DAY 36

DAY 36
05.10.07
TREE 42

On yet another beautiful day here I picked another convenient tree. I’ve been eying it since I got here. It is right in front of the big sliding doors to the great barn. But the climb was anything but convenient. True, there were plenty of strong branches very close together so even if I fell I don’t think I could have gone far. The problem was the little twig offshoots… everywhere. Sticking, poking, stabbing, catching my shorts, clothes… a real eye hazard. But I got to the top, was higher than the silo. But the damn tree was so uncomfortable to move around in I didn’t stay up there very long. The beginning of the climb was difficult too. I had to take a running step off the trunk to get my finger tips on this branch stub with one poky twig stub stabbing my finger every time. That is, of course, until the time it went right in between my fingers and I was able to inch up to the next branch.

5-10-08:  HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY, AMY!!!! The BIG 3-0, dirty thirty, how’s it feel?

Yesterday was a big day for me in this project.  400 days in a row I have now climbed.  It was a grey and drizzly day out and I stopped at frisbee field in Cherokee Park to climb a tree before heading to a party at Will’s.  I chose a sycamore on the edge of the grassy field.  I climbed up to the end of a high branch and situated my body into a comfortable position.  Kind of a sitting/reclining seat that was quite nice.  I sat their for a while to watch the mist fall and the birds enjoy an empty field. 

Then at the party I had this long, somewhat frustrating discussion with Erin Arnorld and Will.  Erin was trying to ask why I climb trees… what is it about climbing trees that keeps me going everyday, making work, etc.  Apparently this is a question many people come to when they look at my work or hear of my daily climb project.  But I felt that she was looking for a specific answer she wanted to hear about how it is a spiritual thing and that by saying I am an atheist it’s a contradiction.  Maybe I wasn’t it the best situation to be having this serious discussion but I did my best, but got frustrated that they both thought I was just speaking in circles.  I don’t know exactly how I was doing that, but I thought I might try to explain why I climb trees everyday and why that it has nothing to do with spirituality… at least in my mind.  Maybe others can or will interpret it that way.

Physically, climbing gives me a rush.  My favorite trees are intensely challenging both physically and mentally.  Getting to the top is often a puzzle that takes complete focus where nothing enters my thoughts but the task at hand.  Then at the top, I feel a great sense of accomplishment.  I overcome an obstacle with my own hands and feet and face death and injury with a determined sense to defy it.  I am in control.  And in that pause at the top of a tree I feel a deep sense of appreciation for the experience, the tree, the day, my life.  Maybe it’s the endorphins and the adrenaline rush, but I feel contentment.  I have a very personal and private moment of quiet, to think about anything in a place that truly feels like my own.  I observe beautiful things and imagine projects and works that would share this feeling and perspective with others.  I feel I have found such a simple activity that brings me immense happiness and I want others to experience that.  And if they do not find a similar pleasure in tree climbing, maybe my work would/will make them try to find their own source.  What I do know, though, is that the people that have been inspired to climb a tree have enjoyed the experience.  I feel that the things I describe above about tree climbing  are a very universal source for pleasure. 

To me, this has nothing to do with a god, or a soul, or something spiritual like that.  Perhaps I refuse to see it in my strong anti-theistic mindset.  I do not doubt the power of god and religion as a concept and the force those concepts have had on human existence, but I do not share the faith in them.  I do know tree climbing brings me happiness and have explained my thoughts on why I think it does.  I have also had people ask me if it is a spiritual experience and have thought about it… and ultimately decided it is not.  But I am not a closed book and I am willing to continue this discussion with an open mind.  So please… respond if you have anything to add or ask.