As much as I want to avoid it, I’m sure this blog entry is going to offend someone. I want to make this perfectly clear to all that read this; the views are mine exclusively and are not meant to offend anyone. I do not preach my views to others and likewise I don’t want your views preached to me. In my eyes Religion is PERSONAL; it means something different to each person…even those of the same faith do not look at it the same way.
A quick background on my religious upbringing, I was basically brought up in a Christian home. Religion wasn’t something that was forced on my brothers and I, we were left to make decisions for ourselves when it came to choose what we believed in. I dabbled in different faiths before choosing to solely believe in science even though there were plenty of questions that it couldn’t answer. The one underlying theme in the major religions that never could grasp was that you basically worshipped one day a week…and in some religions you could be the biggest ass in the world for six days but as long as you said you were sorry, all was forgiven. I didn’t get it and I still don’t.
I was given a book called The Tracker by Tom Brown Jr. and I found it fascinating. This book wasn’t a religious book by any means; it was about a man that grew up not too far from my own hometown and his amazing abilities to track wildlife. He grew up in the pine barrens of New Jersey and was “tutored” by an Apace elder in his youth. I put parenthesis around the word “tutored” because the Native American way of teaching is far different than the schoolhouse teaching that most of us are use to. I was completely captivated by the book and the stories that he told in it. I have to admit though, as much as I enjoyed the stories I was also very skeptical of the talents he professed to have…I believed it to be somewhat fictionalized to make for a better story. Regardless of it being non-fiction or fiction, I knew I found an author that I wanted to read more of.
As I continued to read more books written by him he delved deeper into Native American spirituality and philosophy. I was completely entranced in the way they related to the natural world around them and for once I found something that made sense to me. Finally there was something I could understand and relate to! My own beliefs centered on the idea that all things had a “life force” that flowed through us and this point of view was very similar to Native American beliefs. Another similarity I was drawn to was the fact that they worshiped seven days a week and not one…apparently the Native Americans also had difficulty understanding the concept of only worshipping one day a week.
Tom Brown Jr. operates a Tracker School (www.trackerschool.com) that delves into the many teachings that he had received as a child: tracking, survival, philosophy, healing, teaching, and others. All students of his must take an initial Standard Course before choosing which of the many courses of study to go down. My best friends took the Standard Class and came back with some amazing stories that wetted my appetite to attend myself. I will not divulge much of what went on in the class but it is something that will forever change the way you view the outdoors.
I finally attended the class in August 2000 and it was incredible. I still had a deep seeded skepticism over everything this man said he could do and I was extremely curious to see him work his magic in front of me. The school site was at a farm that Tom owned and classes were held inside the barn and out on the grounds. After my arrival I started to observe all of the other students and I was amazed at the cross section of people that were there: hippies, military, hunters, vegans, elementary school teachers, nature lovers, grandmothers, foreigners. I was shocked at all the different backgrounds but we all had one thing in common, we found something in Tom’s writing that drew us all together. Never was there any kind of conflict between the wildly different personnel, we all respected each other’s differences and actually spent time learning from each other…honestly, it was nice to see what this world could be if we all could come to some sort of harmonious acceptance of each other.
As I said before, I still was very skeptical of his talents and it didn’t help things when he showed up the first morning of class and told us about everything that had happened on his front lawn the night before while we were sleeping. He did this from observing the animal tracks he saw from walking about 80 yards from his house to the barn…I was unconvinced! I thought to myself that there is no way a man could tell that much detail from just walking to the barn…besides, he had a lawn full of grass! There is no way he could see anything there…right? I still was very enthused about being there and as the days moved along he and his instructors taught us the basics of tracking as well as other primitive skills. As I started to learn about tracking I started to believe a little more of his stories but I still couldn’t believe all of his wild claims…until we actually went out tracking. All the students formed a line and we were walked out one of the many trails into the woods that were on his property. After walking a little bit we were told to stop and turn around and then the real lesson began. The last person in line was shown an animal track in the forest loam (not sand or mud) and every little detail of it was explained to them. At that point it was the student’s responsibility to explain everything about the track to the other 90+ students as they came by…meanwhile the instructors had another track for the next in line. Every one of us had a track pointed out to us and we explained that track to the rest of the students…all I can say is it was magical! The closest I can come to explaining it is with those “magic eye” pictures when all of a sudden your eyes adjust and a three dimensional picture comes out…that’s tracking! We looked at tracks from everything from crickets and mice all the way up to coyotes and deer. My own personal viewpoint of my abilities in nature changed in an instant…I use to think I was pretty observant but after this exercise I realized that I was a blind elephant stomping through the woods. The other thing I learned from this was that Tom Brown Jr. wasn’t exaggerating his abilities…if anything, he was toning them down to just what we “common folk” could see and understand.
I reluctantly left that school at the end of the week with my head in the clouds; every trip into the woods would be different from this point out. I came home to try to convey the experience to my wife and she couldn’t relate in the least. I turned to my best friends to discuss the different things I had learned at the school and since they had attended the school as well, we all we’re able to relate our combined experiences. I found myself on a path back to nature however it also was a path away from my wife.
Note: If any of my friends would like to read The Tracker, please let me know! I would be happy to ensure that you get a copy of it.
Next week: Endings and Beginnings
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