WALKING THE USA*
橫越美國
It took 242 days on foot for us to get from the eastern shore of the Atlantic Ocean in Lewes, Delaware, to Baker Beach in San Francisco.
那個旅程我們花了242天行走才完成，從東岸大西洋德拉威爾的劉易斯，到舊金山市的貝克海灘。
I will never forget the fear, anxiety, and excitement on that first day. I had no idea what I was doing, and that was exactly why I needed to do it. This was my unquestionable rite-of-passage, coming-of-age experience. It wasn’t getting a driver’s license. It wasn’t getting my degree. It wasn’t rushing to get married and have kids. It wasn’t getting a house with an attached garage. It wasn’t earning six figures. I am not judging you if you have found beauty, belonging, and joy in these things. They simply didn’t work for me. They felt like lies and violations all knotted up in my stomach. The pressure to chase them nearly suffocated me.
永誌不忘的是第一天感到的恐懼、焦慮和興奮。我不知道我在做什麼，也不確切知道我為什麼一定非得要去走。這絕對是我的成年禮，成長的經驗。那不是考上駕駛執照，不是拿到學位，不是急於結婚和生養小孩，不是買一棟有車庫的房子，不是賺到六位數字的薪水。這些對我都沒有什麼吸引力，它們反而像我胸臆中鬱結的謊言和褻瀆。為了追求這些而產生的壓力，令我幾乎窒息死亡。
I wanted to shed what felt like artificial skin designed by chains and systems I never trusted. I wanted to walk into a new and thicker skin, one that I could boldly claim as my own, for the rest of my days. I wanted to know beyond knowing that “I have what it takes. I have what it takes to feel strong, courageous, honest, and free on the inside so I could be strong, courageous, honest, and free on the outside.”
…
我要卸下由不相信的鎖鍊和系統所交織而成加諸在我身上的假面。我要走進一個嶄新的而且更厚實的自我，那個我在我整個餘生，都可以充滿自信宣告是為我自己真正擁有的東西。我要不只理解而且要超越並實現以下的想法：「我勇於承受所需要的付出。我要勇於去承受，令內心更富有堅強、勇氣、誠實和自在等特質的挑戰，使我之後可以有堅強、勇氣、誠實和自在等等的外在表現。」
More than the mileage and the feat of walking across the country, what spoke the loudest for me was the day-by-day acceptance of and reverence to the wisdom of the natural world and the human heart. I felt the trees and rising sun calling out my name every morning as I woke. The songs of strangers spoke of a deep yearning to forever move toward love, trust, nuance, humility, dignity, mystery, healing, and justice. Everything I learned and all of what continues to ache related to my long 242-day walk rumbles in every word of this book.
除了里程和跨越國家的壯舉，我聽到最大聲的召喚，是每一天對大自然的智慧及人心的尊重無條件的接受。每天早晨醒來，我感受到樹林和初昇的太陽對我的呼喚。陌生人的歌聲述說著深厚的渴望，要永遠趨向愛、信任、仔細、慈悲、尊嚴、神秘、療癒和公正。我學到的所有東西，以及在242天的壯遊相關繼續刺激著我的疼痛，都在這本書中緩緩道來。
讀後
每一個人都有自己成長的旅程。有些人隨遇而安，有些人則刻意選擇走上陌生的路。
這讓我想起美國詩人Robert Frost一首很有名的詩：
The Road Not Taken
~ Robert Frost(1874-1963)
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
“walk”這本書的作者Johnathon Stalls，選擇走上跨越美國歷時242天的壯遊，然後成為他人生的朝聖之路，”And that has made all the difference.”。
每一個人都有自己的朝聖之路，起點是活動，要「活」就要「動」(“we move and we breathe”)，而終點是死亡。我們只要負責選擇起點，所幸不必擔心終點的死亡。
有些人隨波逐流，但是不去主動選擇，那也是一種選擇。
人生很短，不妨積極去選擇。𡚒勇向前燃燒，然後熄滅。至於是不是要選擇一條人煙比較稀少的路，那是Frost提示充滿哲理的想法，自己的路最終還是得由自己去選擇。縱使，選擇的是一條看似很多人都走過的路，只要走過就不會全部錯過，也可以走出自己的風景，成為自己的朝聖之路。
朝聖之路，既在起跑點亦在終點更在經過的每一個點。
千里之行，始於足下。凡事都得回到「足下」您這個原點來思考，千里之行，也在方寸的一念之間。
*: Jonathon Stalls,”Walk, slow down, wake up and connect at 1-3 miles per hour,” 2022, North Atlantic Books
2024/4/25 Walk, slow down, wake up and connect at 1-3 miles per hour Damakey
