offintothewild-blog

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There is certainly nothing more important in life than what we do at the present moment. A person’s entire life consists of nothing more than one moment piled on top of another, over and over again. Once enlightened to this, the warrior has nothing else to worry about, because he realizes that he has only to live in the present moment with the utmost intensity.

Yamamoto Tsunetomo

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Oregon Coast 3-13 on Flickr.

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Everyday, it could be wonderful.

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Indianapolis Canals

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You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure.

Charlie Chaplin, “The Great Dictator”

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Perspective

As some of you may know, I’m a sports editor at a daily mid-sized newspaper in Indiana.

Every night, I travel around my county, and across the state, covering high school sporting events for five local high schools.

We have a small staff, and I work between 50 and 60 hours per week -- so the job puts a lot of wear and tear on me both mentally and physically.

Some nights, in a stress-induced deadline craze, I just want to quit.

Give up, pack my bags and return to my family that lives hundreds of miles away.

One of the schools in our coverage area is the second-smallest public school in the state: a small town, with a population of near 600 people.

While it was once a booming city, with plenty of factory jobs, it has since turned desolate and depraved.

Around 150 students are enrolled from sixth to 12th grade, and many don’t make it through four years with diplomas.

The community is known for its drug issues (crystal meth and heroin) and 63% of the kids are cited as financially disadvantaged.

Most of the families live in run-down trailer parks.

Some come to practice in work boots and cut-off t-shirts.

The state has tried to since shut the school down a handful of times, but the community refuses to give the school up -- it’s their bright spot that produces hope for the future.

On the basketball team, there are less than 10 kids, many who live in broken homes.

There is no JV, and the kids have very little athletic ability or experience.

Typically, they lose by 60 to 70 points in games.

During a recent contest, I had  a teary-eyed mother of one of the players approach me.

She thanked me for writing about the team, and putting pictures in the paper.

“Most of these kids will never be in the newspaper for anything good after high school,” she said. “If they do, it will be because they’ve gotten arrested. You encourage them. We cut out everything and put it in a scrapbook”

I shook her hand, thanked her with a smile and went back to taking notes as she made it back to her seat to hand her elderly mother a program.

As the mother turned around and walked away, it hit me.

To some extent, she was right.

If you read the police beat, a good number are from that town every week.

At that point I realized that I can provide a source of light for these kids.

My job has meaning.

Even if it’s just one mention, one photo, one scoreline -- I could positively influence their life, even if for a brief second.

Maybe one day, they can cut out that photo and put it in a scrapbook and exaggerate to their kids over their glory days.

Since that experience, that has been my driving force.

I want to help others.

Maybe, even if it’s just for one kid, I can encourage someone to keep their academics up so they can play sports and get some recognition.

Take pride in what you do, you never know how it effects others.

--Off Into The Wild

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A night on Earth – Some trully amazing photographs of Earth seen from 

A series of beautiful and impressive photographs from NASA, which reveals the nocturnal beauty of the Earth seen from space. Some stunning images of our planet in which we can distinguish cities and landscapes, taken over Europe, Japan, Madagascar, the United States or South America. The high definition photographs are edited using different techniques, allowing among other a vertical exaggeration of the relief based on a digital terrain model.

Source:ufunk

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We need the tonic of wildness...At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.

Henry David Thoreau, Walden

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Girdwood, Alaska 

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It has been just over one year since I rescued my best friend.

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So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.

Into The Wild/Chris McCandless

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Well, you told me about nowhere. Well, it sounds like someplace I'd like to go.

Dashboard/Modest Mouse

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The sea's only gifts are harsh blows, and occasionally the chance to feel strong. Now I don't know much about the sea, but I do know that that's the way it is here. And I also know how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong but to feel strong. To measure yourself at least once. To find yourself at least once in the most ancient of human conditions. Facing the blind deaf stone alone, with nothing to help you but your hands and your own head.

Into The Wild

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2015 Ironman Louisville.