Thursday, February 07, 2008

"Bone Games & The Journey Of Rob Schultheis..."




I have often mused over if you can have a mentor whom you have never met...
"Bone Games", by Rob Schultheis, is an amazing book that I found in the mid 1980's...
Since then, I have enjoyed pondering through it over twenty years of study and experiences and the intentions of 'Bone Games', meanings within it, and how it relates to our adventures in our own wild places... Here are a few choice quotes from the journey of R. Schultheis which began on Mt. Neva as pictured above:
"I hung there for I don't know how long: thirty seconds, two minutes, half an hour. I couldn't climb back up the overhanging rock, and I could not descend...". Yet he did find 'a way', and:
"Something happened on that descent, something I have tried to figure out ever since, so inexplicable and powerful it was. I found myself very simply doing impossible things...".
"I know my limitations, and I was climbing way, way beyond them. One small part of me trembled with fear and fatigue, cried out to be rescued, to be whisked away to any place other then this bleak precipice. The rest, confident, full of an unsane joy, revelled in the animal dance of survival, admired the brilliant crystals in the granite, the drunken calligraphy of ice crystals... was totally possessed by the act of mountaineering, rejoiced in the immense vertigo of the place. It was like certain dreams I have had...". "The person I became on Neva was the best possible version of myself, the person I should have been throughout my life...".
Powerful words reflecting potent experiences...
I have also included selected quotes by Schultheis in 'The Adventure Muse' respecting his depth of motivation and the life search for replicating these adventure experiences that he set out upon... He was passing forward valuable lessons through these writings in this most intriguing tome... I have found many of my own adventure elements mirrored within these pages as they mentored my own search...
The journeys written about reflect participation in many adventure sports, endurance experiences, metaphysical & spiritual wanderings, vision quests, intense solo's, among high mountains, deserts & valleys, through physical and emotional trials, with deep meditations throughout...
Read and muse over this inspirational journal and discover for yourself why Rob called this "Bone Games", and maybe even ponder how to invite such memorable experiences into your own adventures... You will not regret it... I never have, as an ordinady adventurer, and as Rob wrote of this: "Magic becomes a kind of habit after we do the difficult, the near impossible, over and over and over again; a habit that operates down in those oldest and deepest levels of the brain and the mind. Where pain and fear can be alchemized into blissful, sublime confidence, and stumblebums wake up to find themselves dancing on the business end of pins".... He writes further of such searching that, "What made it incredibly tantalizing was that It, the magic, was somewhere inside me; It had always been there, I felt, and It always would be... dormant, waiting to be awakened...".
And yes... I believe you can have such a mentor, a guide, who passes such experience, strength, and hope forward to you... even if you've never met them...
DSD

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is Bone Games still for Sale? His descriptive narration just explodes the mind with pictures. Glad I happened to dig a bit deeper on your site today.

Prof. Miguel D. Dávila G. said...

This book is really amazing and it demostrate how the endurance sports are much more than that... Running ultra marathons is something sometimes we dont know how to explain but Rob really explains that feeling ... I been trying to locate rob schultheis twitter or Facebook but i dont seem to find it... If someone knows please writte me, twitter @davila115 or davila.miguel@gmail.com Greetings from Venezuela...

Unknown said...

Hello Prof. Davila,
I have tried various ways as well to catch up with him, but no luck as of yet. If I do I will ensure to let you know.
D