Takuan Soho

Revisited one of my favorite books, Takuan Soho's "Unfettered Mind." Takuan was a monk, calligrapher, gardner, tea master, and poet. Born in Japan in 1573, served as counsel to many of the Samurai of the day. My all time favorite quote comes from this book. I apply it to ultrarunning, being on the trails, whatever:

"Be like water flowing over the rocks--the water flows constantly, not stopping to consider its path around the next stone."

Takaun wrote several instructive letters to swordsmen of his day on strategy and focus. A few highlights:

"I do not fight for gain or loss, am not concerned with strength or weakness, and neither advance a step nor retreat a step. The enemy does not see me. I do not see the enemy. Penetrating to a place where heaven and Earth have not yet divided, I quickly and necessarily gain effect.

The accomplished man uses the sword but does not kill others--when confronted with his principle-they cower down. He uses the sword and gives life: while he deals with his opponent with a sword, he leaves everything to the movement of the other man, and he is able to observe him just as he pleases. "

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We were out at Forest Park today for our 4 hour training run. The morning blessed us with much cooler temps and sunshine if not lower humidity. Started at 6:30 a.m. My legs felt pretty tired for the first loop, 50 minutes or so, then miraculously gained strength as the morning went on. Took an e-cap at one hour, went across to the steep climbs of the Pimiteoui Trail. At 1:45 ate a banana, filled up with straight water in the bottle. We did the reverse loop starting with Wilderness and got back to the parking lot at 2:35 or so. Another e-cap and more water. Pam's ITB started hurting on the last loop, but things calmed and we finished strong. The hills out there are great for the quads, i'm feeling it tonight for sure, but the strength gained is huge. Finished in 4:06. Our strategy incoporates enough walking that I don't feel too beat up during the week. Overall I felt very strong for this run--maybe couldve used a bit more fluid intake, but all-in-all was very happy. When isn't a looooong run in the woods great?

Started reading "The Shaolin Grandmasters' Text" today, written by an order of Shaolin monks in Oregon to better explain the philosophies of this Zen sect. Promising read so far. I'm most interested in how Taoism affected the development of Shaolin and how it's incorporated today.

"The Tao that can be named is not the true Tao."

Depositing Memories

It' s funny how the feel of a hot summer evening, the angle of the sun at dusk, can transform me back to childhood--back to running barefoot on the soft grass, hitting walnuts with my aluminum baseball bat for hours. These aren't just hollow images from the past flickering across the screen of the mind, but rather tangible parts of who I am as a person.

I believe every moment is sacred. I'm fully aware of my many shortcomings, and while oftentimes I fall short of my own ideals, even the underwhelming moments are meaningful, patches in the quilt of time and life. With each passing human year of this life I become more cognizant of the importance of being engaged, mentally and physically, as immersed as possible in my senses and perceptions of the world. Each day that Keegan grows is another day that he has changed forever. This isn't a negative thing, it's something to be savored, being able to watch this little boy make his way through the world. Every snapshot is a deposit in the memory banks. These memories can be retrieved from a private bank of reminiscence and reflection, going a long way in keeping the spirit strong no matter what is dealt to me in life. Of this I am certain.

If Ya Luv Luv Show Ya Luv

Been training for the Glacial Trail 50k in October for the last couple months. We did a 3 hour in brutal heat at Forest Park, then two weeks later a 3 1/2 hour at McNaughton in much more tolerable weather conditions. I'm still running about 10-15 pounds too fat. Maybe I'm just not putting in the total mileage or intensity to drop weight. Or maybe it's the beer. So far the long runs have gone well, legs are holding up and the strength is coming back. The eight months off for the tibial fracture took alot of the muscle strength I'd built up. It's slow to come back. I'm gonna try this thing anyway, barring injury beforehand, since it's the race I was gunning for before the injury. Mostly I just want to see that trail in fall and the race is a good excuse to do it. We're planning on 4, 41/2, and 5 hour runs over the next 6 weeks. These long runs/power hikes will tell where things are with the training. I have no concern for time or racing anyone, just finishing, so no pressure in terms of distance covered or speed. This will be an interesting experiment to see where things are by early October. Keep em crossed.

I went back and re-read a few chapters of Ralph Wiley's "Serenity: A Boxing Memoir." I just love his writing style and he captures on paper what I love about the sport. Why "Serenity," you ask? Read it and find out. Another recommendation would be Joyce Carol Oates' "On Boxing," of which I had her autograph my personal copy when she spoke at ISU a couple years ago. You had all these arrogant professors and literary types fawning over her in the book signing line trying to impress her with their knowledge of her work. I get up there and we end up holding up the line for 5 minutes talking boxing. How frickin' cool is that, talking about the style matchups of swarmers and pure boxers with one of America's foremost authors. Rock n' roll.

Soundtrack:

Nuisance "Sunny Side Down" and "Confusion Hill." I've had these in heavy rotation lately. One of my all time favorite bands. There is nothing better than cranking "Harvest Time" on crisp October evening by the water, cold Pilsner Urquell in one hand, fishing pole in the other. I'll say it forever: Nuisance was a better band than Nirvana and Andrew Asp was a better songwriter than Cobain could've ever hoped to have been.

Rocker-T "If Ya Luv Luv Show Ya Luv." Fundamentalist Rastafarian Reggae from a white dude. Seriously. It's good, really good.

Psychogeographic Mapping

I've been kicking around the idea of the psychogeographic map, a concept that i first read about years ago in the writings of the Situationist International. My interest in the notion lies in how we experience place and interact with geography and topography of our physical reality.

Psychogeography concerns itself with how we experience and are affected by being in a place. Places and human experiences of them are never static--they are influenced by a number of factors: our mood, the weather, companions of lack thereof, and other mysterious forces that aren't as readily discernible, such as the energy fields or "vibes" of a particular space.

"Generative Psychogeography" or "algorithmic walking" is a subfield that deals with a particular way to experience a landscape. I ran across the concept in an article in the Utne Reader. Essentially, you hike in a fixed pattern starting from a random point: "first left, then second right, next right, repeat pattern." This is not meant to be strictly random wandering nor is it a wholly structued walking tour, but occupies a space between anarchy and the fixed, predictable patterns by which we typically move through our daily lives. The goal is to provide a completely fresh perspective on the landscape we encounter in our immediate realm of being.

The algorithmic logic will take you to places you may not otherwise encounter. In a typical landscap you may actively seek out obviously interesting features, markers, green space, objects of interest to the eye, but the algorithm imposes the idea that you immerse yourself in a space that could be easily overlooked, finding magic in the seemingly mundane.--a piece of stunning colored rock in a vacant lot, an old shack in a back alley that you may have overlooked for years as anything worth observing. Whatever it is, use it as a took to remake your own relationships with the geography.

From what i can glean, these experiments have mostly taken place in urban settings. My thinking would be to incorporate psychogeography, historical geography, meditative arts, history, and reflective writing into an integrated method of experiencing place. "interactive geography"

This methodology could apply to any rural landscape: fields, meadows, rivers, wooded trails, anywhere you can walk. Algorithmic walking could be instigated through a predetermined set number of steps or by a timed algorith. For example: "walk 100 paces, left turn, walk 50 paces, right 200 paces." Pacing would be at a comfortable hike so that every undulation, topographical feature, detail of flora, fauna, human marking, can be observed in detail and recorded by reflective writing, photo analysis, audio recording or simple rememberance by the experiencer of one's perception and feelings of the landscape during each segment of the algorithmic process.

Edward Abbey once wrote:

"Do not jump into your automobiles next June and rush to the country hoping to see some of that which I have evoked in these pages. First, you can't see anything from a car; you've got to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk, better yet crawl, on hands and knees over the sandstone and through the cactus. When traces of blood begin to mark the trail, you'll see something, maybe."

This is the essence of interative geography. To scrutinize qualititatively, not just scientifically but through a qualitative response to the geography. This is where the integration comes in.

For example: I've been interested in prairie ghost towns in recent months. Near the Mackinaw River and Panther Creek confluence in rural Woodford County was located the village of Bowling Green. If one were to drive by this spot they would see a rock along the road inscribed with "Bowling Green-laid out in 1836." One may note the beauty of the trees behind this boulder, they may read the inscription and think nothing of it, or they may take a deeper interest and inquire of themselves, "What was Bowling Green?" "What happened on this spot?" "Does anything remain?" Interactive geography would incorporate a historical geographical model to these questions. Historical research indicates that Bowling Green was an early village that sprang up on a stagecoach line between Peoria and Bloomington, IL. It is mentioned and marked on several maps of the period and its location is pinpointed from the use of plats that indicate specific township coordinates. In fact, one can find a blueprint for the village's layout itself. We know there was a general store, a hotel, and several platted streets. The village ceased to exist when the railroad came through, thus rendering the stagecoach line obsolete.

Historical geography lends a deeper appreciation of a place like this and facilitates reverence for what once was.

Now, we apply the psychogeographical approach. Find the physical locale of the village, incorporate algorithmic walking over the grounds. What does this ground look like some 170 years after it was once occupied? What does it feel like? Investigate. Can any physical remnants of habitation still be found? What about energy? Meditative art or just one's psychological or emotional response to a space is just as important to me as what the eyes tell us. We use an energy pendulum to check for movement. There is a circular motion and some moderate heat that indicate an energetic presence. Would anything interesting manifest itself through audio or video investigation? Simply closing your eyes and drinking in the "feel" of the place, the sound of the wind through the trees and high grasses? What stories are there waiting to be exhumed? Were there Indians here before the white settlers of Bowling Green? What does the land say?

Free writing or flow of consciousness can, I believe, add another level of understanding of physical space. Interactive geography would seek to redefine perception, subtely remake how we view the world and celebrate the deep of place that illuminates our daily lives.

I believe it is possible to remake the landscape through perception, to alter consciousness in a way that provides understanding on many levels, to form a new bond and relationship with the spaces we occupy.

The Bowling Green example is one of starting from a fixed historical spot, but interactive geography can be practiced anywhere. Use algorithmic walking on a forested trail and see what you find. I've found gravestones, old fencelines, fossils, rusted cars, slabs where shacks or houses once stood, old bottles, animal bones, etc. Magic in the mundane. What are the stories of these physical objects? How do they inform our sense of the present? All questions i think are worthwhile.

Walking the grounds of a crop farm, I come across a 20 acre barren that an 1878 plat map indicates once was home to a "race track." I assume horse racing. The barrens are bisected by the tiny Mill Creek and are home to locust, orange osage and several large hardwood trees, a large swatch of varied grass, a large raspberry patch, and numerous wildflowers. I've found evidence of structures in the bramble. I scour the earth and love it wildly. My understanding is embellished by psychogeography.

The interactive approach can be applied to any random spot. Integrative investigation confers a meaning to places and geographies that may have previously seemed meaningless or devoid of significance. It reworks our conditioned responses to "place" and all of its' connotations. These ideas have real meaning to me, and in my view have great potential for casual change in how deeply we absorb our world.