After the first three miles hiking yesterday, my friend and I took a wrong turn. Rather than an additional two miles after the summit towards which we thought we were headed, we ended up on a path that took us another six miles up to the peak at Mt. Charleston. Since the weather was nice and we were making good time, we decided to press on anyway and see if we could do it. It turned out that we were able to make the 18 mile round trip hike in about seven hours, which is less than another gentleman said it took him, and as a consequence of this happy accident I now know that my pioneer progenitors would be proud. Not many people can do that in a day.
Many great things were discovered by accident. America, velcro, and just how much I love eating figs were all things that people found while looking for something else. Most of the people I know insist that I will "find the right woman when I'm not looking", which seems kind of paradoxical, but most of the women who dated me found me before I found them. I told many of my one-time acquaintances that we only met as a happy accident of the fact that my life hasn't turned out how I planned. Many people think that I'm stupid to plan, but I think that's mostly because they don't like to make plans, to make promises, and then be tied to those things.
Contrary to popular belief I am spontaneous. Although I hike 44 Saturdays per year, and this trip was planned, we didn't really decide on a trail until we were within striking distance of any trails. Even once we got on the trail, we decided to go further because we weren't tired and because we made it up 3 miles in an hour on the roughest part of the trail- the initial uphill switchbacks. I once told an ex-girlfriend who detested that I wasn't sufficiently spontaneous that "I like to have my spontaneity planned well in advance." We played it by ear and went where we never had been before under spectacular weather and accomplished something that made everyone we passed on the trail swoon in awe of the speed at which we made our ascent.
We even learned a few things we didn't know. We learned that we were hiking too fast for our bodies to compensate. With the change in oxygen and pressure, we actually started to bruise as the contents of our blood vessels leaked into our tissues since it wasn't kept inside the vessels anymore. We learned that the speed at which we made the ascent put strain on our epithelium, and as we came down my nose began to bleed. We learned that even when it's 95F in the valley, there's a reason why there's still snow up on the peak, where it was below freezing. We wore fewer clothing than anyone. We learned that most people don't do this in a day- they camp. We learned that it was something we could do- go 9 miles up and down again and change elevation 3500 feet, and still drive home without crashing. We learned of what we were capable.
Most of life's events aren't that dramatic or impressive, but they do show us of what we are capable. I can recollect many happy accidents that were mostly happy because they taught me impressive things about myself. At 35, I look handsome, athletic, and successful, and in almost every way except age I am better off than at any other time in my adult life. I remember my first hike and how much it almost killed me to go 5 miles with a backpack on up 1500 feet in elevation, and now I think back and realize just how far I have come since the age of 13. I tell my students that sometimes the unexpected things are the most interesting, because we do know many things by happy accident. Robert Frost wrote of the road less traveled. Lots of people think they are on it, but most of them are not. The road less traveled is obviously less traveled, just like we could tell a change in the path up near the peak.
If you do today what others won't, tomorrow you'll be able to do what others can't. There are consequences to our choices, but we often find that good things happen by accident when we do what we are supposed to, when we attempt that of which we might be capable. Most people in national parks don't go far on the trails even if they leave their cars, and so they don't have happy accidents like last year when we hiked to Emma Matilda lake in the Tetons. It's not that far away, but most people don't even find out, because they aren't willing to do what it takes. Sure, they may claim to be spontaneous, but most of the youth who talk about being spontaneous are actually doing the same old things every day hoping for different results. Happy accidents occur when you push beyond and test yourself. You find out who you really are by going a little further, doing a little more, trying something a little different. It's not usually found in radical reformation but in gradual modulation. When Jay and I went up the trail, I remember saying, "Let's go to that outcropping and see how we feel", and it was piece by piece, yard by yard, that we ascended the peak.
There is no easy way to ascend the heights of life. They take work, dedication, and sweat. They require you to actually put your best foot forward time and time again and go where others refuse to go. The best happy accident of life for me has been in discovering things about myself that please me, finding out that I can do things and that I am things considered praiseworthy by others. Although there may be no easy way, there is the path in which you are true to what you desire most. If you choose that, it will be worth it. How long halt you between two opinions? A large part of Christ's incarnation appears to have been this message: when a choice is placed before you, choose love. Do what you love. Choose whom you love. Be what you love. Show love. One of the best pieces of advice a stranger gave me was this: "spend your life doing what you love, and let God bring your mate to you". When you truly do what love requires, that's when the happy accidents come.
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