BOSS, what else the world could be like, part 1 (heart circles)

 

Shortly after I had returned home in early July from a BOSS (Boulder Outdoor Survival School) 14-Day Field Course in the wilderness of southern Utah, I finished Rebecca Solnit’s A Paradise Built in Hell. It explored what happens in the immediate aftermath of disasters, how survivors, left to themselves, self-organize much more altruistically and collaboratively than what is conventionally assumed and expected. What a hopeful, optimistic view of human nature! “Disaster reveals what else the world could be like,” from the Epilogue, sums up for me the essence of this wonderfully revelatory book. The BOSS course, a challenging, fun, mind-expanding, and life-changing experience that parallels in so many ways the stories in Solnit’s book, also “reveals what else the world could be like.” It was almost as I was meant to have begun the book in preparation for the BOSS course and, then, to finish it during the post-course period of retrospection and reflection.

Campsite at Spring Gulch alcove, southern Utah (second night of the BOSS 14-Day Field Course).

This was my second BOSS course. The first one (in 2015) was a 7-Day Field Course, for which I had written several “BOSS, the ultimate cross-training” posts. The last one was on the BOSS community (links to the other posts are contained in the latter). In this 14-Day Field Course, I gained a deeper understanding and appreciation of BOSS: what it means and why it is important. During the course, in conversations with the other 11 students and three instructors, I talked about the connections between BOSS and the work I was doing on more effective climate crisis communication. After returning home and researching more, these connections are turning out to be stronger and more direct than what I had thought back in Boulder (Utah). I will come back to these connections in future posts.

Of course, there are also many connections between BOSS and running, this being a running blog. 😊 (See the “BOSS, the ultimate cross-training” posts referenced above.) One particular connection has to do with the why. I have often asked myself, why do I run? And, the honest answer is that I have no idea, not really. Similarly, during the 14-Day Field Course, we students at times asked each other, especially in the initial “Impact” phase of the course --and only half-jokingly (?)--why do I pay to starve all day and freeze at night?! No one had a good answer either. Another connection to running--and to the climate crisis--is that running, like all outdoor sports, is being and will be increasingly adversely affected by the warming climate. Here is an interesting example of a map of climate change impacts along the Western States Endurance Run course (oldest 100-mile race in the United States) in the Sierra Nevada foothills. And, finally, a core philosophy of BOSS is “Know more, carry less,” which, being a minimalist runner, resonates with me.

“Know more, carry less.” All the gear I had for the 14 days, before packing (top) and after packing (bottom). During the day, the blanket becomes the “backpack.” The white “Versa” cloth becomes a carrier containing stuff that likely will be needed during the day.

To wrap up this first post on the BOSS 14-Day Field Course, I am going to the end of the course, at the last heart circle that Saturday morning, just before we all packed up and headed back to “civilization.” Periodically throughout the course, we held these heart circles. They provide “a form of group communication and sharing that aims to foster deep connection, empathy, and nonjudgmental presence among participants.” We used a “talking stick” that provided each person holding it a protected time and space to speak (or not), with no one interrupting. The head instructor would start the process by passing the talking stick to his left (“left is law”).

Before that last heart circle, in thinking about what I might say when the talking stick got passed to me, three words came to mind--humbling, grateful, and hopeful--that summed up my two weeks out there in the wilderness. So, while holding the talking stick:

Humbling. As I was preparing in the months before the course, I thought, being a long-distance runner and with the routine training that I do, that that was enough for the physical part of the course. As much as 15 to 30 miles of hiking in one day? No big deal! I regularly run 20+/- miles, and marathons are 26+ miles; I should be fine, so I thought. I also thought that, because I had finished the 7-Day Field Course in fairly good condition, twice that should not be so difficult. Well, I could not be more wrong! In the process, I discovered a new BOSS math, where 2 x 7 is > 14! 😊 If I were to do this course again, I would train very differently and with much more specificity. It was a lesson learned that really should not have been one, because of course I know, in running, training needs to be specific to the goal race. Never again would I look at a hiker with a backpack and think, meh, that is just walking! 😊

Grateful. Wow, where to even start? My gratitude overfloweth. 😊 I am grateful to have had the opportunity to be part of this BOSS course and to be in that grand and hauntingly beautiful landscape of southern Utah. (The Southwest has long been my favorite part of the country, having done fieldwork

Out there in southern Utah, one can see really far into the distance.

there many years ago.) I am grateful for all my wonderful fellow students and amazing instructors who gave me a hand--sometimes more--when needed, as well as for everyone helping and looking out for each other. I am grateful for Michael, our head instructor, who offered me the opportunity to extend my “Solo” phase of the course at the BOSS property. It was there, with BOSS and its staff offering me such warm hospitality and assistance, that I was finally able to start my first friction fire! After the 7-Day Field Course in 2015, I wrote that BOSS is like a home away from home. Now, I can say BOSS is literally my home away from home!

Except for the cord, everything is derived from material found in the wilderness.

Lentil-quinoa stew cooking on my first friction fire.

Hopeful. The average age of a BOSS student is in the early 30s. That was the case for my 14-Day Field Course, with me being an outlier (😊). During the course, in talking about the connections between BOSS and the climate crisis, I lamented that it is such an immense problem that, often times, seems intractable and hopeless. But, when I look at the younger generation, both my fellow students and the instructors, that makes me more hopeful. BOSS matters. What BOSS is and does is important in many ways, including, in addition to the latter, perhaps showing a way out of, or at least to mitigate, the climate crisis. Most BOSS students leave a course as a changed person—for the better. Better values, better perspectives, better priorities, which in turn positively affect one’s relationships with family members, neighbors, friends, and colleagues--and, with oneself. BOSS alums are kind of like “ambassadors” into the world, not just in the sense of helping to publicize BOSS, to get more people interested in taking a course, and to grow BOSS; but also in the sense of being points of positive influences back in their communities. Adapting a quote from Rebecca Solnit’s book, Hope in the Dark, BOSS alums “can make each of us one small republic of force for good.”

BOSS reveals what else the world could be like.