[extropy-chat] book: Paddling my Own Canoe by Sutherland

[Amara Graps]

The book: _Paddling My Own Canoe_

Four years ago, I talked about this book, unfortunately, it was
out of print at the time. The book is back in print (amazon
has it)

For a short, sweet read, full of parables for life, I
recommend this book alot.  (Its a kick to read)

_Paddling my Own Canoe_ by Audrey Sutherland

Paperback: 144 pages
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press; 3rd Prntg edition 
(August 1, 1980)
ISBN: 0824806999

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0824806999/


The book is about a woman (Sutherland) who first started
making solo journeys to a particular inaccessible beach in
Moloka'i in 1958. She is a strong woman who made her first
attempts swimming from one side of the island (after being
dropped there by plane), dragging her gear in waterproof
containers that she also built, and then later she improvised
by building small rafts/canoes. This part of Moloka'i was
uninhabited and, because of terrain and enormous cliffs
around, one could not reach the beach from inland. And the
Moloka'i Channel is one of the most dangerous stretches of
water in the Pacific Ocean, so that getting there by boat
is/was non-trivial too.

Each year she learned new things on how to accomplish this
task, and became more knowledgeable and sophisticated in her
sea-faring methods. Eventually she built a cabin for herself
on that beach, bringing all of the materials patiently on each
journey.

The whole book (it's only ~130 pgs) is a monologue. She
(Audrey Sutherland) is talking to herself telling what she is
thinking when this thing or that thing happened, and how she
set about solving each little problem. She is always planning,
trying, thinking, researching, improving how to do something.
For me it's a book showing thinking for oneself and how to
live with grace and humor and courage and diligence and how to
solve big problems by breaking them down into manageable
pieces. For example: much of her "equipment" she built or
devised on her own because there didn't exist the kind of
expedition equipment (lightweight, sturdy, waterproof) that
she needed at the time. She is also very modest, often chiding
herself, and she has a funny sense of humor.

This book might be a good book for teenagers to read, to help
understand that usually to accomplish large tasks, you must
accumulate the successes of smaller tasks, and achieving at
the end, what looked at first, impossible. I liked the book
because I think that she is an amazing woman, and the book
descriptions remind me of my childhood. Plus I especially
liked her descriptions of solitude. It brings home why I like
to go on long solo bike trips.


I'll quote some parts of the book. Here is from near the
ending:

{begin quote}

"And why did I always come alone to Moloka'i? I know why, but
the telling is hard. Daily we are on trial, to do a job, to
make a marriage good, to find depth, serenity, and meaning in
a complex, deterioating world of politics, false values, and
trivia. But rarely are we deeply challenged physically or
alone. We rely on friends, on family, on a committee, on
community agencies outside ourselves. To have actual survival,
living or dying, depends on our own ingenuity, skill, or
stamina- this is a core question we seldom face. We rarely
find out if we like having only our own mind as company for
days or weeks at a time. How many people have ever been total
isolated, ten miles from the nearest other human, for even two
days?

Alone, you are more aware of surroundings, wary as an animal
to danger, limp and relaxed when the sun, the brown earth, or
the deep grass say, "Rest now." Alone you stand at night,
alert, poised, hearing through ears and open mouth and
fingertips. Alone, you do not worry whether someone else is
tired or hungry or needing. You push yourself hard or quit for
the day, reveling in the luxury of solitude. And being
unconcerned with human needs, you become as a fish, a boulder,
a tree- a part of the world around you.

I stood once in midstream, balanced on a rock. A scarlet leaf
fluttered, spiraled down. I watched it, became a wind-blown
leaf, swayed, fell into the water with a giant human splash,
then soddenly crawled out, laughing uproariously.

The process of daily living is often intense and whimsical.
The joy of it, and the compassion, we can share, but in pain
we are ultimately alone. The only real antidote is inside. The
only real security is not insurance or money or a job, not a
house and furniture paid for, or a retirement fund, and never
is it another person. It is the skill and humor and courage
within, the ability to build your own fires and find your own
peace.

On a solo trip you may discover these, or try to build them,
and life becomes simple and deeply satisfying. The confidence
and strength remain and are brought back and applied to the
rest of your life."

{end quote}

The author becomes more philosophical towards the later
portions of the book, but in my opinion, there are many jewels
along the way to grab you and sustain you. There are
philosophical paragraphs scattered throughout, but what I
found as interesting is her way of presenting something really
amazing (to me) as "ordinary".

Here is an example:

{begin quote}
It is about 3:00 AM. I wake from a dream and hear the seas
rising, but something else awakened me. There is a bug in my
ear. He crawls across the eardrum, his footfalls sounding and
feeling like a branch scraping on a tin roof. I roll off the
narrow air mattress onto the bare boards of the bottom bunk
and fumble for the flashlight. The bug's antennae are probing.
I grope thruogh the plastic bag of miscellany for the bottle
of olive oil, tilt my head, pour a teaspoon of oil into the
ear, slosh my head around. After two doses he stops squirming,
and I tilt oil and bug out onto a towel. It is a small, greasy
expiring cockroach. Olive oil is very versatile. I use it to
fry fish, clean my face, dress salads, treat sunburn,
lubricate zippers -- and drown bugs. 
{end quote}


{begin quote}
I peeled down to the high-topped tennis shoes and clumped off
to the river with the dirty dishes. Alone and content among
the trees at the water's edge, I stood like Daphne, bewitched
there in the forest. Daphne, ha! Where's Apollo, you dirty,
salty female? I knelt by the pool and scrubbed, composing a
derisive haiku, as did Basho and Issa in Japan long ago.

Goddess by the stream
Tall, bare, proud ... laughs at dreams, and 
Squats to wash the pots.
{end quote}

{begin quote}
What I really need is for some scientist to develop a
dehydrated or freeze-dried wine. Please forgive such
sacrilege, Monsieur Lichine and Mr. Balzer and you other
connoisseurs, but I do enjoy wine with my meals, and seven
half-bottles, a week's supply, weigh ten pack-sagging pounds.
Table wines are twelve percent alcohol and perhaps two percent
grape residue. Perfect a dehydration method and I could carry
a fifth of that lovely wine, Louis Martini's Moscato Amabile,
in a container holding four ounces. Develop further;
freeze-dry the alchohol. Then I could buy foil packets of a
powdered Beaulieu Cabernet Sauvignon, or, for
Franco-oenophiles, a Chateau LaMission Haut Brion, add water,
display the packet label with a flourish, and pour with a
drip-stopping wrist twist- into a Sierra Club cup. "But
listen, Aud", say my scientific friends. "If you really want
concentrated wine, it's already been done. It's called
brandy."
{end quote}

{begin quote} 
I had to go back again. To be that terrified of anything, that
incompetent, survive by that small a margin - I'd better
analyze, practice,then return and do it right.
{end quote}

Enjoy...

Amara