January 2022

The good people at Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan for decades have tried to keep us on the straight and narrow because someone should at least try.

Of course, that title could be expanded to the notion that life in itself is an attitude, that’s for sure. But in seasons like this it helps to just acknowledge what that attitude is. A good time to re-check the mind’s fuel tank level and engine performance, so to speak. Speaking of which in regard to our internal attitude and outlook, John Muir, the well-known 19th and 20th century naturalist said something to the effect that “one could regulate the rising and setting of the sun in their own day and adjust the intensity of its brightness,” meaning that given our mind’s ability to think and to appreciate our stream of consciousness, attitude is a choice.

Our calendars, brand new once again, now date things with a new 2022 number; meaning, when these adventurers’ birthdays roll around this time, numbers will be just two short of four score on this planet. What does an old adventurer think about on new year’s first day when his thermometer reports minus 12 as noon approaches with crystal-clear air and cloudless sky?