Exploring the Wilderness

I took three of my kids to the Tacoma Art Museum last week, to see the newly finished wing with the Haub collection of Art of the American West. It was cool to see some paintings by the likes of Gilbert Stuart of George Washington.

The museum places narrative boards around the galleries to provide context for the art. One narrative told about how artists followed explorers and soldiers around the new land. Much of the artwork that was on display was painted during the expansion era of the country--during the 19th century. Much of the country was established during this time, so there was still lots of open land. There was a sense of newness and mystery.

The museum narrative spoke of the role of artists is to create identity for a place.

The thing that stands out for me about this is that in new territory we are still defining ourselves. Our identity is not yet established. Artwork and the things we surround ourselves with help establish a place in the world.

The artwork prevalent in the museum exhibit is reminiscent of one of my favorite schools of art--The Hudson River School.

In the Hudson River School, the art that was being created in the United States by artists such as Thomas Cole, Ashur Durand, Albert Bierstadt and others expressed the newness and often wildness of the environment.

According to Wikipedia, "Hudson River School paintings reflect three themes of America in the 19th century: discovery, exploration, and settlement. The paintings also depict the American landscape as a pastoral setting, where human beings and nature coexist peacefully."

The school celebrated the remaining wilderness in the Hudson River valley.

This wilderness can stand as a symbol of our own journey through life.

The wilderness of the Hudson River valley of the mid-19th century was quickly being replaced by a growing population. Streets, houses, farms and buildings were quickly replacing the ruggedness of the wilderness. But as we can see in the paintings of the Hudson River School wilderness was still accessible. There was still the opportunity to get out and explore. To get away from the conventional and tried.

For me, wilderness provides an opportunity to get away from the confines of the expected. There is some sense of danger. Yet, as the Hudson River School portrays there is place for man within this wilderness.

There is still room for exploration today. In fact, as I drive through Eastern Oregon, I am struck by how much open land still exists. Much of this may be owned and farmed, but in the distance are rugged mountains that speak of wilderness.

As I pursue creating my own unique path through life, the wilderness with its openness and opportunity for exploration and discovery stands as a prime metaphor for the exploration and discovery life provides. But we have to choose to leave our comfortable, known world in order to enter the wilderness.

Spinning Around the Universe

In 1543 Copernicus' work, On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres, was published shortly before his death. Copernicus' work brought about a relatively peaceable revolution in which there was a paradigm shift from believing the earth was the center of the universe to believing the sun was the actual center.

Prior to Copernicus the world had been under a Ptolemaic understanding of the universe—a geocentric concept that the earth was at the center of the universe and the sun, moon and other planets revolved around the earth. Copernicus, spurred on by astronomic criticisms raised by Averroes, developed a different concept of the universe. In his heliocentric model, the sun was at the center of the universe with the earth and other planets revolving around it.

This new concept, in hindsight, would be a dramatic shift of understanding of my place in the universe. Instead of the universe revolving around my home, the giant blue marble in the sky, the new reality is that my world revolves around a giant ball of gas that lies at the center of the universe.

In a way, this is like the universe of which I'm a part doing an abrupt about face. Instead of the earth being the point of reference for the earth, the new point of reference is the sun.

We all go through similar experiences of holding on tightly to our point of reference for the world in which we live. From the time we are babies when we rely so heavily on our mothers for nourishment. Not surprisingly, babies almost always have an incredible attachment to their mothers. As children begin going to school and gaining an identity in that frame of reference, school becomes increasingly important. You need look no further than the high school cross-town rivalries that can get so fierce. (Everything from defiled school flags, to stolen mascot costumes and even stolen street signs.)

This same sense of rivalry goes on up through college and extends into board rooms around the world. When that point of reference gets shaken—whether it be through the loss of a parent, a high-schooler's cross country move, failing to get into a coveted university, being handed the proverbial pink slip at work, or losing market share due to a competitor's new product—our world and self-identity gets shaken as well.

We often stumble at these junctures in our lives. Not only do we struggle to hold onto our own footings, but we also see opposition escalate. We see teenagers rebel against their parents news about the impending move. We see cross town rivalries extend beyond the ball field. And we see employees suffer severe depression and untimely deaths due to their world being shaken. We even see politician, such as Nixon, go to extremes in order to hold onto their political identity.

Perhaps, it was fortunate for Copernicus that his death so closely coincided with the publication of his theories. Less than a century later, in 1633, Galileo was convicted by the Inquisition of heresy and forced to publicly withdraw his support of Copernicus. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, but because of his advanced age he was allowed to serve his term under house arrest at his villa in Arcetri outside of Florence.

It took contributions from a number of other prominent scientists before Copernicus' theories became widely accepted. Galileo used the newly invented telescope to add knowledge of Jupiter's moons, Venus' phases and the rotation of the sun about a fixed axis. Kepler introduced the idea that planets traveled in elliptical orbits. And Isaac Newton proposed the ideas of universal gravity to explain the elliptical orbits.

Anyone who has seen the ubiquitous styrofoam models constructed by grade school children, knows that the Copernicus model of heliocentrism is widely accepted. But it hasn't always been that way.

What outdated models are we using as reference for our lives? And what evidence do we need to accumulate before we accept a better model?

Guided by the Stars

Christopher Columbus was the first known sailor to keep detailed records of his voyage. His records indicate he navigated primarily by a system known as dead reckoning. This system relied on observation and timekeeping. A sailor would use they last known position to trace his course to the end of the day. That position would then be used as the next day's starting point.

In order for this to be even remotely accurate, the sailor would need to determine how far they had traveled during the day. This would be based on speed and time. (Distance = Speed x Time, e.g. 55 mph x 2 hrs = 110 miles.) The problem with this system is there wasn't an accurate way of keeping track of either time or speed.

In the middle of the ocean, there aren't a lot of land masses by which to navigate. They would have to have relied on the position of the stars, moon and sun. But in these days, celestial navigation was in its early infancy.

Further, there was little to depend upon for keeping track of time. Accurate clocks had not yet been developed, so the sailors were left to depend on hourglasses. The hourglass was to be turned each half hour by the ship's boy. Since the glass was always running either a little slow or a little fast, the glass would be trued up by the rising or setting sun or midnight.

Midnight was determined by using a nocturnal, a tool which told the time of night by the rotation of stars around the Celestial Pole.

Accurate distance tracking was also impeded by both storms and calms at sea.

In our day of satellites and global positioning systems, it is difficult to appreciate how challenging navigation must have been for Columbus and his crew. In fact, in our day it is really hard to appreciate how it could have been possible for the majority of people in the known world to have no idea that there was a whole other continent out there. After all, the Americas make up not quite a third of the world's land mass. That's a big lump of dirt that couldn't be seen.

If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it's not your path. Your own path you make with every step you take. That's why it's your path. ~ Joseph Campbell

Our individual navigation through life is much like Columbus' journey to the New World. Each of us has an individual path that only we can determine and travel. Many of us, myself included at times, travel over the seas of life being driven blindly by the winds. We are so busy keeping the ship aright on the sea that we sometimes forget that we need to navigate as well.

As Socrates famously stated, "the unexamined life is not worth living."

In order to navigate life, we need to have an idea of where we are, where we have been and where we are headed. I'm not just talking logistics here, either. It doesn't take much nowadays to know our position on the earth with incredible accuracy. However, we ourselves can be the only accurate judge of where we are on our life's journey.

The Widow's Mite

A painting hangs in the office buildings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City. The painting is that of a young widow surrounded by children. The woman is casting in two mites. The Savior is in the background with a handful of his disciples. He tells them that of her want the widow has cast in all she has. 

There have been others with greater wealth who have cast in aplenty. But she has given all she has.

There are times when I have plenty, and I am able to give more. I have more energy, so I am able to provide greater service. I have more optimism, so I can give more encouragement. 


There are other times, though, when I don't have as much. I am in my down cycle of dealing with depression. I don't have the energy that I do at other times, so it is much more difficult to serve. I am filled with more pessimism than optimism. I struggle to give myself encouragement let alone anyone else. 

Deep within, I still have the same desire to serve. I simply don't have the same resources. My reservoir has been depleted to some degree. Sometimes more significantly than others. 

Yet, I am the same person in both circumstances. It is almost like I have two sides of me that are distant relatives. They know each other and may even recognize each other in passing, but they aren't close. 

When I am in my depressive state, I doubt that I will ever get better. On the other hand, when I am in my more stable state (maybe even a little better than stable), I thrill a little at the idea that I have gotten past the depression. I think that I am done with it and won't be heading back to see that sad little cousin. 

Both cousins have the same internal motivation to serve and to celebrate the differences in people and in life. 

Yet, they don't have the same resources. 

Carrie Fisher, in her book Wishful Drinking, refers to her two cousins as Pam and Roy. Roy is full of energy and enjoys life to excess. Pam, on the other hand, struggles to plod ahead. 

I don't know the names of my two distant cousins, yet. I do recognize that they are related and do have a similar motivation to serve and give of themselves. They just don't have the same capacity to do so.

Both have insights and service to give. I am beginning to appreciate that fact. 

Another thought on the matter is that the dichotomy that exists within me also exists in the people I find around me in daily living. I aspire to what Carol Dweck refers to as a growth mindset. At times when I am more of my "normal" self, I am much more in the growth mindset. 

In those periods, I am amazed that not everybody is in that same mindset. Don't they see life as an opportunity to learn and grow. To become better than they have been. To experience life as a living, breathing creature full of possibility. 

I am seeing, though, as I look at myself. That we don't all have the same capacity all the time. Some of us are struggling to survive. Life isn't a magical creature we are trying to tame. It can be either a threatening beast we cower before, or it is an old horse neglected in the stable.

I am learning compassion for those striving to hold on. I do aspire to live with a growth mindset. But sometimes it does't work out that way.