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The Beautiful Cup

Techniques and gear for the lightweight backcountry coffee connoisseur, because under no circumstances should you let a non-coffee drinker brew your bliss.

by Mike Clelland! | 2010-09-07 00:00:00-06

Editor’s Note: This article first appeared in Issue 6 of the BackpackingLight print magazine (now out of print).

If my years as a backcountry traveler have taught me anything, it’s this: backpacking should never EVER be attempted without coffee. If this statement does NOT ring true as a fundamental fact in alignment with the laws of the universe, then don’t bother reading any further.

Okay, lets review the statement above. If backpacking equals coffee, then ultra-light backpacking must somehow equal ultra-light coffee, right? Right.

IMPORTANT TRUISM #1

Under no circumstances should you let a non-coffee drinker brew your coffee.

Non-coffee drinkers CANNOT be trusted to make acceptable coffee. If some well-meaning tent-mate gets up early and offers to bring you coffee in bed, do NOT let them. You will be sadly disappointed, and the entire day may founder in a miasma of negative drama. Let’s face it, the coffee ritual is something those not addicted to coffee will never understand. Politely get up and give them a genuine and heartfelt thank-you. Then make your own beautiful cup.

(Note: it’s possible that your hiking companion will be annoyed at this type of behavior and come to view you as the control freak that you are. But remember, joy is joy, and any impediment to your coffee bliss MUST be avoided.)

As a seasoned backpacker and a coffee drinker, the act of field-brewing the perfect cup is something I have taken to heart and, as a result, I’ve experimented with all-manner of systems and techniques. Over the years I’ve found that there are plenty of ways to make a fabulous cup of coffee in the backcountry, but some systems are decidedly NOT lightweight.

This is serious business and there’s a lot to juggle in deciding how best to approach the coffee conundrum for a given backcountry trip. Factors such as group size, cooking systems, and the extent to which you will ultimately favor weight savings over the aesthetics of the perfect coffee experience will all have an impact on which approach is most appropriate.

As you may have gathered, I’ve got some opinions about this whole coffee thing. So, before we go any further, and in the interest of full disclosure, here are a few of my personal prejudices:

  1. Strong coffee is good coffee.
  2. Except for a very few companions, I don’t trust anyone to make coffee for me.
  3. Adding sugar to coffee is criminal.
  4. Sometimes I add a little milk in my coffee, but black is just fine.
  5. Adding flavors (like hazelnut and almandine) to an already perfect drink is sinful.
  6. Picking grounds out of my teeth is a serious buzz kill.
  7. Coffee equals joy.

The Methods

FRENCH PRESS

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Outdoor boutique shelves are overflowing with every conceivable variation on the humble French press. Some make very good coffee, and some seem designed to simply look good. French press systems becomes a good choice when you find yourself in a group. The more coffee you need (a liter or more), the more the press becomes a preferred option.

There are one-cup French press systems out there (and I even have a few), which make very good coffee, but they are NOT a lightweight solution. For a single cup at a time, the small filters are superior and much lighter.

For obvious reasons, glass (or, more correctly, Pyrex) ain’t an option. There are several Lexan versions. There is a robust 33-ounce (1.4-liter) sized Lexan press made by a company called GSI (they also make other sizes), and it costs about $20. As soon as I took mine out of the box, I used a hacksaw and cut off the handle, then ditched the rubber base and the Velcro insulating wrap. I got the thing down to a reasonable 9.1 ounces – a behemoth by ultralight standards, but a good tool for big groups.

Snow Peak makes a titanium French press (6.5 oz), but – alas – it only holds 24 ounces of liquid, making it just a one-cup (albeit a big one) apparatus.

There are a multitude of stainless steel versions of every conceivable size and design. These are for home use and car-camping applications ONLY.

I typically spend thirty days each summer working on massive glaciers in Alaska with big groups (sometimes fifteen expedition members!), and coffee time is an essential part of the experience. Our success as a well-run expedition is absolutely dependent on a well-orchestrated coffee routine. The French press is the glue that binds our teams together.

SMALL FILTERS

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There are at least two small filter systems on the market that function well. The MSR MUG MATE, which weighs .98 ounce, and THE PEOPLE’S BREW BASKET from The Republic of Tea. The Brew Basket is actually a little lighter than the MSR, weighing in at an amazing 0.1 ounce! The Brew Basket is a small plastic mesh filter shaped like a cup. It is a simple tool and works great.

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There are two ways to effectively use small filters to make good coffee – first, as a filter through which you pour already steeped coffee to keep grounds from ending up in your mug (and teeth), or second, as a way of containing grounds while they steep in your mug or bowl.

Actually POURING already steeped coffee through a filter makes better coffee, and it’s easier, but it requires using a two-pot system – one to hold the hot water and steep coffee in, and a second to drink from. Here’s how it works:

  1. Make a pot of boiling water with the desired volume.
  2. Shut off the stove and add finely ground coffee to the water.
  3. Stir with a little stick and then let this mixture sit for a while. (How long? How impatient are you? Some purists say four minutes, but I’m way too anxious for that; it would be an eternity. Let’s just say about a minute.)
  4. Then pour this mixture through your filter into your cup.

Dang, I can barely write this without getting all excited

For the second approach, using only one vessel, here’s the low-down:

  1. Boil the water in your drinking cup.
  2. Shut off the stove and take it off the heat.
  3. Prep the FILTER with the coffee grounds – a fine grind is essential.
  4. Carefully set the loaded FILTER right in the cup. This may take some time because the grounds will float (using the MSR with the lid will help here).
  5. Actively swish the FILTER around in the cup, then let it sit for a few minutes.
  6. Remove the filter and drink.

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SMALL FILTER 2.0

You can take the Republic of Tea BASKET and cut it (and then sew it up again) so it fits PERFECTLY into a 500ml baby Nalgene bottle! This solves some of the hassle factor, and reduces the filter’s weight below its already wispy 0.1 ounce! Scizzor, sewing needle and unwaxed, unflavored dental floss required.

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JAVA JUICE

Java Juice is the answer to the ultralight backpacker’s prayers.

For the super zealot, these little packets are the hands down winner for the lightest way to make, drink, and enjoy coffee.

Each packet weighs just 0.5 ounce and makes one 12-ounce cup of strong coffee. Vary the water (and the number of packets!) to find your strength preference.

How do you use Java Juice? Heat up water in a mug. Add contents of Java Juice packet and stir. That’s it! To make sure your hot drink tastes fantastic, heat your liquid before adding Java Juice.

Alas, even Java Juice is not quite perfect.

Pros & Cons(+) The lightest!

(+) The easiest!

(+) Pretty darned good taste.

(+) Single vessel.

(+) After careful instruction, even non-coffee drinkers can make it for you.

(-) Not quite as good as fresh brewed, but close.

Where Java Juice truly shines is when it’s served cold during afternoon coffee time on the trail with no need to pull out the stove. Dipping my humble mug in an ice-cold mountain spring, adding two packs of Java Juice and a pinch of powdered milk… oh my goodness, I’m getting all teary-eyed just thinkin’ about it!

COLD PREPACKAGED COFFEE IN CANS

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Austin Powers stumbled on Dr. Evil’s plans for global domination, and it was being masterminded out of the corporate tentacles of Starbucks. This was not just some Hollywood scriptwriters idea of a joke – this is TRUE! So, read on with extreme trepidation.

The Darth Vader of coffee exploitation does plenty of stuff that I worry about, but dang if they don’t make a really good coffee in a can.

Search your local grocery store (or gas station) and you’ll find little 6.5-ounce cans called DOUBLE SHOT. Espresso, cream, and sugar. This may sound terrible, but it is actually a distillation of the three most vital food groups: Caffeine, fat, and simple carbs.

I use these as a caffeine delivery system on short stoveless overnights trips. Two cans per morning are enough to screw my head on plenty tight.

Starbucks also sells an 11-ounce canned product called ICED COFFEE made with Italian roast, and (gratefully) this has less milk and sugar. Also very good.

The obvious drawback of these products is that you end up carrying actual containers of liquid into the backcountry, and then of course shuttle the empty cans around with you once you’ve used them.

COWBOY COFFEE

Cowboy Coffee is an art, but it requires a little patience. And, honestly, patience is not one of my virtues. Nonetheless, Cowboy Coffee can be verygood, and here’s what I’ve learned:

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  1. Heat water in a pot.
  2. Let the water achieve a boil and take it OFF the stove.
  3. Add the grounds, and stir ‘em in. The grounds will float and won’t even begin to sink until they are fully saturated, so keep stirring. A little stick works fine.

You need to get the grounds to the bottom of the pot before you can pour the coffee into a cup. This is where patience is a virtue. Now it’s a race against time: if you wait an hour all the grounds will settle out beautifully – but the coffee will be cold. And if you don’t wait long enough, you’ll end up chewing your coffee instead of drinking it. It’ssurface tension keeping the grounds afloat, and you’ll need to break this with some simple techniques.

Here’s where everybody has a little trick to get the grounds to settle. These all work fine:

  1. Tapping the side of the pot.
  2. Adding a tiny bit of cold water.
  3. Add a pinch of snow (difficult in Arizona in July).
  4. Drop a few pebbles into the pot (my favorite).
  5. Continue to stir with a tiny stick.

Even the best Cowboy Coffee usually leaves a few grounds in the first cup out of the pot, so find out who on your team won’t complain and pour theirs first.

*Important note: You can easily avoid this whole rigmarole by pouring the cowboy brew through a filter and into your cup. This is quick and solves the issue of getting any grounds in your cup. (See “Small Filters” above).

TURKISH GROUNDS

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Traditional Turkish coffee is made with a combination of a specialized little cup, called an ibriks or cezve and very finely ground beans. For true Turkish coffee, beans are ground to a dusty powder – a consistency that might be difficult to achieve at home with a counter top “propeller” grinder. A better option would be to use the grinder in your local grocery store (or better yet, ask at your local coffee shop). If you don’t achieve a fine enough grind, the process won’t work. Your ground coffee needs to be as fine as cake flour!

If you are in a café in downtown Istanbul, your artisan host will put a small amount (usually less than you think) in your ibriksand then carefully bring the mixture to a boil. He’ll even let you use a special spoon to stir it. The ibriks has a bell shape, it’s wider at the bottom. This wide area traps the inky black stuff (affectionately called the “sludge”) as it settles, so you don’t end up drinking it. Simple and elegant. The humble backpacker can use a 500ml Lexan Nalgene bottle as a stand-in ibriks. This vessel has a similarly shaped wide rim, and it functions very nicely.

So, mix some Turkish ground coffee with boiling water right in your Baby-Nalgene, no stirring – just put on the lid and shake. Now let it sit for a few minutes so the sludge can all settle. Then drink it carefully! It’s a beautiful thing as long as there is no disruption of the tar at the bottom.

TURKISH COWBOY

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You can combine the best of Cowboy Coffee and Turkish coffee approaches for 1-liter volumes. The standard 1-liter soft-sided Nalgene water bottle (6.1 oz) is a solution that is lighter than the French press and less time consuming than the Cowboy in-the-pot system. It also keeps the pot from making the next meal taste like coffee.

Put a very fine Turkish grind in the Nalgene bottle. Add boiling water, put the lid on, and shake it up. Wait a while (maybe three minutes), tapping the bottle periodically. Allow the grounds to settle to the bottom and decant the mixture into waiting cups. The shape of the “rim” on the bottle effectively traps the sediment, but pour SLOWLY. The last few drops will NOT be drinkable.

Sadly, the Nalgene bottle serves only one purpose, it will hold odors and will not make a very good water bottle – unless you don’t mind the strong leftover taste.

(+) A fairly light way to make coffee for two people (a half a liter each).

(+) Makes VERY GOOD coffee!

(+) Keeps the pot clean of coffee taste.

(-) The water bottle will be unusable as a water bottle.

Condiments

POWDERED MILK

If you can’t handle your coffee black, you’ll need to add some milk. The powdered stuff is actually pretty good (and there is even some organic milk available).

However, creating high quality milk from a powder isn’t as easy as you might think. Powdered milk is a finicky substance. Don’t be lazy and simply shovel the stuff into your brew. If you add powdered milk to hot water it’ll become a thick glop similar to a full hanky during allergy season and about as appealing.

To make proper milk you MUST USE COLD WATER. When combined with cold water, the powder is transformed into a glop-free concoction. That said, you can make it pretty thick so the mixture doesn’t get your final coffee too cold.

The 500 ml Nalgene is a milk frother’s dream tool! Add powdered milk and a tiny amount of cold water. Put the lid on and shake aggressively. You can achieve a powerfully creamy addition to the coffee experience.

SUGAR

Now, I would NEVER put this stuff in my coffee. But, in an effort to inform those who do, here are some tips.

Sugar is a tricky thing to carry in a backpack. It is granular and difficult to pour out of a plastic bag, but dipping a spoon in the bag is an unsanitary solution. Sugar packs poorly in a Zip-loc bag, because the grains clog the zipper, and spilled sugar is a disaster, especially in the rain. Oh Jeeez – the stuff gets sticky!

Brown sugar packs a little better – it stays in clumps for easier travel and serving. It sounds counterintuitive, but actually helps.

The easiest solution is to steal some of those little packets from a diner. Figure out how much you’ll need and count ‘em out exactly before leaving the trailhead.

IMPORTANT TRUISM #2

Instant coffee isn’t actually coffee, and is therefore outside the scope of this discussion. It is quite simply not an option. I will not mention it further. If you’ve no sense of coffee-related propriety and are simply trying to get out of bed in the morning, pop a couple pieces of Jolt gum and hit the trail fer Pete’s sake.

Alternative Caffeine Delivery System

Jolt Gum

Jolt Gum is not coffee; it’s a caffeine delivery system completely devoid of the ritual involving the mug and the heartfelt “Ahhhh!” after the first sip. But it does have its place in the true caffeine addict’s backpack.

Here’s a story: I got up early in southern Utah in the rain, it was cold, and we had a lot of miles to finish up before the end of the day. We didn’t light the stove, we just chewed Jolt gum. While hiking I thought to myself, “What a nice morning!” (and this was in the rain!) This was the opposite of a non-coffee morning where my thoughts would be a frenetic spiral of, “Gotta brew up – Gotta brew up – Gotta brew up!”

This stuff works. Two little pieces have about the same caffeine as one cup of coffee. So, this actually IS a viable substitute to bringing coffee into the field.

A Backcountry Coffee Code of Conduct

Here’s an ethical can of worms.

Coffee grounds are trash, and we can’t be adding trash to the pristine backcountry.

I’ve shared a tent with some very devoted and morally pure backcountry travelers. They have watched me carefully disperse coffee grounds in the morning, and they were extremely clear at communicating their disapproval. Fortunately, I had already jacked my brain on the good-bean, so my debating skills were white hot. Unfortunately, they are right. Coffee grounds are actually trash. But, they are a trash that I can justify leaving in the topsoil in a pretty meadow out in the great wild.

The third Leave-No-Trace principle is “Dispose of Waste Properly,” and used coffee grounds are waste. If you feel you need to carry them out to the road-head and throw them in a trash can, then more power to you. I am of the opinion that with just a little forethought, used coffee grounds can be appropriately left behind. Coffee is a boiled and ground up bean (and hopefully you purchase organic beans!), and they will decompose in healthy topsoil.

For what it’s worth here’s my own “ethical” checklist:

  1. Scatter used coffee grounds in an appropriate area – bushes or brushy areas work wonderfully.
  2. Do NOT scatter used grounds on rocks or rocky areas. If you are above tree line, pack used grounds with you until you get to a zone with living flora.
  3. If you are in an impacted campsite, walk a long way from the site before scattering.
  4. Never dispose of used grounds in a river or pond!
  5. Don’t be lazy. Do the very best you can when you scatter your used coffee grounds.

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Citation

“The Beautiful Cup,” by Mike Clelland!. BackpackingLight.com (ISSN 1537-0364).
http://backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/coffee_beautiful_cup.html, 2010-09-07 00:00:00-06.

Out of Control By Tom Ehrich

November 13, 2012

When Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, “Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?” (Mark 13.3-4)

After my recent surgery, I peppered my surgeon with questions. When will I be back to 100%? When can I resume doing this or that?

I didn’t have a calendar to manage. I just wanted a sense of control. Surgery had put me out of control, and I wanted control back.

The doctor wisely said, Who knows? It depends. Weeks, maybe months. In other words, non-answers to nonsense questions.

Bodega_02Now, in the strange ironies of a strange year, he could be asking the same question. For his hospital, one of the city’s finest, was clobbered by Hurricane Sandy and might not reopen for months.

As the disciples of Jesus dealt with the realities of their master — not the imagined benefits, not the romance of a new David, not the grand procession to power, but a suffering servant whose trajectory was toward tragedy — they, too, sought a sense of control.

“When will this be?” they asked. “What will be the sign?”

Christians have been asking those questions ever since. Every time we glean the truth about Jesus, we reach for the control switch. Make the enterprise about us, we say. Satisfy our desires. Build our edifices. Crown our kings. Anoint our prejudices. Soothe our fears. Make us right.

Then we turn our assurances into what we really want: power, wealth, comfort, admiration. We claim to be seeking the glory of God. But there is nothing in the Jesus story that requires grand cathedrals, well-attired clergy, fights over doctrine, property disputes, budget battles, or divisions along every conceivable line, from race to tenure to taste in music.

That is all us, all the time. That is our addiction to control. That is our delusion: if we knew exactly when and what and how, we could rule the world. Or at least sleep well at night.

Following Jesus has always meant stepping beyond self-interest and safety, and following one who hurries toward danger, not away from it, whose heart is fundamentally oriented toward the victim and the outcast, not toward the righteous.

Then and now, following Jesus means uncertainty, not certainty, and conflict, not peace as the world knows peace. Following Jesus means going out to serve, not staying inside to enjoy. It means forming odd alliances in pursuit of justice, not wrapping ourselves in the mantle of tribe. It means constant change, not carefully measured change. It means responding to needs, not scheduling meetings to talk about needs.

In Jesus’ company, there is no control. There is only a journey onward to a land that God will show us.

Mystery Unraveled: How a white, moderate, churchgoing, middle-class, middle-aged woman could vote for Obama

Mystery Unraveled: How a white, moderate, churchgoing, middle-class, middle-aged woman could vote for Obama

‘We do not see things as they are; we see things as we are.” – Anais Nin

If there’s one word that seemed to characterize Romney supporters’ immediate reaction to Obama’s victory, it’s “shock.”

A conservative Facebook friend posted this status: “For the first time in my life I am at a loss for words…absolutely baffled by the electorate and the election results, especially considering the current state the country is in.”

A radio reporter interviewed a woman at the Romney campaign party in Denver shortly after the election was called. Her response simmered with anger as she pondered the reality of how more than half the nation had voted: “What don’t they see?? It’s mind-boggling!”

What they don’t see are people like me.

I’m a 50-year-old white woman who lives in the swing state of Colorado. I’m married, I’m a mom, I have a PhD, and I’m a Christian. In Boulder. I can’t imagine trying to explain the world without faith and science. I’m upper middle class, but I come from blue-collar stock. I believe in capitalism, but I also believe its inevitable excesses must be tempered with regulations – you know, Genesis, original sin, the human propensity for greed and all. I’m pro-life in the fullest sense of the term. I’m happy for my gay friends who want to marry – I’m all for commitment when it comes to sustaining the social fabric. My evangelical grandmother, whom I treasured, was a member of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. I’m a Democrat who likes hymns and red wine. Try squaring all that when it comes to putting me in a political box.

Like a great many voters who helped tip the election to Obama, I see social complexity that the poles refuse to acknowledge. I’m a reasonable centrist. And I think Republicans write us off at their own expense.

If one had spent the campaign watching only Fox News, following only conservative pundits and pollsters, it’s no wonder the election results seemed so inscrutable. Daniel Larion, doing some Wednesday morning quarterbacking in The American Conservative, observed that the entire Romney campaign was organized on “flawed assumptions.”

“Romney and his allies not only didn’t understand their opponent, but they went out of their way to make sure they misunderstood him, and in any kind of contest that is usually a recipe for failure.”

Likewise, Romney supporters misunderstand many of us who sent Obama back for four more years. Why on earth, given this economy, would tens of millions of Americans choose to do that?

The right-wing radio blowhards think they have it figured out: we’re dupes of the mainstream media, a giant liberal-elite faction engaged in a conspiratorial embrace with the Left; Hurricane Sandy and turncoat Chris Christie joined forces in an eleventh-hour PR move for the president; or – and this is emerging as the dominant narrative – we simply want more stuff that we don’t have to work for. We’re takers, not makers. Romney was right when he talked about the 47 percent, only it was 51 percent – apparently there were more slackers in the country than he counted on.

All of those explanations are as wrong as they are offensive.

I would like for my bewildered Republican friends to know how I could possibly have voted for Obama without being a far-left ideologue who is simultaneously blind, immoral and lacking in patriotism.

Here are five reasons. And I’m pretty sure I speak for the bulk of the moderates who broke for the president on Tuesday night.

1) I don’t believe Obama is a closet Muslim with a radical socialist agenda to undermine America. I don’t believe he has a false birth certificate and a fake Social Security card. I think he is a deeply sincere, smart, principled man who is far from perfect but deserves a chance to continue what he has tried to begin.

2) I’m more comfortable taking a risk on Obama’s economic agenda than Romney’s. The numbers are starting to look up. I’d rather hedge my bets with Keynes than Adam Smith. Mitt wants to cut spending and slash taxes, and give most of those tax breaks to the richest Americans. That doesn’t square with my sense of what’s rational or what’s just. We’ve tried that before, and that Kool-Aid does not trickle down for me.

3) I’m willing to take a chance on Obamacare. It’s not perfect, but it’s better than a system that excludes millions and is dedicated to lining the pockets of insurance companies whose primary mission is not to cover care but to deny it. The Affordable Care Act is not “socialized medicine” in which the government dictates my health care. It’s a hybrid system that worked in Massachusetts; I’m ready to see how it goes in the rest of the U.S.

4) I care deeply about protecting this planet, our home. How could we elect a president who is so cavalier about God’s creation that he wants to dismantle the EPA? Really? The clean air and clean water acts established under Richard Nixon aren’t important to keep for our kids? I can’t imagine a world leader not grappling with the problem of global climate change. Solyndra was a debacle, but to suggest that we ought not to pursue green energy isn’t just short-sighted, it’s grave foolishness.

5) I believe a graduated tax system is the most moral means of structuring an economy. I think that rich folks who benefited so disproportionately from a wildly deregulated Wall Street need to return to shouldering more of our shared burden. Luke 12:48 says, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”

Now, plenty of wealthy business owners are going to argue, ‘This wasn’t given to me, I built it.’ Yes, you did, with a public infrastructure supporting you. But until we have genuine equality of opportunity in this country – including equal pay for equal work – some people can build a lot more than others.

There are parents who hire me for $50 an hour here in wealthy Boulder to coach their kids on college application essays. They fly to visit schools so their kids can interview in person. You think that teenager of a single-mom Wal-Mart clerk struggling to pay her rent has the same crack at a premier college education and the connections that come with it? Where is the equal opportunity?

And don’t tell me that working woman is a sponger. Don’t tell me that Diego who painted my house or Beatriz who sometimes cleans it is a freeloader. As a Christian, I am told to care for the least of these. When I vote, their self-interest should be as important as my own. “Sink or swim,” or “Go home even though you’ve lived here since you were two” is no more a path to economic autonomy than a government check is.

The fact is, we are all in this country together, and we have different needs and means, and we have a lot in common when it comes to teaching kids, fighting fires, cleaning up after storms or caring for our national parks. Those who have more need to do more, as we work to give the rest not a handout, but a hand up. As for me, I went to college on Pell grants, work-study, scholarships and summer jobs. That combination of my own hard work and a little help from a society that supported my potential is what got me a college degree. That powerful model – public and private in synergy – remains most compelling to me and is the most fundamental reason I voted for President Obama.

Clearly, the Right and Left perceive the role of government differently. We may ultimately be captives of a postmodernist analysis that says there is no way outside our own subjectivity to view the world through another’s eyes. If that is so, then empathy is a casualty and our divisions rigidify.

I refuse to concede that. I’d rather share the prophetic words of Abraham Lincoln, speaking to a deeply divided America in his 1861 Inaugural Address:

We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

May we each appeal to the better angels in one another as we start healing the wounds of this election season.

Maine 100 mile hike

 

http://sectionhiker.com/at-section-hike-100-mile-wilderness/

 

http://sectionhiker.com/inov-8-terroc-330-trail-running-shoes/

http://sectionhiker.com/inov-8-roclite-320-trail-running-shoes/

http://sectionhiker.com/long-distance-hiking-trails/

http://www.backpacker.com/mountain_goat_kills_hiker/blogs/daily_dirt/1918

http://www.backpacker.com/october_2001_destinations_best_backpacking_missouri/destinations/2576

http://www.citrusmilo.com/zionguide/transziontrek.cfm

http://www.backpacker.com/national_parks_secret_hikes_zion/destinations/14311

 

http://www.pcta.org/

http://www.pcta.org/pdf/2011-PCT-Map-Brochure.pdf

Needing to Receive

September 25, 2012

Needing to Receive

By Tom Ehrich

Jesus said, “For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.” (Mark 9.41)

Jesus told his followers that they would need water and that others, sometimes the most unlikely souls, would bring them cups. They wouldn’t be self-sufficient, above the fray, at a safe distance from personal, emotional and spiritual destitution.

They would fall and need to be helped up. They would go blind and hungry. They would suffer for their faith and would need — not just dispense in noblesse oblige but actually need — help in their travail.

Humility, you see, isn’t just stooping to give. It is also raising one’s broken heart to receive.