going to the mt., looking for . . .

random thoughts about a quasi-vision quest

My dog Manchas and I are going to spend a few days alone, w/o a tent or campfire, sitting on a mt., away from as many people as possible.

In Huxley's Island, old people would annually drop a hit of something, maybe it was mescaline. Given my 61 years, consider this something similar.

Due to aging and ravaged liver, stomach, kidneys, heart, etc., we will need to take minimal water and two packages of unsalted crackers. Manchas will also be on reduced intake. I can't do the real vision question (sweat lodge, total abstinence) because I'm not a real indio, nor a true believer in the Great Spirit. Just a partial believer.

Call it an attempt to reconnect with the little bit of indigenous in me. Call it a cleansing of the civilized, urban garbage I carry.

Just finished reading Nightfall by Clarke & Silverberg, about a planet where a planet's population goes mad when they see the stars only every 2,000 years. Manchas and I have seen the stars before (last night), but never for whole nights.

I didn't win the "What Was I Thinking" contest on Mario Acevedo's website, The Biting Edge, with my last entry for the dumbassest thing I ever did, but maybe I'll win his next one for my episode on the mt.

I don't doubt I'll lose some weight, which I can afford to. But will I shed some mind-heart clutter that I need to lose? Things that will help clarify, that will awaken my brain, that will loosen the soul.

We don't have a guide like in Teachings of Don Juan, ala Carlos Castaneda, to lead us, so we're going to have to play it by ear. Hope the mt. spirits accept the unguided.

The subtitle to the book was A Yaqui way of knowledge. Our family supposedly has Yaqui in it. Maybe I'll reconnect with some of that, though whether knowledge or something less or something stranger results, well, we'll just see.

I've got cold feet, and I'm not talking due to Denver's unseasonably cool temps. (It was 50 last night.) Being by oneself is not a normal comfort zone. Not for this long. With no manmade lights, colas or cervezas, human comforts, no TV, phone, computer. I'm taking six cigs. And maybe one fat one. But I won't dare light it in the dark.

Also taking my stick and a knife, hopefully only necessary for the cougars. Bears don't like dogs, so I don't worry there. Cougars do like dogs, very rare and unsalted. Manchas will need to be somewhat tethered to avoid becoming lunch.

I'm taking along a small spiral, for no more than an hour's worth of notes every morning. Hard to say whether I'll share that here or whether there'll be much worth sharing.

We'll come down from the mt., hopefully much better for having gone up.
Vamos a ver,
RudyG

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