Science Club
Published December 8, 2007 | 
There is fiction
in the space between
The lines on your page of memories
Write it down but it doesnt mean
Youre not just telling stories
- tracy chapman
Yesterday I had an opportunity to talk to the local middle school science club about the Puerto Rico trip. Certainly when talking to teens about paddling in far off lands you can talk about climate, social politics, gear, tides, you name it. You can if you choose just weave a tale of nautical adventure. Of course it’s always fun to share stories, but you also want to figure out why you are up there telling them. What’s the point? For me it’s important to tell people and kids especially, that “adventure” is right out side your own front door if you want it to be. These days it’s all too common for people to never make it past the living room window. It’s easy to talk yourself out of making too much effort to go to places you think you’ve been over a million times since you were young. Why go outside when you have an Xbox?! So in someways talking about an island in the caribbean can just re-enforce that “adventure is somewhere I’m not” mindset. So in this case it was important to talk about all the paddling and playing right here Baraboo & around Wisconsin as well, that lead up to taking a trip to some distant land 2,300 some miles away.
You know, I can always remember when I was their age, how boring these sorts of presentations where to me. Some old geezer rabbiting on about something or some place I could care less about. I certainly carry that memory in the back of my mind every time I give a presentation to kids, or adults. In the end I think we got through it together ok. The kids had lots of questions. . . like the one who asked, “when do you take a bath”. . . my answer. . . “You don’t.” Of course that’s not quite true, but one lesson to pass along about expedition paddling is of course that although you may take a bit of technology along, you also (hopefully) leave a lot of the modern world behind.
Related Posts:
Recent Comments