Atlas vs. GPS

As a Jesuit, I try to see the glory of God in all things.  I will attempt to do that in this post.  However, I do have a bias--I had an awful experience with a GPS.  I, in part, blame it on my sister, but I still like her pretty decently.  Maybe I'll forgive the GPS at some point as it may also be New York's fault.  But here we go:

The summer of freshman year of college, I went to Washington, DC to visit my sister Betsy.  It was a wonderful time.  From there, we drove up the East Coast to Fairfield, CT, where I had a meeting of the Jesuit Colleges/University on social justice.  She drove up to visit another friend a bit north of there.  Afterward, I needed to drove back west to Kansas and Betsy needed to get back to DC.  We decided the easiest thing to do would be to drop her off at the train station in NYC and for me to head out from there on I-80.  She bought her ticket from the station in Chinatown, the very lower end of Manhattan.  She jumped out of the car with my credit card because the cops were pretty prickly about "No standing."  I got lost from there, with the GPS telling me, "Turn Left on 7th, now."  It doesn't help when you're at the intersection of 7th St. and 7th Ave...  I ended up taking the Lincoln Tunnel, the Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, and many other confusing roads in my desperate attempt to get out of NYC.  I did (until I got sent back here).

So, now that we have that bias out in the open, let's have a good discussion of their virtues and faults.  We'll do cons first, so you leave with a feeling of their goods, since Jesuit discernment says you should always discern between two goods.

Demonstrating appropriate map use.

GPS Cons:
1) The awful voice.  I'm not going to lie, this is one of my number one pet peeves.  "In a quarter mile, turn right.  In 857 feet, turn right.  In 20 feet, turn right."  Yes!  I know!  I'm turning right!  I brushed my teeth as well, thank you!  Pet peeve aside, here come the actual values.

2) No good map.  The screens are relatively small, and the map often shifts while you're driving.  Better ones you can change mode.  But you're still trying to look at a very small map.  You might be on a very busy road and want an alternate route.  The GPS can do that often, but if you're either super rural and there's maybe a neighboring US highway, or super urban and everything is jammed, it's hard not having a map just to look at in big scale.

3) The listed "attractions" are often things like Six Flags or minigolf.  Not interested.

4) Finally, and probably most importantly, I think it takes away from the sense of adventure.  To quote Mason Jennings, "If you never get lost, you can never get found."  That, my friends, is an important thought for both adventuring spiritually and physically.  It creates a bit of dependence on it.  "Well, who cares, just toss on the GPS and we'll be fine."  Essentially, it takes away the skill of adventure, and that's no good.

Atlas Cons:
1) You can't update it, unless you buy a new one.

2) That's a lot of paper.  (But at least it's recyclable)

3) Hard to make quick decisions.  You usually have to plan stuff ahead of time.

4) Those are the only cons.

This is an actual GPS.  I'm not judging, though....

GPS Pros:
1) Updates.

2) Good if you're by yourself and you can't look down at written directions.  Though that voice is awful, at least it's there.

Atlas Pros:
1) AWESOME attractions listed.  Museums, sites, scenic routes, etc.  Has it all.

2) HUGE MAP.  It's perfect for dreaming, thinking of adventures, ease of activities.  All sorts of great stuff.

3) The big picture in general.  Easy to plan around construction, find alternate routes, etc.

Final decision:  I've got to go with the atlas.  It inspires as well as directs, which I think is important.  Though the GPS systems have improved and are great, they do begin to fail after a few years.  Atlases have a timeless quality about them.  They teach you how to navigate and adventure and spring ideas for other adventures or other ways to get there.

Coming up: Winter is cold.  Suck it up and go on an adventure anyways.

Season Hunting

I love going back to the same place throughout the year.  I think it's great to see the transition that a place goes through during the year and over a while, as well.  A sense of adventure is awesome.  But there's a beautiful feeling about being able to return to the same place time and again.  You also get to know the routes and map well enough to drive off on a random highway for a bit and know that you'll hit something else and take it 50 miles east and be back where you need (note: have a good atlas, and definitely not a GPS, especially one on your phone.  This will be a later post.).  My two years at Creighton University, I frequently wandered to Indian Cave State Park, Boyer-Chute National Wildlife Refuge, and De Soto National Wildlife Refuge.  One of my favorite and most trustworthy highways runs the route between all three--US 75, which runs from Dallas to the point where Minnesota and North Dakota hit Canada.  I hope to drive the length of it some day.  Why do I share all this information?  Because having a place to go inspires more adventures, and also somewhere to think and pray about them.

Indian Cave.  Courtesy Tim Nendick, currently in Spain, so he doesn't know.

I think returning to the same place again and again creates a sensitivity to the nuances and things that happen there.  It's a beautiful opportunity to explore hidden opportunities and trials that lie there.  I'm not referring to the environmental seasons--I mean my own.  But having the same physical location throughout the seasons helps as well.  I saw Indian Cave and US-75 in every season and state imaginable, especially as I began more seriously discerning entering the Jesuits.  This picture was a particularly fun camping trip that lots of friends came on.  But I saw it in winter with the sky laid bare by frigid winds.  I saw it in spring with buds starting to push out of the trees.  I saw it in steamy May when the green was almost overbearing.

I saw myself in these same places.  And I return to those same places quite frequently.  It helps me know what I've done, who I was and am, who I'm becoming.  This is a major and important part of discernment.  It can be a small daily return, the Examen.  Or it can be the place I went to wrestle with myself during the 30-day Spiritual Exercises (God is a hell of a personal trainer).  When we are there, we can also explore where to go next.  Standing frigid and sick with swine flu on a river bluff over the Missouri River, a hawk flew just over my shoulder and I realized I needed to move from that place of comfort and great happiness at Creighton to a new journey with the Jesuits.  These same movements come in the Spiritual Exercises as well.

It is also important how we get there.  We do not simply appear at a location.  I associate music with certain roads.  I-29 through Missouri and Iowa is Chuck Ragan,  State Radio and Eddie Vedder.   I-70 across Missouri is Cake and Franz Ferdinand.  If I listen to something different, or especially nothing at all, that deserves a special note.  What was different?  Why?  Was something happening?  Was nothing happening and I felt stagnant?  Was I restless?  Content?  These are all important questions about journey of spirit and physical journey as well.

Let us not forget where we have been, lest we forget the places we are going.

Skipping rock at De Soto NWR.  Again, stolen from Tim.

Next time:  Atlas vs. GPS--Is there Really a Difference?

The Art of Flexibility

                                                                                                                    started 8/28/2012

As I sit here in a Bolivian coffee shop with an awkward hour between the time the health department office closed and the immigration office opens, I can't help but think about how important flexibility is in adventure.  Now, flexibility is an art form.  It requires patience, patience (even more of it), and a lot of creativity.  Needless to say, the beauty of adventure is so often found in our willingness to be flexible--to openly embrace change and spontaneity as our guides.  It won't come easily, but the more you are able to incorporate a flexible mentality into your life, the more you will begin to realize that adventure is everywhere.  You just have to be willing to open your eyes...and your time.

Time.  Time is a concept created by humans and maintained by humans.  This is why attitudes toward time so easily change from culture to culture.  Even after 8 months, the lax attitude towards time is something I'm still getting used to in Bolivia.  Compared to the rushed deadlines and the hurried nature of the United Stats, Bolivia is as close to turtle-speed as one can get.  For North Americans, this is just another thing "to get used to" here, but for me, this is one aspect of life that I'm really trying to appreciate.  Many times, this includes bringing a book or a notebook to any meeting or to any place that may have a line.  It often includes swallowing any immediate thoughts that are about to run out of my mouth when I'm frustrated or becoming increasingly impatient.  It is a constant reminder that time is what I make of it.

What if we were to loosen up our sense of time in our lives--to understand that so often our sense of time is based upon situations outside of our control...how late you were to work this morning because of an increased amount of traffic or how long you had to wait to see your doctor when you had an appointment.  What if you could stop and have a wonderful, unexpected conversation with a friend when you run into her at the store before dinner?  What if you could take the time to walk to the end of the street that you pass every day just to see what is around the corner?

This concept of time reminds me so much of what I learned on retreats in high school and college.  This is God's time--the beautiful conviction of time in which relationships, conversations, and the beauty of adventure take the reigns of our lives.  We are able to embrace the unexpected and focus on the most important parts of our lives.  It is in this sense of time that we find the most beautiful adventures. 

Embrace it and find adventure in every moment :)