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lundojam
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One of the reasons I love the BWCA is that a person can enjoy it to a very high degree without a great deal of risk. If you stay out of cold water, it's pretty safe. It's not back-country Alaska or Everest or the middle of the ocean. So, to answer your question, I admire the right stuff, recognize it when I see it, but don't have it.
On the other hand, I'm a fifth grade teacher, and not a total stranger to "discomfort and pain." :)
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missmolly
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hobbydog: "missmolly: "Tom Wolfe wrote about how test pilots and astronauts required the right stuff. Shackleton was stuffed with the right stuff. BeaV has got it. Do you?
I sure don't. I like to sit on a shoreline and just watch. I do like to mosey from lake to lake, but that's simple curiosity because I want to cast yonder and witness yonder. I'm not sturdy enough to endure sustained deprivation and discomfort and pain. I don't even want to have the right stuff. I like potatoes sizzling in my frying pan and BeaV and Shackleton and Glenn were kept from such comforts while they were striving and enduring and conquering.
Anyone else here have the right stuff or even want it? Or do you prefer crisped potatoes like me?"
Aren't you the one with the story about flying out of a lake to short to take off on, clipping some trees on the way out......and you weren’t scared? Maybe a different kind of right stuff but a sense of adventure certainly has some right stuff in the ingredients."
It's kind of you to ascribe courage to that moment, but I was a happy-go-lucky ignoramus.
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nctry
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missmolly: "lundojam: "One of the reasons I love the BWCA is that a person can enjoy it to a very high degree without a great deal of risk. If you stay out of cold water, it's pretty safe. It's not back-country Alaska or Everest or the middle of the ocean. So, to answer your question, I admire the right stuff, recognize it when I see it, but don't have it.
On the other hand, I'm a fifth grade teacher, and not a total stranger to "discomfort and pain." :)"
Hey, I've taught fifth graders too! It's a great age. "
Thats why people come here... We're like a bunch of fifth graders! Haha!
You have to "have the right stuff" to teach about any graders.
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jhb8426
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nctry: "We ALL have the right stuff to do OUR thing... My challenge?... "
My challenge this year is to get & stay healthy enough for a couple of more trips.
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missmolly
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Tom Wolfe wrote about how test pilots and astronauts required the right stuff. Shackleton was stuffed with the right stuff. BeaV has got it. Do you?
I sure don't. I like to sit on a shoreline and just watch. I do like to mosey from lake to lake, but that's simple curiosity because I want to cast yonder and witness yonder. I'm not sturdy enough to endure sustained deprivation and discomfort and pain. I don't even want to have the right stuff. I like potatoes sizzling in my frying pan and BeaV and Shackleton and Glenn were kept from such comforts while they were striving and enduring and conquering.
Anyone else here have the right stuff or even want it? Or do you prefer crisped potatoes like me?
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Spartan2
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Nope, never had it, nor did I want it. "Sustained deprivation, discomfort and pain" weren't my goal in canoe-tripping, although when I shared my photo books and journals with some friends (the ones who always said their idea of "roughing it" was the Holiday Inn) they seemed to think that I put up with a lot. I never had a solar shower, never liked base-camping, never wanted a trip where someone else carried my packs. . .but I also didn't want to work so hard that there was no time for just sitting on a warm rock, or ambling off into the woods with my camera for a few hours.
Fortunately, I had a partner on my trips who shared a similar philosophy, and helped me keep going for more than forty years with just the type of trip that we both enjoyed. As we aged, we slowed down and added a few more creature comforts. But even at our youngest, healthiest time of life, no one ever would have described us as the "right stuff" type. And that is OK.
Lots of great memories. Some damn good hash browns, too. :-)
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nctry
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We ALL have the right stuff to do OUR thing. Miss Molly, Spartans, all of us. BeaV likes the big challenge... Is yours any less? No! Your challenge of going in and finding fish whether big small or otherwise... You have the right stuff for your "challenge". My challenge?... To someday match the awesomeness of Lynda's hash browns.
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hobbydog
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missmolly: "Tom Wolfe wrote about how test pilots and astronauts required the right stuff. Shackleton was stuffed with the right stuff. BeaV has got it. Do you?
I sure don't. I like to sit on a shoreline and just watch. I do like to mosey from lake to lake, but that's simple curiosity because I want to cast yonder and witness yonder. I'm not sturdy enough to endure sustained deprivation and discomfort and pain. I don't even want to have the right stuff. I like potatoes sizzling in my frying pan and BeaV and Shackleton and Glenn were kept from such comforts while they were striving and enduring and conquering.
Anyone else here have the right stuff or even want it? Or do you prefer crisped potatoes like me?"
Aren't you the one with the story about flying out of a lake to short to take off on, clipping some trees on the way out......and you weren’t scared? Maybe a different kind of right stuff but a sense of adventure certainly has some right stuff in the ingredients.
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missmolly
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lundojam: "One of the reasons I love the BWCA is that a person can enjoy it to a very high degree without a great deal of risk. If you stay out of cold water, it's pretty safe. It's not back-country Alaska or Everest or the middle of the ocean. So, to answer your question, I admire the right stuff, recognize it when I see it, but don't have it.
On the other hand, I'm a fifth grade teacher, and not a total stranger to "discomfort and pain." :)"
Hey, I've taught fifth graders too! It's a great age.
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jwartman59
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I was told twenty years ago I had maybe ten years to live. I was told that I could expect some of those last years to be confined to a wheelchair. Last week I skied eight miles. Everything hurts but I would never dare complain. I paddle wood/canvas canoes because I love them. I’m not sure what the right stuff is, when I was younger I remember portages that took three days, I remember paddling eighty mile days. I never thought much about it. Maybe those three day portages gave me the stuff I needed for dealing with the shit I deal with now. I guess I’ll never really know.
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andym
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Having spent the last 14+ years watching my fellow patients fight cancer, I’ve found that most everyone has the right stuff when they need to.
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missmolly
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Lynda, your last line made me LOL! And the prior lines made my eyes shine.
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WHendrix
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Ben's got it right. My challenge this year is going to be sitting someplace on a beautiful lake on my 75th birthday lifting a glass of Knob Creek in celebration.
Bill
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ozarkpaddler
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missmolly: "Tom Wolfe wrote about how test pilots and astronauts required the right stuff. Shackleton was stuffed with the right stuff. BeaV has got it. Do you?
I sure don't. I like to sit on a shoreline and just watch. I do like to mosey from lake to lake, but that's simple curiosity because I want to cast yonder and witness yonder. I'm not sturdy enough to endure sustained deprivation and discomfort and pain. I don't even want to have the right stuff. I like potatoes sizzling in my frying pan and BeaV and Shackleton and Glenn were kept from such comforts while they were striving and enduring and conquering.
Anyone else here have the right stuff or even want it? Or do you prefer crisped potatoes like me?"
That's ME! Never had it, but there was a time I wanted to do things like that. But I've had a job, school, or both since I was 15 and now the old body is beat down. So I'm happy to piddle around and enjoy where I am!
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