Angel's Landing (or angels landing???)
This Thanksgiving weekend my family and I went to St. George to try to find more sun and warmth for a few days (SUCCESS!!!). The first day my sisters, Mom, and I hiked Angel's Landing in Zion's National Park. (Okay, so here's the confusion: is it angel's landing, as in the place where an angel lands? or is it the act of angels landing??? My gut instinct is the first one, but I'm not making any substantiated statements.) I thought about a lot of things on the 4-hour hike (going slowly up the backbone of a mountain for a half a mile sure takes a while....). First, here's a picture of me and the mountain:
So, you basically ascend this tiny little precipice while holding on to a chain. I've done the hike once before, but that gut feeling of "why am I doing this?" crept back into my little head and heart. I wouldn't have done it unless I had my sisters and mom supporting me and leading me. I thought of people in poverty...it requires a lot of them to get out of where they're at. It may be pretty scary staring down a road that seems strewn with difficulty. But if they have a mentor or someone to urge them forward--or even go before them--then they will be more likely to do it. My economics professor once talked to me about his belief that mentors was the best way to confront poverty on both ends--the poor end and the rich end. I am beginning to think he was on to something.
Here's a picture of me and 2 of my 3 supporters:
So, you basically ascend this tiny little precipice while holding on to a chain. I've done the hike once before, but that gut feeling of "why am I doing this?" crept back into my little head and heart. I wouldn't have done it unless I had my sisters and mom supporting me and leading me. I thought of people in poverty...it requires a lot of them to get out of where they're at. It may be pretty scary staring down a road that seems strewn with difficulty. But if they have a mentor or someone to urge them forward--or even go before them--then they will be more likely to do it. My economics professor once talked to me about his belief that mentors was the best way to confront poverty on both ends--the poor end and the rich end. I am beginning to think he was on to something.
Here's a picture of me and 2 of my 3 supporters:
posted by Tricia at 8:50 PM
1 Comments:
Angels and hiking....yeah, it was a pretty heavenly experience to be doing it with my sister. While you had ideas of poverty running through your little mind, I had thoughts of family and recreation and therapy and disabilities running through mine. We must be sisters :)
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