Why? James Bryan

In my first full week of summer, I have done absolutely nothing.  I haven’t really even looked at my AP summer packets or done the chores my mother asked me to do, but have just generally sat on our couch and mindlessly watched TV, just staring at a screen, occasionally getting up to feed myself or walk my dog.  I am going through my initial summer phase, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but I have realized that I have been using our pilgrimage as a bit of an excuse for my laziness.  I say to myself that because of the trip, I am allowed to be lazy, enjoying the comfort of my own home before being gone for eight days.  I have tried to enjoy most of the NBA finals and the Stanley Cup finals, knowing I will miss the majority of both events, along with the beginning of the European soccer championships, which I have been very excited about in the recent months.  But don’t get me wrong, I am extremely eager and enthusiastic to embark on our pilgrimage, looking to interact with and find God on a level that I never have done before.  But, as the day of our departure grows nearer, I find myself more anxious about what I will be missing a home, so I haven’t paid much attention to what I will experience away from home, thus my procrastination of reading the first couple chapters of The Art of Pilgrimage (sorry Tim!).  

Yesterday, I finally started to read the book, and although not even done with the first chapter, it has already made me start asking myself what Phil Cousineau, the author, asked himself as well: Why are we doing this?  And the obvious answer is what I said earlier, which is “to interact with and find God on a level that I never have done before.”  And although that is true, I’m not really getting much from that answer, because it is a response that can be applied to anyone, not specific to my life or experiences at all.  And after picking my brain for an answer, I still have yet to find one.  But I don’t think that is anything to worry about. In previous trips to France, Colorado, and even Arabia Mountain last week (to break in my hiking boots), I have found a new appreciation of my life and where I am, while gaining new perspectives in different parts of the globe, new perspectives that I did not know I would find on these travels.  And this is what I think all of us pilgrims will find in Alaska, a new perspective.  A perspective that we can not find in our normal lives, one that we can not specifically seek out, but a perspective that will find us through God, and change us for the better.