On Meditation.
We lost a remarkable man last week..a writer, environmentalist, activist and, as he says about himself, “an old lefty.”
He was also a longstanding Zen student who wrote that “each man is his own saviour, after all.”
http://www.nowness.com/day/2014/4/22?utm_source=splio&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=EMA220414US
180 Degrees South is a wonderful film that follows Jeff Johnson and some of his equally adventurous friends as they set out to trace the 1968 journey of his heroes, Yvon Chouinard and Doug Tompkins, to the far reaches of Patagonia. After finding footage of the 1968 expedition that the two friends took in their Ford Econoline Van, and then speaking with them on the phone, Johnson sets out from Ventura California to meet the two men and to climb Corcovado Volcano. His own weeks at sea, a month long stop in Rapa Nui, and the final leg by bus into Patagonia is no less an adventure if one uses Tompkin's definition of the word..."To me adventure is when everything goes wrong." The film is stunningly beautiful, passionate, interesting and graceful.
It is the two men, however - Chouinard and Tompkins - that captivate.
The former is the founder of Patagonia; the latter of North Face. Both have an enduring friendship and an exceptional humility: "Conquerors of the useless, that's what we were" says Chouinard. The friendship is that much more interesting because of the differences in their personalities and in the life choices they have made. Chouinard seems the less confrontational, more laid back type; Tompkins the activist of few words whose life work, along with his wife, Kris, has been to purchase and conserve vast tracts of Chilean and Argentine Patagonia. What they share, however, is an appreciation of the land and the enormous pleasure derived from living in it.
The film has many quiet and moving sequences, but it ends with my favorite. After a thrilling recounting of the Corcovado ascent, the last frames of the film show the two extraordinarily fit septuagenarians heading off on a climb of Cerro "Geezer". The climb, however, strikes me more as a walking meditation, a deeply empathetic and gentle communion of two extraordinary beings with the earth.
" ["post_title"]=> string(28) "Conquerors of the Useless..." ["post_excerpt"]=> string(0) "" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(4) "open" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(25) "conquerors-of-the-useless" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2016-10-28 10:51:55" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2016-10-28 14:51:55" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(31) "http://lisalindblad.com/?p=2184" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } }