It all starts with a change in perspective….

Go out and see who are the people who give the most energy, inspiration and cause you to think wider, deeper and with more daring?
You know what I mean, the ones who see the sunshine and not just the storm that may be coming, or not…
I think most people can learn to lead a life of choice and energy, if they just understood the principle and apply it.
So as you see below- where are you? Are you busy with the "what might happen" or with the "I want this to  happen" ?

"I don't think my father could do this…"

Early on in the trek we kind of met up with a bunch of young and vibrant Israeli trekkers- a good bunch I must say- all in their early and mid-twenties, all students on vacation. 

As we were making our way up one of the hills one of the me said to me, "You know, I think it is great that you and your son are doing this…I doubt my father could do it.

"Here partner- a tall and muscular guy armed with two long walking sticks (we had none of this)- said, "I think my father could, he is in good shape."

And so I thought- "Hmmm… they see me and think of their father". 

But I? I had no feeling at all of a father, my self-image, my "default ecology" as this cool term has it, did not see a "Ronnie Dunetz father at 54" but was just seeing and feeling as I always have, just like them. 

THEY saw a 54 year old man with his 19 year old son but I just felt that I was one of them doing the same trek.

It is interesting how this thing works- what they see is quite different than what we feel, what we feel they really have no idea about.

My father is soon to be 91- I wonder if he feels he could do this?J….

You know you really can do this thing!

I was a very avid trekker way back then, in my early twenties, 1983, trekked 35 days up to the Everest Base Camp and back via Eastern Nepal- and then just two months later- 21 days trek across the remote Zanskar valley in the remote Ladakh region of the Indian Himalaya. 

Then it was part of an overall year's travel to the Far East (which was to develop into nearly 5 years of living in the East, something that I could never have imagined at that stage of the game). 

Over the years there were many other hikes and treks, but they were always either in Israel or short one day hikes- nothing that could ever relive the feeling, ambience, and challenge of the Himalyan experiences.  

Those treks- and the subsequent living in the East- changed my life tremendously, I took them with me long after I was no longer a frequent traveler on the world's trekking paths, as sad as this was for me…

And here I was back, if only for a few days, this time with my "next generation model", my son, Gil, and this time I am no longer 24 but 54…the backpack was not exactly the 10-15 kg. of those days but there was definitely more than half of that on my back…the snow-capped mountains, the ups and downs, the pressure on the feet and the legs- it all came back- and I loved it!

I must say that I too has some questions in my mind: could I really do it? After all, there is some asthma in my legs, my "figure" is no longer what it was, who really knows, who can really foretell…I will go for it, as I know deep inside that I can do it.

And I could. 

In fact, it was much easier than I had feared, the rougher moments were all dealt with by taking it a bit more slowly, letting the younger folks pass while I took my time on the uphill---let's say I was in the 60-75% range- for every 10 "youngsters" on the path walking with us 6 or 7 were behind me and the rest in back.

I was ok, doing well, enjoying and as well as the feeling that in at least this way I was ready, willing and able to do this thing.

You really can, you know, you really can do this stuff- don't let your negative mind get to you. It gets to so much stuff anyway- don't let it. 

You can do it and it is definitely worth it!

Father and son Reunion?....

No, not a reunion but a very special experience in which my son, who is about to go into a 3 year mandatory period of military service, and myself, detach from the "regular world" to do something we both really love: to trek hard and long in the midst of lovely mother nature at best---the snow-capped mountains, blossom-full valley and small, quaint and ever so simple village of the remote Svaneti region of Georgia.

Words don't do justice to the feeling that permeated me just about the entire time we were on the trek: how infrequent it is to get such an opportunity! 

Far away from the incessant world of text messaging, TV blabbing away, facebook addiction, here we were the two of us with each other 24 hours a day in a very foreign land with next to no linguistic connection.

And it was just superb…
I savored every moment- and some of the moments were a bit tough- because I know that soon enough Gil will be in another world, he will be surrounded by the harsh, callous and often de-humanizing framework that we call "the military", all signs show that he will be very much the combat soldier that I wasn't (wanted to be then but medical profile prevented---but  that was many years ago).
There ain't nothing like it, to walk and sing, schmooze, touch on deeper subjects, recall and tell past history, plan and fantasize about the future---disconnect and by doing so CONNECT- a "father and son reunion, kind of a mix that sprung from the two songs that Cat Stevens and Paul Simon once "sang to me" in a different era, in a different country, a boy growing up and trying to make sense of the confusing paths of adolescence- "Mother and Child Reunion" and "Father and Son".
Yes, it WAS a father and son reunion, only a motion away…

THOUGHTS FROM THE BACKPACK

It has now been exactly one week since I returned from my 16 day trip to the Caucuses- more specifically, Georgia, and even more specifically, the lovely mountain ranges in the Svaneti region, where my son, Gil, and I did a 4 day trek.
It is time to share some of the many short thoughts and insights that came to me during and after this time- after all when one walks hours on end, gets up early and goes to bed very early, has next to zero ability to communicate with the small villagers who speak Georgian and Russian only,(I speak neither), one's mind wanders and works on a very deep level. 
So here we go, let's see where this takes us….

The father-son mountain trek: what an experience!

Sometimes you've got to decide what it is you really want to do and just go for it…that is exactly what I did when I decided about one year ago that there was no way my son Gil was going to go off the army without a good trek in the mountains, just the two of us. Fortunately for me, Gil and I have the same love for trekking in far-away places, meeting simple people in developing countries, far off the beaten track, deep inside the cross-cultural setting where everything is new, strange, different and challenging. My wife and I raised Gil and his sister, Shani, to appreciate such things, in their short lifetime with us we had taken them for journeys deep into the villages of Guatemala, Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Philippines and now it was time for yet another experience- eco-community based tourism at its finest.

This time it was Gil and I alone…well not exactly alone as one out of 2 trekkers on the trail was a young Israeli, usually travelling in groups of 6 or 8 while we were the odd two, quite an attraction the "father and son team", or perhaps only I was the attraction- at 54 I was about 30 years older than the average trekker and there was not trekker in site anywhere near my age…but you know what? I did not feel the least bit out of place, years ago I trekked for two months in the Himalayas, I was pleased to find that I could go up the hills (and there were "going ups" of up to 1000 meters a day), and go down those hills in a way that was no faster or slower than the average.  Perhaps by age it was "Grandfather Ronnie" but in every other way it was just me as one of the guys, but most importantly, it was Gil and I, together on the trial, in the homes of the simple villagers, experiencing what it is to be together 24 hours a day amidst the most beautiful scenery one can imagine.

One needs to remember to grab these moments, seize the day, because they pass so quickly. The memories and the experience of these 4 days together are still so fresh but already do deeply embedded in my consciousness. Seize the day- we did it!

If you have an idea to do something great, just do it. Don't wait. Just do it.--Elaine Newkir