The Mission

I have lived in Jackson, Wyoming since 2016, but I am still surprised at how fleeting summer in the Tetons is.  Each year, as the long days of summer fade into darker colder autumn I feel like I have wasted time; I simply haven’t done enough. So, this year, I’ve decided to do something about it by challenging myself to hike every trail in Grand Teton National Park.  Now, as Teton-based challenges go, this is a very lame one.  I am by no means breaking any new ground, setting any sort of record, and on a local scale I wouldn’t even be considered a mediocre athlete.  Jackson is a town of extremes – extreme skiing, extreme weather, and intensely extreme athletes. The level of athleticism in this town and the absolute stunning physical feats that people accomplish here cannot be overstated. This is a community where people knock out the Grand Traverse in less than a half-day, summit all 50 Teton peaks in 7 days, and routinely do “Picnics.” This goal isn’t even on the radar.  The Picnic, if you didn’t click the link, is a staple of the Teton athlete. It consists of a 21-mile bike ride from the town square to Jenny Lake, a (usually middle of the night) 1.3-mile swim across Jenny Lake, followed by an ascent of the Grand, then a return trip to town in reverse order. It is a monumental achievement, and incidentally the fastest known time for all of this is a little over 11 hours. So, to be clear, my hiking all the trails in GTNP “ain’t no picnic.” However, it seems an appropriate challenge for this middle age, busy professional, husband, and father of three.

More than just feeling like I need to use my time this summer more wisely, I have started to feel like I may be a bit stuck, like I have eased into the middle-aged dad life and not even realized it.  I’m pretty sure I am a good husband and father, I really enjoy my medical practice, I have close friends, and I essentially have everything I could ever need.  I’m not unhappy or depressed but checking in with myself I think I’m just longing to lead a more deliberate life.  Everything is starting to seem so routine, and I’m pretty sure I have allowed myself to slide into complacency.  I’m feeling a bit bored, and worse, I think I might be boring.

I am not dense enough to suggest that I am the first person to feel this way.  Indeed, I think that the feelings I am having are most likely so common that it’s just sort of accepted as normal. I am probably treading around the outer edges of mid-life crisis territory, but I don’t think that I am in real danger of buying a yellow sports car – at least not yet.  I just definitely know that I don’t want to waste my finite time on this planet as a passive observer.  How many times will I have to hear “carpe diem,” “life is short,” “time flies,” “get busy living or get busy dying,” and other similar aphorisms before it sinks in?  

So, in order to “get busy living,” here’s what I’m going to do.  I am going to hike every named trail in Grand Teton National Park this summer.  I figure there’s a couple hundred miles of trails, and hopefully, I’ll set foot on all of them.   Also, I am going to write a little about it as well. This makes me very uncomfortable, as I am not a great writer, a fact which was actually documented last fall.  Story time – at the beginning of the school year, my freshman son came to me for help with an English paper he had written.  It was already good, but we worked on it together, edited it, and polished it up.  I thought it was a very good paper. His teacher did not. In fact, his teacher unceremoniously gave him a grade of a D-.  This means that I essentially received a D- on a high school English paper.  So, buckle up because this might (may?, see what I mean?) stink.  

Finally, I am counting on this challenge being equal parts mental and physical, and to help me on the mental portion of my journey I am going to enlist the help of the Stoics.  I have recently learned a little about the Stoic philosophies of Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Epictetus, and others and their thoughts have really resonated with me.  Their ideas that time is the most precious thing we have, life is fleeting, we cannot control what we cannot control, and that we should aim for a virtuous life of courage, justice, and make sense to me.  Life can be wonderful, joyous, hopeful, and romantic, but many times, let’s face it, life is hard. It can be painful, and stressful, and difficult to just get through the week. Many times, for many people, life “ain’t no picnic.” The Stoics have provided us with a framework with which to approach life’s challenges, so we cannot simply endure and persevere, but lead a well-lived life no matter our circumstances. So, I am going to use this challenge to motivate me to learn more about this philosophy and try to apply it to my life. Unfortunately, just as I am not a great writer, I am also not a fantastic or patient reader, so I will not be seeking out ancient primary sources just yet. Instead, I will rely on the wisdom of Ryan Holiday and The Daily Stoic to guide me.  Through his writing, podcasts, and videos it is clear that he is an expert in Stoicism and has reduced many of its teachings into bite-sized pieces that I can process.

So, that’s the game plan.  Feel free to follow “ain’t no picnic” (or better yet, join me on a hike) as I attempt to discover Grand Teton more deeply, get some exercise, get unstuck, try to learn to enjoy writing, and hopefully improve my life and relationships in the process.