’t expect the road to end so
abruptly, but it did all of a sudden. The whole entire city seemed to have
decided to just end right there on the spot. He did, however, see a dirt
parking lot and decided to pull in to perhaps reassess where he was actually
going. That was where he saw the trail heading toward the mountains. It was a
cool day, overcast and protected from the sun. The young man, without much
thought, filled his water bottle and headed toward the mountain. He was going
to go right to the top of that mountain.
After that he didn’t really know,
but he knew he was going on an adventure
and that was all the direction he needed.
He followed the trail which wrapped
over to the eastern side of the mountain. The accent was easy though he noticed
he was gaining altitude quickly. He was thoroughly enjoying himself soaking in
the scenery, smelling the fresh desert air, the scent of the monsoon in the
distance, birds of prey hovering over the valley, the breeze. It didn’t take
long to reach the top where he beheld the beauty of Arizona. To the south was
the city. Beyond that the wide expanse of the reservation and way off beyond
that he could see the monsoon making its way into the valley and dowsing the
Sonoran Desert with pillars of rainfall. Looking to the North he could see he
was on one of two rows of mountains forming a secret valley below him. It was
amazing that such places were so close to home yet he never discovered them.
Close was a relative term as he would
find out.
The trail continued down his row of
mountains, which was smaller than the row across the secret valley, so naturally
he continued. After all why go back? He was clearly headed somewhere and he didn’t need to know where that was. The descent
was steep and lead him further west into the secret valley. Here was the true
beauty. Not because of the scenery, but because of the atmosphere. On both
sides were mountains. In front and behind him was simply the stretch of the
secret valley. There were no signs of people. No society. It was a large and
secret enclave close at hand to the world, but guarded and watched over by the
protective mountains. Here he veered off the trial and decided to continue west
to explore the secret valley. He had an excellent sense of direction and it
wasn’t the weather for snakes to be about.
He continued to wonder about lost in
his own thoughts; Observing the various flora, the occasional gecko, and
whatever interesting rocks were strewn about. Oh how he loved the way life was
sometimes.
He soon found himself climbing down
into a dried out riverbed. He thought for a minute about following the riverbed
through the rest of the secret valley, but he didn’t know if flash floods
occurred out there and with the weather the way it was it seemed to be a remote
possibility; and a possibility was good enough to just climb out the other side
instead of waiting to find out.
He soon figured he had seen as much
as could be seen for this part of his adventure and crossed back to where the
trail originally was. It began to rain lightly on the young man, but he just
took off his glasses and walked. He didn’t have much of a care in the world at
that point. When he found the trail again he realized he was tired.
He had his adventure.
He had done his thoughtful pondering.
He was low on water.
That was when he saw his predicament.
So lost in thought he had wound up going far, far west and now he
was exactly in the middle of the secret valley. He could retrace his
steps to the first row of mountains, but that would mean a very difficult climb
considering how steep it was getting down. Or he could continue the trial
toward the other row of mountains which was a gentler slope and trust that it
would soon cut back across the valley to his destination once it rounded the
first and smallest mountain. He had to consider the amount of water he’d lose
trying to retrace his steps so he took what, hopefully, was the somewhat longer
but easier route.
He chose wrong.
Once he finally zig zagged his way
up the first peak he discovered to his dismay that the trail in no way cut back
down again. No, it went forward eastward and he knew that he would now have to
cross the entire row. Every. Single.
Peak. It would have then made sense to simply head back admitting defeat.
But he passed the point of no return.
The sun
The sun had begun a race with him.
And he was already losing.
He had raced the sun once before
back in Tasmania and he lost that race. He knew full well what happens when the
sun beats you. Then he had the equipment for it not to be a problem, but here
he had already run out of water and had absolutely no way of making his way
through in darkness. If he went back westward now the sun would drop before he
made it out. He had to risk it. He had to trudge right across every single
mountain to at least get himself
situated directly north of his destination. And hope there was a way to cut
across.
The sun wanted a rematch.
This time he couldn’t lose.
He was very far northwest of where he needed to be. He was so lost in his
pondering that he had no idea how far he had actually gotten. As the wind
increased in strength, the rain continued to drizzle down on him, and he made
his way up the next peak he felt like Frodo making his way to Mordor. The
occasional news stories he had seen about people being found out here passed
through his mind. About the hikers that got killed by the heat, or bitten by a
snake, or died because they didn’t make it back by nightfall: like that guy and
his son that were found last month. Until that day they were just unfortunate
stories about unfortunate hikers to the young man, but now he was in that story. It was no matter right? Just over the next
peak the trail would cut back over again.
He made it over the next peak.
His heart sank.
There was no going back.
There was no telling where he was
going.
There was no telling if he was going
anywhere.
The young man looked all around him.
He observed the true distance he had to go which was much longer than it
appeared from the secret valley. He couldn’t even shortcut down. Not with how
steep it was and everything being wet.
He was trapped and the sun knew he
was.
He looked back to check the sun. It
still had a short way to go until it fell behind the distant mountains, but it
was going. It was peculiar, the young man thought, how it was such a tranquil
menace. Simply descending in its own peaceful beauty and elegance, minding its
own celestial business, yet the young man was not fooled. He knew it meant to
kill him, but so gracefully; such a peculiar enemy to have.
Panic
Suddenly an overwhelming feeling of
dismay swept over the young man and he had to stop. He was not the type to get
like this, but every once in a while reality did indeed succeed in breaking the
barriers he so carefully preserved. He was going to be the hiker in the news.
He wasn't going to make it.
He was going to be the story.
”G-d.
I really need you save
me right now.
I don’t know how you’re
going to do it,
But I need you to give
me the strength and show me out.”
Perhaps the prayer was answered or
perhaps the prayer itself was the
answer. It was the reminder that the young man had been in hopeless situations
before. Times of absolute dismay with no clear way out. Yet G-d had never once
left him stranded and never once did the young man ever doubt it. It was always
by that faith that the young man kept his sanity and it was always by that
faith that, though the way could sometimes be miserable, he was always guided
to the other side. Here was no different.
He got back up and moved forward
without a worry.
The young man had pulled himself
together and returned to his collected self. He knew he simply had to take his
route one peak at a time and quit trying to predict where the trail would go;
just go with the flow. Everything was bound be ok. He might get stuck. He might
be miserable. He might get scared, but in the end he knew what the end would
be. Directly above him were two hawks gliding in the wind remaining stationary
where they were. They would keep him company as he continued his treacherous journey
to the plains of Mordor.
After a short while the young man
figured that if G-d had sent him here and would get him out then he should make
sure to find the reason. The young man began reciting mishnayos by heart as he
trudged along. He was struck by the most exciting epiphany: by virtue of an enormous
divine scheme here was sent, dazed to the point of oblivion, to this mountain
that was probably never elevated before, and here he was elevating it for the
very first time! Once convinced he had done his part for the whole purpose of
this journey the young man continued with more confidence than ever.
As he was walking along the trail
was getting more and more narrow. He saw a peculiar pit by the side and decided
to check it out. No sooner did he take his first step when the ground and rocks
gave way beneath him. His feet immediately followed suit going wherever the
ground decided to take him.
Half the ground tumbled down the
incline to dash him to pieces.
Half lead into the pit to trap him
forever.
In the nick of time the young man
fell back onto his hands and regained his grip on the mountain watching the
rocks carry on without him to their doom. The flash of terror from the episode dissipated
as quickly as the rocks disappeared and the young man persisted, cautiously, to
investigate the pit. He looked down into it. It was perhaps twenty five or
thirty feet deep and jagged with rocks. The young man shuddered at the dread of
what it would be like to fall into such a thing. All alone. No one to save you.
No one to ever to find you.
However, the young man knew he was
not alone at all. He went back to carry on his journey and, tired and realizing
he needed to concentrate more on his footing on the ground, he stopped reciting
mishnayos and resolved instead to have a casual conversation with G-d. After
all it was pretty lonely out there. He walked along talking out loud to
G-d about the things that were going on and things he wanted to do, things he
didn’t think were fair, things he didn’t understand, questions about this or
that, things he wanted and so forth. He did make it clear with him that oh he
was very happy and content with G-d just, you know, things didn’t always have to be so surprising and
creative.
Finally
He had rounded the last and tallest
peak
It was finally time to go down.
The trail split and the young man
took the path to the right. He had a very good feel for where he needed to go
it was just a matter of actually getting there. By now he knew he must be
somewhat east of his destination. After finally rounding the last peak the
young man, for the first time, caught a glimpse of exactly where he needed to
get to. He saw it from across the valley, which was much wider on the side,
just beyond the first mountain he had ascended on arrival.
He was far
He was far
He was not only extremely far
northeast of his destination, but he was also extremely high up; higher than he
had imagined. The young man was a little baffled that he had gone so high up without knowing how. At least
now he could see it. At least now he
was going down. At this stage all he
had to focus on was getting off the
mountain. Once he could make it to level ground the light wasn’t as big of an
issue as it was in the untrustworthy path he was already on. He looked to the
west. The sun had finally dropped below the distant mountains casting a shadow upon
the whole valley. The weather didn’t allow for the usual incredible beauty of
the Arizona sunset; a massive mural of orange and pink providing a gorgeous backdrop
for the mountains in the foreground which contrasted the sunset as a majestic shadow.
As if on stage. Instead on that the day the storm clouds lit up in a gleaming wash
of white giving the mountains a luminous blanket to stay warm for the night.
The way down was the most difficult.
It was the steepest part of the journey and the ground here was the most
unfaithful. A few times he lost the path completely and had to carry on by
virtue of his gut alone. He finally made it to the bottom. The light was waning
and he had no idea what was a trail and what wasn’t and was determined instead to just go. He didn’t care what was in his way
or what he came across, the time had come to just go there. He marched right through the valley in sheer
determination mostly following a riverbed that would inevitably lead him out
being, as it was, a riverbed. Toward the end it was already too dark to figure
out where he was. He was close to houses, but he couldn’t see how the new trail
would get him across. For a split second he saw the Tahoe. That was it. He was done. He cared not for where the trail wanted to go.
He climbed right into the mini canyon that made his destination so close yet so
far. He cut across and on all fours squabbled and hoisted himself up and out of
the mini canyon.
As soon as he got back to the Tahoe
he downed all the water he had left behind. An enormous feeling of relief softly
surmounted over the young man. That feeling of relief and accomplishment that
was at the end of all fear and misery. It was that inevitable feeling that gave
him a cool head in all situations. He made it. He put the keys into the
ignition and drove off. Once he found the highway he sped off and couldn’t help
but express his delight with G-d out loud as he hurried on home.
He laughed as he drove
Oh how life was
It seemed to go no destination
And he was happy to go there
